Oseberg ship
viking ship found in a mound from 834 at the Oslo Firth
The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) is a well-preserved longship (probably a karve) discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county, Norway. This ship is commonly acknowledged to be among the finest artifacts to have survived from the Viking Age. The ship and some of its contents are displayed at the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy on the western side of Oslo, Norway.
Excavation of the ship from the Oseberg burial mound (Norwegian: Oseberghaugen ved Slagen from the Old Norse word haugr meaning kurgan mound or barrow) was undertaken by Swedish archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson and Norwegian archaeologist Haakon Shetelig in 1904–1905. The grave also contained two female human skeletons as well as a considerable number of grave goods. Scientific dating of the ship suggests it was buried no earlier than 834, although certain parts of its structure date from as early as 800, while other parts may be even older.
Structure
The ship is a Karve, clinker built, almost entirely of oak. It is 21.58 metres (70.8 ft) in length and 5.10 metres (16.7 ft) broad, with a mast of approximately 9–10 metres (30–33 ft) in height. With a likely sail area of 90 square metres (970 sq ft), the ship could have achieved a speed of up to 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The ship has 15 pairs of openings for oars, enabling up to 30 people to row it.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q832395. Authority coordinates are 59.900, 10.683. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904 and 1905.
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This entry incorporates text from “Oseberg ship” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.