Discovery
The place where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. Shortly after the 1880 New Year the sons of the owner of Gokstad Farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat and its painter while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, the then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site on 6 February 1880 and, having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artefact, liaised for the digging to be stopped.
Nicolaysen returned on March 27 and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging was surprised to find the bow of a ship.
Read more about this topic: Gokstad Ship
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