Achievements in the first two years


By 1 September 1995 the Centre for Maritime Archaeology had been in existence for two years, and this can therefore be considered a suitable time to have a look at what has been achieved in those first two years and what shape the future will take.

The Centre was one of the first of the 23 centres under the Danish National Research Foundation to set to work after being notified in the spring of 1993 that they had been awarded resources for a five-year research programme. We had a good basis to build on, in the form of the cooperation between the National Museum and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The foundations had been formed there for a broad range of research projects, and others had arisen out of the National Museum's cooperation with other museums both in Denmark and abroad. Now it was possible to develop those projects over a broad front.

The main goal was established. We would aim, in the course of these five years, to show that within three fields we had an important contribution to make to research in Maritime Archaeology, not just in Denmark, but internationally. These were the fields 'Maritime Aspects of Archaeology', 'The Archaeology of Watercraft' and 'Development of Tools and Methods'. The main emphasis would be on the Iron Age, Viking Age and Middle Ages.

As can be seen from the evidence of this newsletter and earlier ones in the series, much has already happened in these fields. The Nydam project is a good example. By means of new excavations in Nydam bog, analyses of the material from earlier excavations, and natural-science contributions in the form of describing the accelerating disintegration of the unexcavated material, progress has been made in all three fields. Ordinary cultural-historical studies are being combined in this way with special analyses in ship-archaeology and conservation processes, and an additional benefit is being reaped in the form of development of a tool for artefact-registration which can be used in many other contexts - c.f. further discussion in this newsletter.

Within the project-group 'Maritime Aspects of Archaeology' the subject 'The ship as symbol' was taken as the theme for a major research-seminar in May 1994, and the lectures delivered there have now been published in book form.The Bronze-Age ship-depictions on razors will soon also be available in book form with an interpretation of this phenomenon. Among the projects on seafaring and settlement, the interdisciplinary project 'Fyn's coast in the Iron Age, Viking Age and Middle Ages' has been completed and will shortly be in print, and the projects on 'Lundeborg' and 'Roskilde Fjord' are entering their final phases. 'Coastal defence' still requires more extensive new fieldwork; the potential for new discoveries in this area can be seen e.g. from the report on the Kanhave Canal in this newsletter, but it is also planned to hold a major research seminar in May 1996 on the European background for Danish coastal defences.

The Centre for Maritime Archaeology is involved in a variety of projects abroad, several of them in Germany. Here, in May 1995, Ole Crumlin-Pedersen presented the Viking Ship Museum's exhibition to German Maritime Archaeologists associated with the German Kommission für Unterwasserarchäologie. Photo Ulrike Teigelake.

Where ship-archaeology is concerned, work is continuing in parallel on the preparation for publication of a number of major finds. This applies to Nydam, Hedeby, Skuldelev, Fribrødre and Gedesby, which will each be the subject of a monograph which will set the find in context in relation to important aspects of our seafaring history. The first of these volumes, the publication on the ship-finds from Hedeby, is expected to be ready in 1996, in cooperation with the Archäologisches Landesmuseum in Schleswig.

In the technical project-category, progress has been made on development of methods in conservation and surveying, in close cooperation with Danish and foreign researchers. The results may be of significant value in relation to field archaeologists' prospects of locating and preserving the many archaeological finds underwater or in wetland areas. The projects on documentation and analysis of the ship-finds have benefitted from exemplary cooperation with several institutes in the Danish Technical University. For the sake of completeness, it should also be mentioned that we are studying the history of ropework and sail-making, as well as the historical value of evidence from wood-samples and fish-bones.

Amidst all this activity the Centre has become a meeting-place for researchers from Denmark and elsewhere, attending colloquies and seminars or invited as guest researchers. Formal cooperation has been set up with the Institute for Nautical Archaeology at A&M University in Texas, where one of the Centre's staff-members currently has the post of guest-researcher for 9 months.

As is apparent from this, the Centre's staff have had a flying start, and the first dividends are beginning to materialize. We shall have plenty to do in the next three years, and we also believe that the Centre will have demonstrated, in this trial period, the justice of its claim to be an important and topical focus of Danish and international archaeological research.

At the time of writing, conditions for research in Denmark are subject to radical change, and no-one knows what will happen in the coming months in this field, except that the Minister for Research, Frank Jensen, wishes to see a strengthening of the field. With the very positive experience we have had of the way the Danish National Research Foundation has supported its centres, we feel that this model not only deserves to be continued, but also shows one of the best routes for Danish research to take in the future.

Ole Crumlin-Pedersen.