The boat

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.

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:

Before we answer these interesting questions, let's go through the building of the boat (in Reconstructions) and get to know its characteristics.

• Hvad Haanden former er Aandens Spor.
• Rekonstruktioner
• 1. See SKALK nr. 2, 2022, p. 24: Living clinker-built world heritage.