Work on a sewer line southeast of Amsterdam was paused recently, after construction crews discovered an unexpected and very large obstacle. According to a recent social media post from the Dutch town of Wijk bij Duurstede, municipal workers encountered a timber slab measuring over 10 feet -that likely belonged to a Viking era ship from around the 9th century CE.
Although the maritime artifact will be the town’s first archaeological discovery of its kind if confirmed, Wijk bij Duurstede’s history extends even further back in time. Originally known as Dorestad, the riverside was a vital trading hub between the 7th and 9th centuries that linked the Scandinavian world to the north and Frankish world (present-day central Germany) to the south.
Archaeologists cautioned that while they still need to conduct dendrochronological analysis (dating based on tree rings), they believe the timber was likely part of a ship that sailed during the Carolingian period about 1,200 years ago. Named after the Frankish noble family that included Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, the Carolingian era was a transformative time in medieval Europe, where power was consolidated and regional cultures began to blend.
The mystery ship’s crew may not have been interested in trade, however. All that maritime commerce also attracted its fair share of Viking raiders from Scandinavia. There is even a chance that the vessel is actually younger than archaeologists theorize. It’s possible that the timber was part of a cog—a large, fortified trading ship commonly seen in northern Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Luckily, archaeologists aren’t under the same pressing deadlines as the sewer workers. After carefully removing and transporting the wooden artifact to a controlled environment storage facility, researchers can now begin to clean and examine it in detail. Regardless of its ultimate age and identity, there’s also a good chance that the timber will ultimately be displayed in the city’s local Dorestad Museum.
