Viking ship relocation controversy

The University of Oslo has decided to move three grand Viking ships, probably by truck and barge, to a new museum across town despite dire claims that the thousand-year-old oak vessels could fall apart en route. . .

The university’s board of directors voted 8 to 3 this month to move the sleek-hulled vessels over the objections of Dr. Christensen and several other Viking Age scholars, including the former director of the British Museum, David Wilson, and the director of Center for Maritime Archaeology in Denmark, Ole Crumlin-Pedersen. The board wants to transport the popular ships from a remote Oslo peninsula, where they have been housed for more than 75 years, to a large, multifaceted museum in the center of the capital.

The three ships were pulled in pieces from separate Viking burial mounds more than a century ago, then painstakingly reassembled with rivets, glue, creosote and linseed oil. Since then they have deteriorated markedly. Dr. Christensen said they have the consistency of knekkebrod, a type of Norwegian cracker.

From the NY Times. Further coverage in the Washington Post; the Viking Ship Museum website is here.

Posted by David on December 27, 2006 11:18 AM