Portage: Will archeologists find proof of Viking ship-hauling in Scotland?

When, in season four of the hit television series Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok exhorts his fellow Norsemen to pull their ships out of the water and over the hills to attack Paris, it seems like an impossible feat – made for TV. 

Certain written records, however, suggest that the act of dragging a ship across land – known as portage – is not so outlandish. 

Both the 10th-century Byzantine text De Administrando Imperio and the 12th-century Rus text Nestor Chronicle describe instances of Vikings hauling ships over land. Now, a study taking place in Scotland could be about to provide further confirmation of this seemingly remarkable feat. 

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Gjellestad Viking ship in danger of disappearing

Sindre Martinsen-Evje, the mayor of Østfold County Municipality in Norway, has called for urgent action to help preserve the Gjellestad Viking ship burial site. 

Although the site was only excavated in 2020 and 2021, time is already ticking as archeologists seek to save the remnants of the first Viking ship burial to be found in Norway in over a century. 

Will it be gone forever? 

With the help of ground-penetrating radar, Gjellestad was discovered more than 100 years after the Oseberg ship was excavated in 1904. 

The Gjellestad dig, which took place near the town of Østfold on the Viksletta Plain, revealed the remains of both a large Viking ship burial and several other interesting finds, including horse teeth, a large amber bead, and a Viking axe. 

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That 800-Year-Old Corpse in the Well? Early Biological Warfare

The Well Man was little more than a myth until 1938, when archaeologists excavated an abandoned well in the ruins of Sverresborg, outside Trondheim in central Norway.
Credit...Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research

In the dying days of the 12th century, with Norway in the grip of civil wars, the Baglers, a faction aligned with the archbishop, laid siege to Sverresborg, the castle stronghold of King Sverre Sigurdsson. The monarch was away, so the besiegers pillaged the castle, burned down houses and poisoned the water supply by heaving the corpse of one of the king’s men headfirst down the well and filling the shaft with stones.

This early biological warfare is recorded in “Sverris Saga,” a contemporaneous biography of the king, who reigned over much of Norway from 1184 to 1202. Scholars have long debated the chronicle’s reliability as a historical document, but a study published Friday in the journal iScience recounts how researchers unearthed the body of the “Well Man” and, with the help of ancient DNA, have provided fresh details about who he was.

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What archaeologists are learning from the discovery of 50 extremely rare Viking skulls

Skeletons and skulls sit in graves at an excavation site of a 10th century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The discovery of 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons in a village in central Denmark could hold important clues to the Viking era.

Archaeologists made the landmark discovery that included a burial ground and the skeletons.

Experts hope to conduct DNA analyses and possibly reconstruct detailed life histories, as well as looking into social patterns in Viking Age, such as kinship, migration patterns and more.

“This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved,” said archeologist Michael Borre Lundø, who led the six-month dig. “Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons.”

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