Maritime Archaeology

Newsletter
No. 24 Summer 2009 from Denmark

Excavating the Tybrind Vig double burial. Photo: Langelands Museum.

N0. 24 SUMMER 2009
For better or worse
CONTENTS:
For better or worse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A Mesolithic Double Grave

in Tybrind Vig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 When I was considering to move to Esbjerg,
I asked advice of a few dear mentors. One
A practical challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 of them was my maritime history teacher
Jaap Bruijn, whom I knew to know the
The Utrecht Ship Type:
place. He had after all chaired the CMRS-
A Progress Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
board for many years. He dryly remarked
that Esbjerg was a nice place, especially
Maritime archaeological research
if you liked the smell of fish. Moreover,
at 77° north . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
there would be plenty of time: ‘you will
certainly not be busy with large numbers
Aggressive shipworms eating underwater
of students’. How wrong he was on both
cultural heritage. New EU project to
accounts. The smell of fish has given way to
protect underwater cultural heritage from
the offshore industry, boosting even in the
shipworm in the Baltic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
present recession. And students? They pour
in to the Maritime Archaeology Programme
Sternpost in the surf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
and give us no end of work, fine tuning the
programme, making their study and research
Published 2009: rewarding, and last but not least because we
offer them quite a bit of practice, includ-
ing a full commercial diving course. But
obviously they are my first priority and
their enthusiasm is contagious, nice and
inspiring. But it is true, you, the readers of
the Maritime Archaeology Newsletter, have
been let down, even though there was so
much to report. In good tradition, you see a
new volume, Wulfstan's voyage, announced
on the left. I promised this place to it. But it
could likewise have featured the fine publi-
cation of the Ertebølle coastal settlement of
Ronæs Skov, that Søren Andersen published
earlier this year, or the booklet that the first
group of students produced on the migra-
tion period, as a background document for
future research relating to the Gredstedbro
ship-find. Otherwise, it has been a very
busy period as well. In January, the 2001
UNESCO Convention on the Protection of
ISBN 978-87-85180-56-8 the Underwater Cultural Heritage entered
Published by into force and the ongoing restructuring
the Viking Ship Museum in Ros­kilde. of the International Committee on the
DKK 399 / EUR 54 + postage Underwater Cultural Heritage ICOMOS-

