Knarr.... An Ancient Viking Vessel on Shores of Mississippi? Whod a Thought. Imagine being involved in just your basic river clean-up and stumbling across an ancient ship encrusted in the mud? This is just what happened to a group of volunteers near Memphis, Tennessee who were cleaning up the shores of the Mississippi. Needless to say archaeologists quickly arrived on the scene and were able to confirm that the ship was most certainly a Viking knarr. The heavily damaged ship which will prove that Vikings arrived in North America much earlier than originally thought was found near the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers, and has a length of about 16m, and a width of 4.5m. Knarrs were naval vessels built by the Norsemen for Atlantic voyages and also used for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age - from 793 to 1066 AD. They were clinker built, which means the overlapping of planks riveted together and, are capable of sailing 121 km with their crew of 20 to 30 men. Carbon dating of the ship suggests it was built between 900 and 1050AD making it one of the oldest evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact in North America. The discovery also means that the Vikings had actually developed a far wider trade network in the Americas that what was traditionally believed. Unfortunately, very few other artefacts have yet been found on the site but archaeologists intend to keep searching. worldnewsdailyreport/usa-viking-ship-discovered-near-mississipi-river/
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 23:40:32 +0000
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