STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—According to a Live Science report, a new study suggests that the 64 wooden shields discovered in southern Norway’s Gokstad ship burial in 1880 were part of the ship’s equipment and may have been used in combat. It had been previously thought that the shields were solely ceremonial. Rolf Warming of the University of Stockholm said that the round shields, which had been tied along the top edge of the ship’s hull when it was repurposed for the burial of a Viking king in A.D. 900, were likely to have been covered with a thin layer of rawhide, based upon the organic material and stitching holes observed on the surface. The shields may have also been painted either yellow or black, he added, to create the look of yellow and black crescents when the shields were overlapped. Made from tapered wooden boards set around a center iron shield boss on one side and a wooden handle on the other, the shields would have been light and easy to maneuver in combat, he explained. Future research will focus on irregular notches and marks on the shield bosses and analysis of the organic material. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Arms & Armour. To read about other ship burials uncovered in Norway and Sweden, go to "Sailing the Viking Seas."