2
ICUCH has kept me really busy. With a new
internal organisation and a wider member-
ship across the globe, it will be able to fulfill
its more extensive advisory role in the future.
In Denmark itself, Marinet, the cooperation
of museums with a maritime archaeological
responsibility, has been active in negotiating
new viable ways of distributing the work-
load between themselves and the National
Heritage Agency and in bringing maritime
archaeology forward generally. Large proj-
ects, like the many windfarm-projects that
government promotes as their contribution
to the global climate issues of Copenhagen,
the future Fehmarn-belt connection, and the
future management of the Wadden Sea as a
national park has kept colleagues across the
country busy beyond their normal respon-
sibilities and research. The bad thing about
an editor pleading to have been too busy, is
that he can hardly tell the contributors that
they should write anyway, busy or not. So,
for the future's sake, I will just deny my own
excuses. I hope you will accept them and do
the same. Contributions for the next newslet-
ter are already coming in!
Besides all the positive developments, there
have been sad events as well. Earlier this
year, two much appreciated colleagues of
my former team passed away. First, it was
Joost Mioulet, who for many years had been
a steady factor in the Scheurrak SO1 excava-
tions, who together with Steve Waring ran
the very cold Oostvoornse Meer Zuidoever
project and who wrote a very nice popular
book on the discovery of the Roman bridge
of Cuijk, together with Carin Barten. He
had long suffered from a repeated illness
and died only 45 years old, leaving a car-
ing wife and two young children. And then,
completely unexpectedly, Jef van den Akker
died in the late summer. Jef had called in my
office as a volunteer in 1986, joined me the
same day for a field assessment of the first
wreck in the 'Slufter' and has never since
been away, developing himself as a profes-
sional archaeologist, a practical fieldworker,
a writer, an editor, a policy advisor, and an
able go-between between government, pro-
fession and the avocational diving commu-
nity. He continued as before when he was
pensioned, helped me to move to Denmark
and kept close contact, compiling a vol-
ume of small-scale underwater researches in
2007 and editing last year's Glavimans vol-
ume together with Rob Oosting. He made
me put a big cross in my calendar for a party
on the occasion of his seventieth birthday,
but it was not to happen. Both Joost and
Jef will be remembered as pioneers in the
maritime archaeological profession, in the
Netherlands and at some places in Denmark
and further afield.
Thijs J. Maarleveld
References
Adams, J., A.F.L. van Holk and Th.J.
Maarleveld 1990: Dredgers and
Archaeology. Shipfinds from the Slufter.
Alphen aan den Rijn.
Akker, J. Van den et al. 2007: Bundel
Maritieme Vindplaatsen. Amersfoort.
Andersen, Søren H. 2009: Ronæs Skov.
Marinarkæologiske undersøgelser af en
kystboplads fra Ertebølletid. Århus.
Ejstrud, B. & Th.J. Maarleveld, 2008: The
Migration Period, Southern Denmark and
the North Sea. A workbook in relation-
ship to the Gredstedbro Find. Esbjerg.
Mioulet, J. & C. Barten 1994: De Romeinse
brug tussen Cuijk en Middelaar: van ont-
dekking tot reconstructie. Utrecht.
Oosting, R. & J. Van den Akker (red.) 2008:
Boomstamkano’s, overnaadse schepen en
tuigage. Inleidingen gehouden tijdens het
tiende Glavimans Symposion. Amersfoort.
3
A Mesolithic Double Grave
in Tybrind Vig
From 1978 up to 1987 yearly excavations
took place at a settlement area with exten-
sive waste deposits in the bay of Tybrind Vig
on the west coast of Fyn (Andersen 1985) . A
research campaign was arranged each sum-
mer by the University of Århus / Moesgård
Museum in cooperation with a group of
recreational divers including the discoverers
of the site . The campaigns included both sur-
vey and excavation . In 1979 an inhumation
grave was excavated that had been exposed
by erosion . It contained the body of a young
woman and an infant . The burial dates to
6440 BP .
In 2004 another burial was found, slightly
further out in the bay . It was the same group
of recreational divers, Marine Arkæologisk
Gruppe Fredericia, that had been the main-
4
stay of the ten year long Tybrind Vig-project,
who reported the find and who lifted some
skull-fragments that were delivered at
Moesgård Museum . The bones were dated
by C14 and this showed a date of 5470-
5320 BC . This is around a 1000 year older
than the first grave of Tybrind Vig and means
that it refers to the youngest phase of the
Kongemose Culture .
Since the completion of the Tybrind Vig-
project the Danish waters have been divided
in five maritime archaeological areas, each
under the supervision of a Museum . Tybrind
Vig is part of the area for which Langelands
Museum has the responsibility and in
The second burial at Tybrind Vig. Photo: Lan-
gelands Museum
2007 the Heritage Agency of Denmark
(Kulturarvsstyrelsen) gave the museum per-
mission and funds for documentation and
excavation of the grave . The Museum put
together a team of maritime archaeologists
from Langeland, Haderslev and Trondheim
and took up its quarters in a cottage in the
neighbourhood in September 2007 . The
Museum ship “Mjølner” and the museum’s
Kegnæs-dingy were used as working plat-
form . The team had reserved two weeks for
the job and started immediately with remov-
ing the cover of sandbags and stones . Since
2004 kelp and bladderweed had changed
the cover in a green oasis in an otherwise
dull sandy bottom-environment where eel-
grass (Zostera) is the dominant growth . The
surface of the whole area is littered with
flint artefacts and small pebbles and close
by there are two fallen and submerged tree
trunks .
The grave lies about 250 m from the
shore in about 3 m of water, just at the outer
edge of the site as defined in the Heritage
The two persons were buried elbow to el-
bow.
Agency’s database DKC . Tybrind Vig is a
semicircular bay that is fully exposed to the
West . It is very shallow at the shore and the
4-m depth contour lies about 500 m out . In
the middle of the bay, at about 250 m out,
the bottom topography shows the remains of
a Prehistoric lagoon; this is slightly deeper
and has an opening to the North . The set-
tlement that has been examined since the
1970-ies lies at the eastside of the Lagoon’s
mouth and the present grave lies in its deep-
est, western part .
The Norwegian section of the excava-
tion team came from the Science Museum
in Trondheim . Like Langelands Museum it
is accountable for maritime archaeology
in a specific area . They made a couple of
preliminary dives to get used to the Danish
shallow water environment as well as to
the impressive amounts of artefacts that lie
on the sandy bottom of Tybrind Vig . It was
hard for them to restrain themselves from
collecting masses of axes and nicely worked
flakes, but that was the instruction . With the
limited time available, all efforts should be
focused on the grave and there was no way
we could use any resources for the catalogu-
ing of large amounts of worked flint that had
eroded out of context .
After the cover had been removed and
the stones and sandbags had been deposited
well away from the grave, a 4 x 4 m square
grid was mounted on four galvanised pipes
that had been rammed down vertically . The
bottom-surface was subsequently levelled
with the help of a transparent plastic hose
that was connected to a datum on a metal
tube . The top layers of loose sand were
removed with a dredge and the finds in
this layer were collected as a unit with a
horizontal precision of about 2 m2, as these
were considered to be in secondary posi-
tion . The layer beneath consisted of a fine
gyttja with so many sedge roots that at first
it looked like peat . The top of this layer was
