The Gokstad ship with the buried warrior and his grave gifts was discovered in 1880. Since 2011, archaeologists have reexamine the original find and explored its context. New book – the first in a series of three – tells the story.

Returning to Gokstad: The Art and Science of the Archaeological Revisit
Ed. by Jan Bill and Hege S. Gjerde
Århus University Press 2020

ABSTRACT

This book is the first of three planned volumes from the project Gokstad Revitalised, which is an archaeological revisit at the famous Viking Age ship grave originally excavated in 1880. The volume collect experiences from other archaeological revisits over the last decades, including the ship grave sites from Hedeby, Ladby and Sutton Hoo, as well as the royal monument at Jelling. It also reports on the research history of the Gokstad find and on a number of methodological feasibility studies carried out as preparation of the project. These include iron provenancing, aDNA, isotope analyses, osteology and new dendrochronological results. The final part of the volume discusses the paradox of planning a multi-year, frontrunner project in a field where methodological development is rapid and uncertainty abound, and share the project’s experiences so far