Researchers discovered the wreckage at a depth of about 1,350 feet, spotting it with sonar images. The team aims to return in 2023 with a remote-controlled vehicle to capture images of the site. (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, FFI)
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OSLO, Norway – Resting at the bottom of Mjosa, Norway’s largest lake, a shipwreck from hundreds of years ago is in near perfect condition, frozen in time.
The ship, with its unique stem posts and overlapping planks, reveals a moment in the lake’s maritime history and is estimated to date to between the 1300s and 1800s.
Researchers discovered the wreckage while carrying out the Mission Mjosa project, which aims to map the 140-square-mile lake bed using high-resolution sonar technology.
The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment led the mission two years after carrying out several remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, inspections of areas of the lake where large amounts of munitions had been dumped. The lake is a source of drinking water for about 100,000 people in Norway, according to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, so the munitions posed health risks. The wreckage was spotted while surveying the lake.
“I expected that there would also be wrecks discovered while we were mapping dumped ordnance – this turned out to be the case,” said Oyvind Odegård, senior researcher in marine archeology at the Norwegian University of science and technology and principal researcher of the mission. . “It was purely and simply that the statistical probability of finding well-preserved wrecks was considered quite high.”
Possible medieval vessel
The newly discovered wreck is located at a depth of around 1,350 feet and was captured by sonar imaging, a system that uses sound pulses to detect and measure the area below the water’s surface. Footage revealed the vessel was 33ft long.
The freshwater environment and lack of wave activity at this depth had kept the ship in pristine condition except for the corrosion of a few iron nails at each end of the ship. For Odegard, the wear on the metal is a clear indication that the wreck has been lying on the lake bed for some time, as corrosion would take hundreds of years to occur. Eventually, the ship can lose its structure when all the nails disintegrate, he said.
In the aft part of the ship there are indications that there is a central rudder, a function used for steering, which generally did not appear until the end of the 13th century. By combining these two characteristics, archaeologists were able to estimate that the construction of the ship occurred no earlier than 1300 and no later than 1850.
The ship appears to have been built using a Norse technique, in which the planks of the body overlap. This method was used in the Viking Age to make the ship lighter and stronger and is known as clinker construction.
As the wreckage was found in the middle of the lake, Odegard believed the ship had sunk in bad weather. It is highly likely that the ship was using square-shaped sails, he added, which proved difficult to navigate for sailors caught in extremely windy conditions.
norwegian history
The oldest vessel discovered in Norwegian waters to date is the logboat Sorum, found in the Bingen Booms on the Glomma River and dating back to 170 BC. The nearly 2,200 year old wreck was relatively well preserved to be thousands of years old.
“Wooden shipwrecks can be very well preserved in fresh water because they lack the organisms that usually eat wood that are found, for example, in the ocean,” Odegard said. “I guess if we are going to find intact Iron Age or medieval vehicles in Norway then (Lake Mjosa) would be the place to look, as it is large enough to have had its own distinct maritime history with many of navigation and commerce.”
In Viking times, the lake served as a major trade route, although there are notable gaps in what is known before and during this time, according to Odegard. “Regardless of age, any findings will help us better understand how the development of the shipbuilding tradition took place in an inland lake, compared to the Nordic countries.”
More to explore
To map the bottom of the lake, the research team used a state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicle named Hugin, from Norwegian technology company Kongsberg Maritime. This is the first time such equipment has been used in a freshwater environment, according to Odegård, and it hasn’t seen much use in archaeology. He called Hugin’s search request for the occasion a “rare treat”.
On the last day of the exploration, the researchers had sent an ROV to try to capture images of the wreckage, but they had to abort the mission due to bad weather. Odegård aims to return next year to try again.
Meanwhile, researchers continue to map the bottom of the lake. To date they have only mapped 15 square miles and still have a lot to do. Odegard said he expected more ships to be discovered.
“We might find ships from the beginning of human activity in the area. They might be present and in good condition,” Odegård said. “You can’t rule anything out.”
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