carefully cleaned and levelled . The position
of the grave became visible as a depression .
At about an arm’s length distance there
5
was a curved line of stones that apparently
had been put in place just after discovery
in 2004 . The position of the skeleton itself
was marked by a piece of geo-textile, held
in place by two oblique stainless steel pins .
When the fabric was removed, some 60 cm
of the spine lay clear in an almost perfect
condition . It showed that the pelvis lay
towards East and that the person had been
buried with its head towards the West .
By that time it had become unlikely that
it would prove possible to excavate and
6
document the grave in the time available:
the weather had been so bad that we had
only been able to work properly during two
days with an additional two shifts of diving
in bad weather . We therefore decided to
cover up again and to postpone the further
investigation .
The two bodies in the Tybrind Vig double
grave lie flat on their backs with their heads
towards the West. Photomosaic: Langelands
Museum.
 A new team was put together for the
2008 season, in which the colleagues from
Moesgård teamed up with the Langelanders
in mid June. This time there was only one
week available, and we could only hope
for better conditions than the previous year.
All the necessary work could be finalised in
a total of two full working days, and with
the two skeletons properly packed the team
could leave Tybrind Vig behind.
The cover had kept well since 2007,
and the sandbags and stones were again
put aside. A thin layer of sand was quickly
removed, and the excavation of the grave
began immediately after. Contact with the
second skeleton – that so far was only
known from the discovery of the skulls in
2004 – was quickly made. The sediment was
so firm, that we estimated that the bones
could be fully exposed without danger of
them washing away through currents or
wave-action. On a long day, both skeletons
were uncovered, and so the measuring
could begin. The first, southernmost skel-
eton was a large individual. The other one
was slightly smaller and lay close to its left
side, likewise with its head in the West. Both
lay flat on their backs, with their hands in
the pelvis region. During the excavation,
we thought that the small individual had
its right arm over the larger one, but the
documentary photographs show that this
is not the case. The small one lay slightly
higher in the ground than the bigger one and
could have been buried last. The two lower
arm bones that obliquely overlay the larger
individual belong to it, even though their
proximal ends lay quite close to the smaller
one’s humerus, but both its ulna and radius
are present in the right anatomical position.
The two persons were simply buried elbow
to elbow.
Only very little of the shoulder region
was preserved on both skeletons, as these
had been in the highest position. The feet
had also mostly disappeared. This could
have happened shortly after deposition as
these certainly lay as deep as other well pre-
served bones. The knees were also damaged
and so was the smaller person’s femur.
The bones were not studied closely during
the excavation. Conversely, it was thought to
be more important to try not to contaminate
them with the excavators DNA. They were
not touched with anything but gloved hands
and they were put in plastic bags under
water as soon as they were sufficiently free
to be removed, after which they were put in
the specially made lifting basket that con-
servator Jesper Frederiksen had prepared. It
is to be hoped that analytically significant
DNA can be derived from the bones. In
addition sediment samples of the skeletons’
surroundings were taken with the hope of
isolating fossil human or animal DNA, from
the period during which the settlement was
in use. That kind of analysis has never been
undertaken on submerged settlements, but
saltwater is particularly conducive to the
preservation of DNA.
No grave finds or fittings were found. Nor
could an inhumation pit be observed. The
investigation, however, was stopped imme-
diately after the bones had been recovered,
and a comprehensive horizontal excavation
of the area could not be carried through
for reasons of time. The grave was covered
again and it will therefore be possible to
return to it to resolve that issue.
Otto Christian Uldum
References:
Andersen, S.H., 1985: Tybrind Vig. A pre-
liminary report on a submerged Ertebølle
settlement on the West coast of Fyn.
Journal of Danish Archaeology 4, 52-59.
7
A practical challenge
For students of the essentially practical sub-
ject of maritime archaeology who also are
commercially qualified divers, the opportu-
nity to work on a professional project in the
fall of 2008 came as a welcome prospect .
In advance of the planned Nord Stream
gas pipeline for transport of gas from Russia
to Germany through the Baltic Sea, an
archaeological survey was conducted of
the Bay of Greifswald, where the pipeline is
projected to come to shore .
The archaeological investigations were
carried out by Bureau for Culture and Care
and Preservation of Ancient Monuments
and Artefacts (LKD M-V) in the state of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the
objects under examination were anomalies
from a series of side scan surveys that were
8
conducted during the earlier stages of pipe-
line planning .
From October to December 2008 stu-
dents of the Maritime Archaeology Program
at SDU Esbjerg took the chance to experi-
ence at first hand the nature of the work in
which they were training for . The work was
performed from the Danish boat “Havgus”
and the international archaeological team
were comprised of divers from Germany,
Ireland, and Norway . By night the boat was
docked in a small village called Lauterbach
on the scenic island of Rügen .
The work was planned for periods of 12
days in a row, with a 4 day break in between,
The Greifswald wreck. Photo: Paul Mont-
gomery.
but the weather in the Baltic is rather unpre-
dictable in November/December, so diving
was not possible everyday . The team num-
bered 6-7 divers on the boat, and for every
dive there was a diver, one rescue standby
diver and one tender . The searches were
completed at various depths, ranging from
3 to 20 meters .
The objective of the diving survey was
to assess whether the anomalies were of an
archaeological nature . In the case of a site
being recognised as being archaeologically
significant they were to be reported for fur-
ther archaeological work . During the diver
survey sites were described, recorded and,
in certain cases, further suggestions were
made for archaeological investigations and
actions .
During the project main site types were
typically: natural features, single archaeo-
logical items and major archaeological sites .
An example of natural features would be turf
banks or tree trunks . Turf banks were meas-
ured, described and investigated for specific
features, whereas tree trunks were sampled
and tested for dendrochronological analysis .
Single archaeological items, for example
anchors, were assessed by divers for prelimi-
nary documentation and such items were to
be recovered sooner or later .
Major archaeological sites had to be
assessed for further archaeological docu-
mentation and rescue . An example of such a
site was from a ship barrier measuring 980m
long and located at the shallow mouth of
the Bay of Greifswald . The barrier dates from
1512 and was extended during the early
eighteenth century Great Northern War . The
Swedish Navy sank 20 ships to create a bar-
rier to safeguard their control of the area .
The pipeline will run through the middle
of the barrier and so one of the ships will
require excavation . Prior to this, however,
a survey was carried out which included
The everyday reality of a survey is to assess
