Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – A recent analysis of the Hjortspring boat, an ancient wooden plank vessel housed at the National Museum of Denmark, has shed new light on its origins, a question that has long intrigued researchers.
The Hjortspring boat as currently displayed at the National Museum of Denmark. Credit: Boel Bengtsson. Fauvelle et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0
Advanced Pre-Viking Seafaring
The boat was discovered on the Danish island of Als and first excavated in the early 20th century. It is believed to have belonged to a group of warriors who attacked Als but were ultimately defeated. Until now, archaeologists have not been able to determine precisely where these warriors came from or when they lived.
In a new study, Mikael Fauvelle from Lund University in Sweden and his colleagues conducted carbon dating and chemical analysis on previously unexamined caulking and cord materials found with the boat. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, they identified that the caulk was likely made from animal fat combined with pine pitch.
At that period, Denmark had very few pine forests. While it is possible that pine pitch could have arrived through trade networks, other coastal regions along the Baltic Sea—east of Denmark—had abundant pine forests. This evidence suggests that both the boat and its crew may have originated from those eastern regions.
Model of the Hjortspringbåten made by the excavation leader Gustav Rosenberg. Credit: Nationalmuseet – CC BY-SA 3.0
If this theory is correct, it means that the Hjortspring boat traveled a considerable distance across open sea to reach Als—a journey indicating significant organization and planning by its occupants.
Carbon dating results for both cords and caulk indicate that construction likely occurred in either the 4th or 3rd century BCE, consistent with earlier datings based on wood samples from the site.
Rare Ancient Human Fingerprint
Additionally, the team discovered a partial human fingerprint within the caulking material during their study. Although they could not definitively identify its origin, the researchers propose that a crew member may have left it during a boat repair. This finding offers a tangible connection to the seafarers who once operated the ancient vessel.
“New analysis of Scandinavia’s oldest plank boat brings us a step closer to solving the 100-year-old mystery of the ancient boat’s origins. Using cutting-edge scientific methods, researchers have zeroed in on the Baltic Sea Region as the most likely source for the circa 2,400-year-old boat, while also discovering a fingerprint left by an ancient seafarer in the tar used to waterproof the vessel,” the researchers wrote in their study.
The research team noted that the discovery of a fingerprint on the tar fragments from the boat was an unexpected finding. Fingerprints from this era are extremely rare, making this discovery particularly significant as it provides a direct link to one of the individuals who used the ancient vessel.
Weapons And Bog Offering
Historical evidence indicates that the boat was used by a small group of invaders who attacked the island of Als in southern Denmark more than 2,000 years ago. After their defeat, the local defenders deliberately sank the boat in a bog as an offering of gratitude for their victory. Since its excavation from the bog in the early 1920s, researchers have continued to investigate and debate the invaders’ origins, leaving this aspect of history unresolved.
Comparison of Hjortspring boat (Above, 3D model by Richard Potter) with securely dated Bronze Age art (Rørby sword and Sagaholm rock art) as well as an example of early Iron Age art from Brastad. Thousands of other examples of Bronze Age boat depictions exist. Note the continuity in form and design evident in these different boat depictions. Credit: Fauvelle et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0
The weapons discovered in the boat were typical for the period and widely used across Northern Europe, offering limited clues about their specific origins. Over the past century, scholars have proposed several theories regarding the boat’s origin. Some researchers suggest that its crew may have originated from northern Germany, while others believe they could have come from another region within present-day Denmark.
Caulking fragment showing fingerprint on the left and high-resolution X-ray tomography scan of fingerprint region on the right. Credit: Photography by Erik Johansson, 3D model by Sahel Ganji. Fauvelle et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0
“Now our scientific analysis of the boat’s caulking material gives us the first major new clue in over a century. The boat was waterproofed with pitch from pine trees, which were rare in both Denmark and northern Germany during the first millennium BCE. We argue that this means the boat and its crew most likely came from further east along the shores of the Baltic Sea where pine forests were more abundant.
The boat was excavated before modern dating methods were available and most of the material from the boat was immediately conserved using chemicals that make radiocarbon dating impossible. Going through the archives, however, we were able to find some original cordage that had not been conserved.
We obtained a radiocarbon date from the cordage that returned a date range of between 381 and 161 BCE, confirming the pre-Roman Iron Age date of the boat,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer