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  • A Scandinavian ship of the pre-Roman Iron Age. One of these ships was excavated in 1921–1922 in Hjortspring Mose at Als in Sønderjylland. The wooden boat was about 13 meters long and had room for a crew of up to 23 to paddle. The excavated specimen was the oldest find of a wooden plank ship in Scandinavia; its closest parallels are the thousands of petroglyph images of Nordic Bronze Age ships. It contained weapons such as 131 Celtic-type shields, 33 beautifully crafted shieldbosses, 138 spearheads of iron, 10 iron swords, and the remains of a mailcoat. The presence of these items led historians to conclude that its sinking was a deliberate war sacrifice.

    February 5, 2008

  • Umm... couldn't it have sunk accidentally and still have carried those items? I'm not sure why it necessarily follows that because it had these items aboard, it was an intentional sinking.

    February 10, 2008

  • I'm not sure either--sounded odd to me. Maybe this review will help. It seems as though the items suggesting sacrifice were the animal remains, not the weapons per se.

    February 11, 2008

  • Wait. A mailcoat is an animal? WTF? Even if that were the case, the last sentence is poorly constructed to clearly mean that. It should say 'the presence of these remains led scientists to conclude...' but it doesn't, and it seems to refer to all the previous items.

    February 11, 2008

  • I don't think the intention was to call a mailcoat an animal. I meant that the original citation neglected to mention the animal remains.

    Hey, I just quote 'em; I don't write 'em. Which reminds me: the first citation down there is from Wikipedia. Forgot to add that.

    February 11, 2008