all sorts of inarticulate material. Photo: Paul
Montgomery.
9
Students of the SDU Maritime Archaeol-
ogy Programme are integrated in the survey
team: Photo: LKD M-V.
measuring and detailed recording sketches,
photographic and video documentation of
the ship remains . The plan for the wreck
is to excavate it in the spring of 2009 and
redeposit it in a freshwater lake for further
preservation .
The students of the Maritime Archaeology
Program at SDU wish to sincerely thank
the Bureau for Culture and Care and
10
Preservation of Ancient Monuments and
Artefacts and particularly Mike Belasus for
giving us the opportunity to work on a
professional archaeological project of such
high standards and believe their experiences
will aid to further their careers in the area of
maritime archaeology .
Liv Gardsjord Lofthus
and Delia Ní Chíobháin
The Utrecht Ship Type: A Progress Report
In 1930, a peculiar ship was excavated in
Utrecht, the Netherlands, and put on dis-
play in the Centraal Museum at Utrecht .
Instead of a keel or a flat bottom, it has a
large logboat at its center that serves as a
one-piece bottom element . This logboat was
enlarged at its extremities by the addition of
end boards and on the sides by the addition
of planking . Even though the Utrecht I ship,
as it is now known, was almost immediately
recognized as an important step in the tran-
sition from logboat to fully planked ship, it
was not documented or accurately dated for
The Utrecht I ship in the cellar of the Cen-
traal Museum before the 1998-2000 MARES
project. Photo: Werner Karrasch.
many decades . As a result, it became the
topic of much speculation and controversy .
Interpretations of the ship ranged from a fully
decked seagoing Roman merchantman (Van
der Wijk 1933) to the medieval forerunner
of the hulk (Crumlin-Pedersen 1972: 186-
187) . A full account of the ship’s excavation
and conservation as well as of the range of
scholarly opinions has been published by
Vlek (1987) . Vlek himself concluded that
the ship was the end-product of a long-lived
logboat tradition and had no relation to the
seagoing hulk .
Parts of five more vessels of the same
type have now been excavated in the
Netherlands (Utrecht, Velsen, Zeewolde) as
well as at Queenhithe in the harbour of
11
London (Goodburn 2000), and two small
boats are known to have been excavated in
Antwerp in the early 20th century (Ellmers
1969: 79). Thus we may speak of a Utrecht
ship type (Marsden 1976: 49). The 8 cur-
rently identified vessels of this type range
from small to larger inland craft, but also
include seagoing cargo ships, as the find
from London demonstrates (Van de Moortel
forthcoming a and b).
In 1998-2000, at the initiative of Robert
Vlek and with the enthusiastic cooperation
of curators Frank Pietersen and Renger de
Bruin of the Centraal Museum, a program
of international cooperation was set up
with the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at
Roskilde, Denmark, with the aim of improv-
ing the condition of the Utrecht I ship and
carrying out a first detailed archaeologi-
cal documentation and study. This interna-
tional project was made part of the MARES
program (Museological and Archaeological
Revitalization of Early Ship-finds), which
was sponsored by an EU Raphael grant (see
Newsletter 10). As a guest researcher at
the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, I was
asked to take charge of the documentation
and study. The new data provided a wealth
of useful information, enabling me to dem-
onstrate that the logboat base of the Utrecht
The starboard profile of the Utrecht I ship as
presently reconstructed. Drawn by A. Van de
Moortel, inked by L. Dokkedahl
12
I ship had been expanded and was the prod-
uct of sophisticated woodworking skills (see
Newsletter 14; Van de Moortel 2003). In a
second study, I explored the relationship of
the archaeological Utrecht ship type to the
historical hulk (Van de Moortel forthcom-
ing a).
In the spring of 2005, I was granted a
research leave from my teaching position
at the University of Tennessee to conduct
library research at the University of Utrecht
as well as at the facilities of the Dutch
Archaeological Service (Rijksdienst voor
het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek) in
Amersfoort. In November and December
of that year I was given the opportunity
to document the timbers of the so-called
‘Waterstraat boat,’ a river-going cargo car-
rier excavated in Utrecht in 1974, which
resembles the Utrecht I ship most closely.
This documentation was carried out in close
cooperation with the staff of the Dutch
Institute of Ship and underwater Archaeology
(Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps- en
onderwater Archeologie) at Lelystad. NISA’s
staff also provided me with drawings and
documentation of two smaller Utrecht-type
boats from Utrecht and Zeewolde in the
Zuyderzee polders. At the same time, den-
drochronological study of timbers of the
Waterstraat boat by Aoife Daly and Esther
Jansma established that this vessel does not
date to the 12th century but to the late 10th
century.
 Seven of the eight Utrecht-type vessels
have now been dated. They range from
the late 10th century (Waterstraat boat,
Queenhithe ship) to the early 11th cen-
tury (Utrecht I ship), the 11th century (two
Antwerp boats), the late 11th to late 12th
century (Velsen boat), and the early 12th
century (Lange Lauwerstraat boat). A sum-
mary of this new research and a possible
link with later medieval plank-built vessels,
including the hulk, was presented at the
11th ISBSA conference in Mainz (Van de
Moortel forthcoming b).
This spring I am enjoying a second
research leave to finish my study and write
the manuscript of the Utrecht ship type for
publication in the series Ships and Boats of
the North of Roskilde’s Viking Ship Museum.
I am spending most of my time at Roskilde,
working closely with Ole Crumlin-Pedersen
and the museum staff. Careful examina-
tion of the plank runs of the Utrecht I ship
and Waterstraat boat already suggest that
the curvature of the logboat base of the
Utrecht I ship has been reconstructed as
too flat, which in turn caused the problems
in the reconstruction of the hull extremities
described earlier (Van de Moortel forthcom-
ing a). A model is now planned to determine
how much higher the hull should curve.
Aleydis Van de Moortel
References
Crumlin-Pedersen, O., 1972, The Vikings
and the Hanseatic Merchants: 900-1450.
In G.F. Bass (ed.), A History of Seafaring,
181-204. London.
Ellmers, D., 1969, Keltischer Schiffbau.
Jahrbuch Römisch-Germanischen
Zentralmuseums 14: 73-122.
Goodburn, D.M., 2000, New Light on the
Construction of Early Medieval “Frisian”
Sea-going Vessels. In J. Litwin (ed.), Down
the River to the Sea. Proceedings of the
Eight Intermarional Symposium on Boat
and Ship Archaeology, Gdansk 1997,
219-224. Gdansk.
Marsden, P., 1976, A Boat of the Roman
Period Found at Bruges, Belgium, in
1899, and Related Types. IJNA 5.1: 23-55.
Van de Moortel, A., 2003, A New Look
at the Utrecht Ship. In C. Beltrame
(ed.), Boats, Ships and Shipyards. Ninth
International Symposium on Boat and
Ship Archaeology, Venice, 2000, 183-
189. Oxford.
Van de Moortel, A., forthcoming a, The
Utrecht Type and the Hulk: Adaptation
of an Inland Boatbuilding Tradition to
Urbanization and Growing Maritime
Contacts in Medieval Northern Europe. In
R. Bockius (ed.), Between the Seas. Transfer
and Exchange in Nautical Technology.
Eleventh International Symposium on
Boat and Ship Archaeology, Mainz, 2006
(Mainz). Paper presented at Connected by
the Sea. Tenth International Symposium
on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Roskilde,
2003 but through editorial error not pub-
lished in the proceedings.
Van de Moortel, A., forthcoming b, ‘The
Utrecht Ship Type: an Expanded Logboat
