Today I got to see 3 ancient viking ships that were used as burial vessels. The Oseburg ship is the one I was most interested in. The Oseburg ship was dug up out of a field in 1904. Inside was found a treasure trove of Viking age textiles.
The ship is dated to the Autumn of 834 and was the burial vessel for 2 women. Their identity is unknown. The bow and stern of the ship are ornately carved. It is the best condition of any of the ships at the museum. 90% of it is the original wood from the ship.
There are textile implements in the general collection. However, I got to visit a room with textile fragments that is forbidden to photograph. They are afraid of degrading the fragments further. In this room, I got to see MANY bands woven with cards, including an unfinished band with warp threads still running through the holes in the cards. There were pieces of a tabby woven wool dress in red and white geometric patterns. The warp was linsey-woolsey and the weft was wool. The linen in the warp had degraded.
I only was able to view the items in this room for a few minutes. However, I count myself lucky to even have seen them. The pictures in this post show items in the main room that were allowed to be photographed. The brass plaque is the key to the items. I did my best to photograph them, but light was poor and the items were behind glass (of course).
As the Whorl Turns 