TALLINN, ESTONIA—ERR News reports that part of a ship’s hull has been unearthed in Tallinn, Estonia, which is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Priit Lätti of the Estonian Maritime Museum said that timber, sails, ropes, and metal from old ships would have been repurposed, a practice that dates back to the medieval period. “In a situation where both ships and dock structures were made of wood, fire was among the chief concerns,” Lätti added. “We know that ships that caught fire were towed out of the harbor to keep the fire from spreading and allowed to drift onto the beach.” All usable timber from this ship had been sawed off just above the waterline, Lätti explained. What was left was probably used as landfill. To read about a genetic study that included 41 skeletons from ship burials unearthed in Estonia, go to "Largest Viking DNA Study," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2020.