Tradition in its Historical Context’, in R.
Bockius (ed.), Between the Seas. Transfer
and Exchange in Nautical Technology.
Eleventh International Symposium on
Boat and Ship Archaeology, Mainz, 2006
(Mainz).
Van der Wijk, P.H. 1933, Beschouwingen
over het Utrechtse schip. Jaarboekje van
“Oud-Utrecht”, 28-47.
Vlek, R., 1987, The Medieval Utrecht Boat.
The history and evaluation of one of
the first nautical archaeological excava-
tions and reconstructions in The Low
Countries. B.A.R. International Series
382. Oxford.
13
Maritime archaeological research
at 77˚ north
It is not every day that Danish maritime
archaeologists work well beyond the Polar
Circle . But in 2008 there was such an
occasion . In order to commemorate Mylius
Eriksen’s so-called Danmark-Expedition of
1906-1908 an array of cultural institutions
had joined forces to mark its 100-year anni-
versary . The Danmark-expedition was one
of the important, heroic and tragic polar
The position of the Danmark in its winter-
station of 1907-08. The shore building (villa)
and telephone cable are clearly visible in the
map accompanying the original report.
14
expeditions of the time . It returned home
with unique scientific results, but the price
was high: three of the participants – Mylius
Eriksen himself amongst them – died on their
cartographical mission in the fall of 1907 .
Despite extremely difficult conditions, the
expedition succeeded in completing the
tasks set out for the journey . These were to
map the coastline of the as yet completely
Right: Diving af 77° north calls for specific
safety measures, such as a rifle at hand to
keep polar bears at bay. Photos: Odder Mu-
seum
15
unknown northeastern part of Greenland
and to carry through a range of scientific
research in the area . The 100-year anniver-
sary project of 2006-2008 was targeted
towards research as well as awareness rais-
ing and improving general knowledge on
Mylius Eriksen’s endeavours . It consisted
of a travelling exhibition that would start
in Odder Museum and that presently can
be seen In Ringkøbing Museum, a research
project, the publication of a book and last
but not least a commemorative expedition .
The first attempt at a commemorative
expedition was planned in 2007 . It had to be
aborted due to a failing reduction box on the
Russian expedition ship Aleksey Marishev,
which could not be shifted under way . In
2008, the Aleksey Marishev set out anew,
with 48 paying participants and 8 curators
from the different museums on board . The
expedition set out from Longyearbyen on
Svalbard on the 3rd of September . It headed
for Danmarkshavn in northeast Greenland,
and ended in Akureyri on Iceland on the 17th
16
At 17m depth, this is certain to be Alabama's
anchor. Photo: Odder Museum.
of September, after having covered about
2000 miles of ice ridden seas . A few mari-
time archaeological operations were carried
through along the way by Jesper Frederiksen,
conservator at the maritime archaeologi-
cal division of Moesgaard Museum, and
Ove Sørensen, ethnographer and director of
Odder Museum . Ove Sørensen had scien-
tific responsibility, while Jesper Frederiksen
took care of preliminary preservation . Three
surveys were carried through .
Danmarkshavn
In the late summer of 1906, Mylius Eriksen’s
expedition ship “Danmark” dropped anchor
in a bay that later was to be known as
Danmarkshavn (Harbour of the “Danmark”
or Harbour of Denmark) . An expedition
hut was built on shore and connected tel-
egraphically to the ship using a 150 meters
long copper cable . The expedition hut was
named “The Villa” and it served as home for
four of the participants . The rest of the crew
lived on board the ship, which became the
expeditions’ headquarter during the two-
year period during which the ship was
anchored up in the bay . At 77˚ north, the sea
is ice free only 2 months of the year . The rest
of the year the ship was caught in ice at least
two meters thick . The ice surface was used as
storage area and garbage dump . Several of
the pictures taken a hundred years ago show
how the garbage accumulated along the side
of the ship during winter . Nature took care
of cleaning up during summer, when the
ice broke up and the garbage heap hit the
bottom of the ocean, 25 meters below . The
purpose of diving was to identify some of the
historical items that fell to the bottom and
if possible and desirable to try and recover
them . However, the search for objects on
the seabed in arctic areas can be very disap-
pointing . The seabed, after all is usually very
exposed to icebergs drifting in and out due
to the tide, wind and ocean currents . This
The mechanical force of scouring ground-ice
and icebergs is such that very few archaeo-
logical remains are safe. Photo: Odder Mu-
seum.
is especially the case close to the shore . In
those areas, the damaging icebergs make
deep furrows in the seabed . Three dives
were carried out in Danmarkshavn . The first
dive quickly revealed that the icebergs had
caused no damage in this instance . The sea-
bed is very soft which had made it possible
for objects to become embedded in the sedi-
ment . Between land and the anchoring site,
parts of the telephone cable that had con-
nected the ship and the expedition hut were
found . In the spot where the ship's sternpost
used to lie, a large iron pot was found at a
depth of 24 meters . The pot is approximately
80 centimeters in diameter and height, and
it was lodged in the sediment and only
about 10 centimeters of it were visible .
Unfortunately, it was impossible to excavate
and recover the iron pot, in the available
17
time, but it certainly looks like one of the
dumped pots in the original photographs .
Car wreck archaeology
In the water outside Snenæs, some 16
miles from Danmarkshavn, the Denmark
expedition’s automobile – the first one in
Greenland – had sunk through the ice in
1907 . It had been on its way towards the ice
cape carrying building supplies for young
Peter Freudens observation hut in Pustervig .
It never arrived, as after less than 40 km
from Danmarkshavn the driver decided to
turn back due to bad weather . But to no
avail: after a bit he got the car stuck in the
snow, left it behind and walked back to
the ship, which was solidly ice-bound in
Danmarkshavn . The car was rediscovered a
few months later . But it sank through the ice
and could not be recovered . To determine
whether or not the car was still standing in
the shallow water a 100 years later, a survey
of the area around Snenæs was planned . It
remained limited to a single dive . The visibil-
ity was 15 to 20 meters and it soon became
apparent that all sign of the car had gone .
The seabed is very exposed to icebergs drift-
ing along the coast . The car has probably
been crushed or pushed into deeper water .
brought home . The “Alabama” was crushed
by the ice at only 50 meters from the shore .
Considering this we set out to locate the
wreck or parts thereof . Good visibility ena-
bled us to search large areas of the bottom,
up to 20 meters below us, from our zodiac .
From here, the anchor of “Alabama” was
located and the following dive showed that
it was lying at a depth of 17 meters . It was
well protected from the drifting icebergs, as
it was lodged in a small crack in the cliff . The
rest of the ship appeared to be destroyed by
drifting icebergs, or perhaps pushed out onto
deeper water .
In arctic waters, marine archaeological
research requires a lot from the divers as
well as the equipment . Due to the high salt
content the water is super cooled, and the
opportunity to receive qualified help in case
of a diving emergency is very limited . This
restricts the number and length of the dives .
Nevertheless we succeeded in all three
investigations within a very short time limit .
We consider the outcome highly successful .
Ove Sørensen, Odder Museum

