.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1024)
The longest Viking ship ever found will be flat-packed in classic Scandinavian fashion for its journey to the British Museum, curators revealed today.
The 37-metre-long warship, which will be a highlight of the museum’s first exhibition on the fierce raiders in 30 years, is currently on display in Copenhagen in a specially made stainless steel frame that reconstructs the full size and shape of the original vessel, of which 20 per cent survives.
When that show ends, the conserved timbers, which were discovered on the banks of Roskilde fjord in Denmark, will be dismantled into sections for transportation.
The ship has been dated to around AD 1025, the high point of the Viking age, when England, Denmark, Norway and possibly parts of Sweden were under the rule of Cnut the Great.
It will be presented here alongside weapons and looted treasures demonstrating the central role of warfare to the identity of the Vikings including skeletons recently excavated from a mass grave near Weymouth, Dorset.
Some loans from Denmark and Berlin, dating from the key period of late 8th century to early 11th, have not been seen in the UK before. The Vale of York Hoard will be shown in its entirety at the British Museum for the first time since it was uncovered by metal detectorists near Harrogate in 2007.
It was the largest and most important find for nearly 160 years, with coins, gold and jewellery coming from as far as Afghanistan and Russia.
Museum director Neil MacGregor said today: “The reach and cultural connections of the Viking age make it a remarkable story shared by many countries, not least here in the British Isles.”
Vikings: Life and Legend, supported by BP, runs from March 6 to June 22, 2014, admission £16.50
