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The shape of the boat, as interpreted by Rosenberg and Johannessen, clearly points to a Scandinavian boat. It is a concrete example of the tens of thousands of boats carved into Norwegian, Swedish and East Danish rock faces and stones, the rock carving boats. The carved boat drawings on bronzes from the Bronze Age also have the characteristic shape with protruding horns. The period in which ships were carved on rocks and bronzes with this shape extends from 1800 BC to 400 BC. Consequently, there is little doubt that the profile of the boats must have represented existing boats. The fairly uniform graphics could not have existed for 1200 years without being connected to real boats.A clear difference between the oldest and youngest boat drawings is the keel line and the sheer (the alignment of the rail), which are straight in the oldest ones, while they are curved in the youngest carvings. Another difference is the shape of the horns, with the younger ones having ‘parallel’ horns. The Rørby ship, to the left, a bronze carving from 1600 BC and the Litsleby carving from 400 BC. A clear difference between the oldest and youngest boat drawings is the keel line and skip (the alignment of the railing), which are straight in the oldest ones, while they are curved in the youngest rock carvings. Another difference is the shape of the horns, with the younger ones having ‘parallel’ horns.The Hjortspring Boat, dated to 350 BC, is the oldest plank-built boat found in Scandinavia, indeed in the whole of Northern Europe if you define this area as starting north of the Humber River in England. Here, a pair of sewn together ‘ferries’ of roughly hewn oak were found from around 1200 BC. These boats had flat bottoms and were of a completely different construction to the Scandinavian petroglyph boats and the Hjortspring boat.The stitching of the Hjortspring Boat's planks seems alien and is also known from boats up to our time in the Far East, in India, in Oceania and in Africa. In our latitudes, sewn boats were used in Finland and north-west Russia until the 19th century.The rivet joint (where the planks overlap) so common in Scandinavian boatbuilding is also a typical feature of our boat (1). This joining method, which results in light and strong constructions, is also seen in the Nydam boat finds in Southern Jutland from 200 to 400 AD and in Viking ships from 800 to 1100 AD.In the 1990s, a museum in northern Sweden recognised a piece of wood in the museum's storeroom that was definitely a toft from a boat. The shape of the toft closely resembled that of the Hjortspring boat, but it was made of pine.Reading through the above concentrated analyses of the historical background leads us in different directions when it comes to answering the questions posed: Where did they come from?Who were they?Why did they come?Who did they meet?What happened? Before we answer these interesting questions, let's go through the building of the boat (in Reconstructions) and get to know its characteristics. Sources Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor.Rekonstruktioner1. See SKALK nr. 2, 2022, p. 24: Living clinker-built world heritage. Language The text in this article has been translated from Danish to English using the free DeepL translation programme. 
The history group also took as its starting point the weapons and equipment parts that were found in addition to the boat. In addition to literature studies, the group also used the analyses carried out by the equipment group.This group had measured and studied a number of spears, paddles, shields and swords during visits to the National Museum's departments in the Prince's Palace in Copenhagen and in Brede. In Rosenberg's report, the descriptions were closely read, and all measurements and other characteristics of the artefacts found were documented in the membership folder in clear tables.The most numerous type of weapon found was the spears - no less than 169 have been catalogued. Then there are the spearheads discarded by peat diggers in the 1880s.Of the 169 spearheads found, 138 were made of iron, while the rest were made of bone or deer antler.The blacksmith group made a selection of iron spearheads in a forge at Danebod Højskole in Fynshav. It was concluded that the forging technology in which the spears had been made had been highly advanced. As the find is dated to 350 BC, only 150 years after the introduction of iron as a tool and weapon material in Northern Europe, the forging must have taken place in concentrated craft environments with a strong development of the technology. Home production of such advanced items is hardly conceivable.The fact that the technology was advanced was supported by an analysis conducted at the State Testing Institute in Copenhagen in 1939. It was concluded that the spears analysed had been hardened by nitriding. However, a final analysis did not take place. In a letter from the State Testing Centre, dated April 1940, the case was closed ‘due to the recent events’. As you can see, the spearheads varied greatly in size and design. Some of them were so large and powerful that they could be labelled as lance points, while others were more suitable for throwing spears. Some of the spearheads were still fitted with shafts or parts of shafts. The spearheads were all fitted with a socket for attaching the shafts.The attachment between spearhead and shaft was made by means of a transverse rivet of bronze or iron placed in the plane of the spear. It was interesting to note that many of the rivets at the ends had a circular groove and ended with a button. Similar decorations on spear rivets have only been found on Gotland and Øland and are labelled as ‘Holstein craftsmanship’. The construction of the spears varied greatly and cannot help in identifying where they were forged. The blacksmith group forged a number of typical replicas of the spearheads, shown here along with a replica of a shield and some equipment parts. Photo: H.P. Rasmussen. Copy of shield seen from the two sides. The elegant mounting of the handle is shown. Photo: H.P. Rasmussen. The shield finds were overwhelming. While 50 shields were found with certainty, fragments indicate that there may have been as many as 80 shields. This makes it the largest single find of shields in Europe.The shields were rectangular with rounded corners. There was great variation in the height/width ratio, ranging from 105/36 cm to 60/47 cm. The