The anchor of “Alabama”

The Danmark-Expedition is best recalled
for the tragedy in which the leader Mylius-
Erikson, the cartographer Høeg Hagen and
the Inuit Jørgen Brønlund died under uncer-
tain circumstances during a cartographical
journey in north Greenland . This is the rea-
son that there have been several expeditions
aiming to solve the mystery . The first of these
was lead by Ejnar Mikkelsen in 1909, using
the sealing ship “Alabama” as expedition
ship . He went ashore on Shannon Island
and did not solve the mystery . Instead, he
and engineer Iver Iversen were abandoned
by the ship’s crew, who boarded a bypassing
sealing ship . As a result Ejnar Mikkelsen and
Iver Iversen had to spend three years on the The first car on Greenland, brought by the
coast of Shannon Island, before they were 1907 expedition was lost through the ice.

18
Aggressive shipworms eating underwater
cultural heritage .
New EU project to protect underwater
cultural heritage from shipworm in the
Baltic
Attacks by the wood boring mollusc, ship-
worm, on underwater cultural heritage is
on the increase in the Baltic . At the bottom
of the Baltic Sea lie up to 100,000 well-
preserved shipwrecks and other maritime
related constructions . These have so far been
protected from the aggressive shipworm
because of low salinity water, but now it
seems that they are spreading into the area,
probably as a result of climatic changes . A
new project Wreck Protect, which is funded
by the European Commission, will now
examine the growing spread of shipworm
into the Baltic Sea and develop guidelines
Due to low salinity and continued absence
of shipworm, preservation of wreck in the
Baltic can be extraordinary, as is well illus-
trated by this image of a ship of the 17th or
16th century. It lies at a depth of about 140m
and was first presented to the world in the
Swedish TV-programme Vrakleterna in 2008.
Image: Deep Sea Productions.
19
for protection of the submerged cultural
heritage.
Unique and well preserved collection
of shipwrecks in danger
Is it necessary to worry about these ship-
worms, given that the shipwrecks are under-
water? Yes. The Baltic Sea is one of the
few places in the world where historic
wrecks are intact and accessible for histori-
cal research. This may not continue to be the
case unless action is taken.
Shipworms must be fought
Low salinity water has so far protected wood-
en shipwrecks from shipworm, but now it is
starting to spread into the area. If the under-
water cultural heritage is not physically pro-
tected, it will be destroyed by the shipworm
in a relatively short period of time. The stra-
tegy to avoid this frightening scenario is to
provide the archaeologists, conservators and
museums responsible for the preservation of
this heritage with tools to predict the spread
of shipworm and provide cost effective
methods to protect these sites before they
are lost. This work is being supported with
funding from the European Commission.
A team of experts come together
against shipworm
Wreck Protect is funded by the European
Commission’s Seventh Framework Program
to provide efficient tools for prediction of
potential decay areas in the Baltic and to
deliver guidelines for protection of ship-
wreck. The project, which started on 1 May
2009 and extends over 2 years, includes
marine archaeologists, biologists, archaeo-
logical conservators and wood scientists
from Sweden, Denmark the Netherlands,
Finland, France and Germany. Experts from
these countries will, through meetings and
networking, exchange knowledge and then
summarize it into practical tools and meth-
ods. Wreck Protect's goal is to predict
the spread and attack of shipworm in and
around the Baltic and to find cost effective
20
ways to protect the underwater cultural
heritage so that it can be preserved and safe-
guarded for posterity.
Additional information:
The overall project is coordinated by Dr
Charlotte Gjelstrup Björdal, SP Technical
Research Institute of Sweden, and
Charlotte.GjelstrupBjordal@sp.se
About the project / project partners
in Denmark:
Senior researcher David Gregory, National-
museet: david.john.gregory@natmus.dk,
3347 3522
Senior Researcher, Zyad Al-Hamdani, GEUS:
azk@geus.dk, 3814 2911
Museum Inspector, Jørgen Dencker,
Vikingeskibsmuseet:
jd@vikingeskibsmuseet.dk, 4630 0200
Press Contact for the National Museum:
Anni Mogensen, 3347 3007
Other consortium members
Martijn Manders & Bertil van Os, The
Dutch Agency for Cultural Heritage, The
Netherlands.
Dr Jon Havaland & Christin Appelkvist,
University of Gothenbrug, Sweden.
Advisory board
Dr Friedrich Lüth, Director, Roman-Germanic
Commission, German Archaeological
Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Dr Giulia Boetto, Laboratory for Naval
Archaeology, Centre Camille Jullian, Aix-en
Provence, France.
Stefan Wessman, Curator, National Board
of Antiquities, Maritime Archaeology Unit,
Helsinki, Finland.
Facts
Shipworms are a group of wood-boring
marine molluscs, which can usually destroy
wood exposed to sea water within a very
short period of time; years or even months.
However, they require a relatively high level
of salt for their activity, and therefore, the
The shipworm is a wood-boring organism
that threatens the preservation of any wood
exposed to seawater. Image: National Mu-
seum of Denmark.

