A fingerprint discovered on the wrecked remains of Denmark’s ancient Hjortspring boat have helped unravel the long-standing mystery behind the Scandinavian plank canoe’s origin.
The wreck site of the boat, thought to have carried 80 passengers, was first discovered on the Danish island of Als and first excavated in the early 20th century.
Archaeologists believe it likely belonged to warriors who attacked the island and were defeated, but where these people came from, remains unknown.
Until now, several theories have been proposed about the boat’s origin over the past 100 years, with some suggesting its crew likely came from northern Germany or another part of modern-day Denmark.
In a new study, researchers analysed previously unstudied caulking and cord materials found with the boat as well as a partial fingerprint, which points to the 2,400-year-old boat’s likely area of origin.
“Our scientific analysis of the boat’s caulking material gives us the first major new clue in over a century,” researchers wrote in the study published in the journal PLOS One.
“Fingerprints like this one are extremely unusual for this time period. It is great to have found a direct connection with one of the people who used this ancient boat,” they wrote.
The latest analysis revealed that the caulk was made up of mainly animal fat and pine pitch.
Since Denmark did not have any significant pine forest cover during this time, scientists suspect one of the coastal areas along the Baltic Sea to the east, which had pine forests, may have been the origin site of the boat.
But if this were the case, the boat would likely have travelled a long distance over the open ocean to reach the island of Als, suggesting that the attack was organised and premeditated.
“The boat was waterproofed with pitch from pine trees, which were rare in both Denmark and northern Germany during the first millennium BC,” scientists wrote.
“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,” they explained.
The new materials found on the boat were dated to the 4th or 3rd century BC, in line with previous datings of wood from the Hjortspring site.
Scientists also found a partial human fingerprint in a part of the caulking material, which they suspect could have been left by one of the crew members.
This likely provides “a direct link to the seafarers of the ancient vessel”, researchers say.
“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,” they wrote.
“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,” scientists added.
The latest findings bolster the belief that the boat was used by a small army of invaders who attacked the island of Als in southern Denmark over 2,000 years ago.
“The invaders were defeated and the local defenders sunk the boat into a bog as an offering to give thanks for their victory,” researchers wrote.
“Ever since the boat was excavated from the bog in the early 1920s, the question of where the invaders came from has been an open mystery,” they said.