shape itself points to shields from the Celtic area, typical of the Early Iron Age. In both the Bronze Age and the Roman Iron Age, the shields were circular.An important realisation is that the identified shields did not bear the marks of battle. The finish of the shield bosses and the design of the handle and shield boss details are refined to match the finish of the boat. Metal was not used except for a few bronze rivets on one of the shields.The shields were made from either lime, oak, alder or birch. The thickness was 12-14 mm on the majority of the surface and sloped out with the edge to a thickness of 3-6 mm. Most shields were composed of two or three boards connected by dowels. The shield bosses were mostly glued to the shield face with resin. The handles were relatively similar with a very elegant assembly, being turned into a pair of grooves in the oval opening of the shield plate. Six original swords from the find. Photo: The National Museum of Denmark. The find contains no bows, arrows or arrowheads, even though this type of weapon was known in both the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.There were only a small number of swords in the find, as only 11 have been positively identified. They were relatively short (from 33 to 70 cm), all were single-edged and with the grip tongue extending from the centre line of the sword.The swords were stabbing weapons. They are said to be East Germanic.As of this writing, only 2 swords have been forged.An important element of the find was an indication of chain mail, perhaps 15-20 pieces in total. The chain mail appeared in the find as an area of 10-12 square metres of rust with clear impressions of rings with a diameter of 1 cm. It is estimated that a similarly large area had been excavated during peat digging. Here again we have an expression of the high level of forging technology, which the group of blacksmiths did not dare to imitate. The find is the largest chainmail find in Europe. In the equipment found were also some turned wooden things. Foto: The National Museum. The find also included a number of carved wooden spoons, plates and tins. The tins are of particular interest as they were turned. Woodturning technology was known in southern Germany in the Celtic regions, but was not really widespread until the early Middle Ages. Nor was the turning of pottery known. The shape of a few turned pottery tins, albeit in clay, is known from Bornholm and the urn graves in Jastorp near Lüneburg. These pottery boxes were 'coiled' up There was also a baler in the find. Photo: H.P. Rasmussen. An example of carved wooden parts in the find is a baler, which, as seen in the picture above, hangs beautifully in the centre of a toft in the boat.Part of a bronze needle in the find has a characteristic curved stem and is called a Holstein needle. Such needles were common throughout northern Germany. Finally, a clay pot, or rather the shards of a clay pot, was found on a shield. It had been reconstructed and identified as a storage jar made by coiling, and the shape is known not only from Denmark but also from the Holstein and Hanover area. Kilder Nylen, E.Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor. Language The text in this article has been translated from Danish to English using the free DeepL translation programme. 
The history group defined its task as answering the following questions: Where did they (the boat crew) come from?Who were they?Why did they come?Who did they meet?What happened? The group started primarily with literature studies, followed by landscape studies on Als, visits to museums and contacts with museums and universities.Let's start with the results from the analysis of Als in the Celtic Iron Age (500 BC - AD):The island of Als has an area of 317 square kilometres with a soil of glacial clay and some sandy areas as well as some bogs and strong tunnel valley landscapes on Nordals. A pollen analysis from Bundsø (1) on Als shows the following distribution of vegetation in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age: LandscapeDistributionOpen land57 %Scrub forest31 %High forest12 % This left 187 square kilometres or 18,700 hectares available for settlements and agriculture. The pollen analysis shows only a small amount of linden, while beech, oak, elm, hazel and alder were common.Before juggling back and forth in the following sections, we will briefly mention the ages into which the Nordic Antiquity is divided: PeriodYearPalaeolithic period-> 3,000 BC.Neolithic period3,000 - 1,800 BCBronze Age1800 - 500 BCCeltic (pre-Roman) Iron Age500 BC - BCRoman Iron AgeBC - 400 AD.Germanic Iron Age400 - 800 ADViking Age800 - 1.050 AD In the Celtic Iron Age, the settlement consisted of small villages with 5-6 farms, each with 7-8 people.Each farm consisted of an oblong house, approximately 5 x 12 metres, oriented east-west with the dwelling at the west end and the stable at the east end. The livestock consisted of cows, sheep, pigs and a few horses. While in the Bronze Age cattle were kept outside all year round, in the Iron Age they needed to be stabled in winter for climatic reasons (2).Based on ‘Danes from birth to baptism’ (3) , which claims that it took 50 hectares to give birth to one person in the Celtic Iron Age, the population of Als totalled around 350 people, of which 80-90 were probably armed. The history group also made walks in the area around Hjortspring Mose and realised that the boat must have been towed up to the bog from Stevning Vig on the west coast of Als via Stolbro Bæk, which originates just 200 metres from the bog. The creek is marked on the Als map shown in the article Nature and culture.On a field trip to the bog, we found a core axe from the Early Stone Age and some potsherds from the Bronze Age in the neighbouring fields. Yes, people had always travelled here. At the edge of the bog we found a heavy, highly ferrous stone, probably a precursor to ant ore. Ant ore was used as a raw material for iron production in Denmark during the Iron Age.The work of the history group is recorded in the book: Tanker om Hjortspringfundet og Als i keltisk jernalder. Hjortspring Mose has sprung up again. Sources 1: Åby, B. Triangle pollen diagram from Bundsø. 2: Hvass, L. 2: Engelhart, P.Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor.Tanker om Hjortspringfundet og Als i keltisk jernalder. Language The text in this article has been translated from Danish to English using the free DeepL translation programme.
In 1915, Jens Raben, then curator of Sønderborg Castle Museum, was hospitalised in the then German town of Sønderborg. It was during the 1914-1918 war, and in the same ward was another wounded South Jutlander, Jørgen Petersen. He told Raben that he had heard that ancient artefacts had been found in Hjortspring Mose near Guderup during peat digging in the 1980s. After signing out, Raben and Petersen went to the bog, where owner Christen Nymand told them that as a boy he had helped dig peat in the bog. They had found a long plank that had been dried and then burned. During peat digging, he had also been bothered by numerous spearheads that had been thrown into a fence. There had been no digging in the bog since 1889.In 1918, the Verein für Heimatkunde carried out a short excavation without finding anything. Strange!After reunification, Raben wrote to the National Museum in Copenhagen and reported Nymand's story. Museum curator K. Friis Johansen of the National Museum visited the owner of the bog and agreed on an excavation in 1921. In July 1921, Gustav Rosenberg, a conservator from the National Museum, arrived to begin the excavation.In 1921, 37 working days of excavation were spent unearthing large quantities of weapons.In 1922, the boat was excavated over 52 working days, damaged as it was by peat digging and time.A more detailed description of the excavation, the transport of the finds and the preservation can be found in G. Rosenberg: ‘Hjortspringfundet’ and F. Kaul: ‘Da våbnene tav’.See Surces at the bottom of the page. I 1921/22 blev våben udstyr og båd udgravet, ledet af konservator G. Rosenberg. The history group interviewed Jens Raben's daughter, Mrs Hertha Raben Petersen, in 1995, which is quoted below: The Hjortspring Boat was excavated in 1921-22 by the National Museum. I was a schoolgirl at the time and my father took me with him when he participated in the excavation.The director of the National Museum's 1. Department at the time was Sofus Müller, a self-righteous gentleman whom everyone in the bog feared and no one dared to contradict.The head of the excavation was G. Rosenberg, whom I later met during the excavation of the Ladby ship. I have fond memories of his quiet, considerate behaviour. Conservator Raklev was always up for a joke. He loved to tease young and old, and he could tell fantastic stories. Later, archaeologists like Brøndsted, Broholm and Friis Johansen came along. I was particularly interested in a Dutchman whose name I remember as Stein van Callenfels. I remember his appearance and demeanour clearly. Callenfels had spent many years on Java and participated in excavations there. Small and round as I remember him, I see him sitting, almost as if he was stuck, in a search trench. He could move enough to pull his long, thin cigars, which he had sent from Holland, out of his breast pocket. Once, the cigar delivery didn't arrive on time and he started to panic.When the weather was good, I had to accompany my father to this little paradise. We travelled by ‘æ Kleinbahn’ from Sønderborg to Stevning and walked to the bog. Dad carried his rucksack containing our lunch, drawings and other utensils, useful things.The bog was busy when we arrived. Ditches had been cut and Mr Rosenberg came to greet Dad and tell him about things. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't always good, and during heavy rain, the ditches would fill up with water, so they had to be pumped out.In 1990, I saw the boat on display at the National Museum and memories of the excavation almost 70 years ago came flooding back - memories from childhood that have stuck with me. Sources Hjortspringfundet.Da våbnene tav.Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor.Recent realisations can be found in these:Danmarks Oldtid, Early Iron Age, Volume 3, Jørgen Jensen.Hjortspring, Ole Crumlin-Pedersen & Athena TrakadsSejrens triumf, Exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Denmark Language The text in this article has been translated from Danish to English using the free DeepL translation programme.
Historical background The purpose of the history group's work was to give the guild an idea of the time of the boat and the find. The equipment group and the blacksmith group had the same purpose. It would have been unsatisfactory for members to simply build a boat without a basic knowledge of the background of the boat. We also imagined that such knowledge would help the design and construction group to make better choices when design doubts arose. Finally, the formation of these groups favoured an increase in the interests of some of the registered members.The results from the work of these groups would help to publicise the discovery. Although the three groups worked separately, the results of each group became an integral part of the historical background. Therefore, the work, its results and its conclusions are described together.The groups mentioned are our division of the different tasks. They are described in more detail in: The section on Organisation Sources Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor.The description of the Hjortspring find is a summary of our studies of the literature on the find.An overview of this literature can be found here.
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