Baltic Sea with its low salinity has afforded

natural protection of the underwater cul-
tural heritage for centuries . Degradation of
shipwrecks in the Baltic has until now only
been caused by micro-organisms, fungi, and
bacteria, and these processes are very slow
and much less harmful .

David Gregory,
The National Museum of Denmark

21
Sternpost in the surf
In 2008, the Maritime Archaeology Program-
me (MAP) was invited to carry out the annu-
al underwater field school on the Swedish
island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Following
an invitation by the local HUMA (Heritage
Underwater – Maritime Archaeology) proj-
ect, five students and two lecturers of the
MAP arrived on Gotland on 4 August for a
three week underwater survey.
The HUMA project was founded with
the aim to research the maritime cultural
heritage of Gotland and focuses specifi-
cally on the remains of up to 15 ships lost
off Visby during the Northern Seven Years’
22
War (1563-1570). These ships were part of
a Danish – Lübeck fleet, anchored off Visby
after the battle of Öland in July 1566. A mas-
sive onshore gale hit the anchored vessels
during the night of 28 July, and around 15
ships sank or stranded on the western coast
of Gotland. Between 5000 and 7000 sailor
allegedly drowned during the storm.
Following a number of earlier research
efforts (Fordal 1989), the HUMA project
aims at conducting overview surveys at
The survey area near Visby. Drawing:
Christine Husum
sites thought to be associated with the 1566
disaster in order to identify core areas for
further archaeological research.
One such area at Brusviken, just north
of Visby on the west coast of Gotland, was
assigned to the MAP team. Besides conduct-
ing an area survey, the field school partici-
pants were asked to concentrate on the
recording of a number of timber elements
located in the search area. These included a
large triangular assembly, which proved to
be part of a stern.
The research area at Brusviken measured
approximately 225 meters seaward and 200
meters along the coast. Water depths ranged
from 0.3m above limestone slabs at the
coast to 5-6m in the deepest part. An under-
water ridge running parallel to the shore
defined the outer perimeter of the research
area. The area can best be described as a
basin with an open entrance towards the
southwest and gradually shallower water
towards the northeast.
Divers entering the water at Brusviken
through the surf. Photo: Johnny Christensen.
All diving was shore based. Divers worked
in pairs and were marked with buoys. A
standby diver was based in a small boat over
the site, while a supervisor co-ordinated
diving from the shore. With a very exposed
shoreline, all diving was highly weather
dependant as the surf could easily make
water entry a difficult undertaking. In total,
10,904 dive minutes were logged during 11
days of diving with up to 16 dives a day.
Following the general methodology of
the HUMA project, the research area was
searched visually and with metal detectors
by divers. A 150m long, previously estab-
lished line served as a baseline parallel to
the shore. Temporary search lines were run
at regular intervals at an angle of 90 degrees
to the main baseline seawards as well as
towards the shore. Objects that warranted
detailed recording were registered using
offset measurements of one or more shorter
baselines. These baselines were later tied
in to the site plan by measuring their loca-
tion in relation to the area survey baseline.
Noticeable objects as well as corner co-ordi-
nates for the search areas were marked with
23
 Overview of areas searched with positions
of artefacts and larger objects marked.
Drawing: Maritime Archaeology Programme,
University of Southern Denmark.

24
buoys and later recorded by total station.
The area survey
In the course of the area survey, a total of
29 search lines were put out. An area of
6,400m2 was visually inspected, and an
area of 2,500m2 was searched by metal
detector. Altogether, the area survey pro-
duced few finds. A number of metal finds
were made in the north-eastern part of the
investigation area. These included a number
of lead balls (approx. 30mm in diameter)
and oval lead objects, a box-shaped metal
object (approx. 50 x 50 mm) with a hole in
one side and a corroded chain link.
A number of disarticulate and heav-
ily eroded timbers, possibly plank remains,
were located in the south-eastern visual
search area. Find positions were noted, but
none of the artefacts were recorded in more
detail, as the area survey concentrated on
artefact distribution rather than individual
artefacts.
Altogether, the area survey showed a low
concentration of archaeological artefacts in
the investigation area. Disarticulate artefacts
were mostly observed in crevasses and
cracks in the limestone, in shallow water.
Detail recording
This part of the fieldwork concentrated on
the stern assembly described below, but a
number of other objects were observed and
recorded by drawing and/or photography.
These include a small v-shaped floor timber
or knee and an iron gudgeon located near
the stern assembly and a broken iron anchor
with wooden stock just outside the under-
water ridge.
As the stern assembly was the most
substantial and archaeologically interesting
object on the site, it was decided to record
it in detail on both sides and acquire two
dendrochronological samples.
The assembly consists of four timbers and
three planks, all of oak. It measures 3.6m x
3.5m and is heavily eroded on all sides. The
sided edge of the stern post is relatively well
preserved and original, but due to erosion,
the lower end cannot be determined. It is
likely that the assembly was directly linked
to the keel, but this cannot be determined
with certainty.
The stern post has an overall remain-
ing height of 3.6m, the sided dimension is
15cm (heavily eroded) and the moulded
dimension up to 50cm. Concretions at the
stern facing side of the post show that it was
fastened to the deadwood with iron bolts,
possibly square headed, approx. 3cm in
diameter.
Impressions and nail holes indicate the
location of two rudder gudgeons, one above
the preserved planking and one on the sec-
ond plank in situ from the bottom. These
are clearly visible on the portside, but only
faintly on the starboard side. Both gudgeons
seem to have been fastened with iron nails
or bolts. The visible gudgeon impressions are
9cm wide. Nail holes indicate a total length
of up to 1.2m.
Three oak planks are preserved on the
portside, which had been facing the sea-
bed. They are up to 65cm wide and were
fastened with treenails, 3-4cm in diameter.
The butt ends at the post were additionally
fastened with a row of iron nails. A narrow
repair patch was inserted between the upper
two planks at the stern and also fastened
with iron nails. The original plank thickness
is hard to establish due to heavy erosion of
the surface, but a thickness of more than
5cm can be assumed.
A distinct lack of fastenings indicates that
no further planks were directly attached
above those preserved. Planking might have
continued downwards enveloping the con-
nection to the keel, whose position cannot
be determined with certainty.
Due to erosion, it could not be estab-
lished how the individual deadwood com-
ponents were fastened to each other, but
the presence of iron bolt impressions in the
sternpost indicates a fastening of the whole
assembly with long iron bolts.
A number of plugged nail holes and two
25
smaller iron bolts were observed in the
deadwood. These could either be a result
of the initial construction or be related to
repairs.
An oak plank in the stern assembly and
the sternpost itself can be dated to after 1496
and after 1532 respectively. The samples
indicate a Dutch or north-western Ger-
man provenance, but the limited number
of samples does not allow a more detailed
provenance analysis (Daly 2008).
Results
The area survey off Brusviken has shown
that a number of disarticulated objects and
finds are located within the natural basin
between the underwater ridge running par-
allel to the coastline and the shore. Metal
objects were detected in limestone gullies
in the north-eastern part of the survey area
and a number of individual eroded ship tim-
bers were observed in shallow water in the
south-west. Apart from the described stern
assembly with its associated gudgeon and
the v-shaped timber nearby, no larger coher-
ent wreck parts were found in the basin.
Considering the relatively shallow water
in the natural basin and the highly dynam-
ic environment, this is not surprising. In
Drawing of the sternpost assembly. Maritime
Archaeology Programme, University of
Southern Denmark.
26
a stranding incident, larger vessels would
probably ground outside the underwater
ridge, but wreck parts would be washed
into the basin. This assumption seems to be
supported by the presence of guns and an
anchor on the seaward side of the ridge.
Construction and dimensions indicate
that the sternpost assembly with associated
gudgeon was part of the stern construction
of a larger wooden sailing vessel of 16th or
17th century date. This initial interpretation
based only on evidence in the construction
is supported by the dendrochronological
samples of sternpost and one of the outer
planks. Finds of stern assemblies from this
period are rare. The find is therefore impor-
tant in that it provides basic details. It is hard
to determine ship size more accurately, but
the data can be used in future compara-
tive study. When setting the results of the
fieldwork session in relation to the loss of
the Danish – Lübeck fleet in 1566, there is
no direct evidence that the recorded ship
timbers and anchor stem from this event.
However, considering the date, construc-
tion and possible provenance of the stern
assembly, an association is not unlikely. In
this case, it can be assumed that one or
more ships stranded further offshore in the
area, and loose material as well as sections
of wreckage were subsequently washed into
the shallow basin near Brusviken.
In the name of the whole field school
 Maritime Archaeology

team, we would like to thank Göran Ankar-

lilja and his HUMA team for the hospitality.
Newsletter
Thanks also go to all field school participants No. 24 Summer 2009 from Denmark
and the divers and non-divers who sup-
ported the work at Brusviken.

Jens Auer & Christine Husum ISSN 1902-0708

References
Fordal, R., 1989: Sjökatastrofen vid Visby EDITORS:
1566 - ett marinarkeologisk project. Got- Thijs J. Maarleveld & Helle Kildebæk Raun
ländskt arkiv, 61: 157-172 Lay-out: Jens Lorentzen & Ewa Britt Nielsen
Daly, A., 2009: Dendrochronological Report DTP: Helle Kildebæk Raun
Väskinde, Gotland 431-1480-08. Den-
dro.dk rapport, 11
PRINT:
PE offset A/S, Varde
© Centre for Maritime and Regional Studies
and authors 2009

Maritime Archaeology Newsletter from

Denmark is a continuation of Maritime
Archaeology Newsletter from Roskilde,
Denmark and is published once a year by:

The Maritime Archaeology Programme,

University of Southern Denmark
at the Centre for Maritime and Regional Studies
Niels Bohrs Vej 9 DK-6700 Esbjerg
Tel. +45 6550 4177 Fax +45 6550 1091
e-mail: hkraun@hist.sdu.dk

The Newsletter is supported by:

University of Southern Denmark
Centre for Maritime and Regional Studies
Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet
The National Museum of Denmark
The Danish Institute in Athens
Langelands Museum
The Viking Ship Museum
Holstebro Museum
Strandingsmuseum St. George
Bangsbo Museum
Moesgård Museum
Haderslev Museum
The portside of the sternpost assembly in Brusviken is best preserved. Photo: Christine Husum.