Oseberg’s ship was very well preserved and is a masterpiece of shipbuilding, now an icon of Scandinavia.

The famous Drakkar “Dragon-ship”, is a romantic invention of nineteenth-century archaeologists. In fact it’s a type of Langskip (“long ship”, the true raid type viking ship) which appeared in the 8th century AD. Its ancestor, the Byrding, was assimilated to a boat without sails, which nevertheless possessed many of the langskip peculiarities. However, there was a common ancestor which was close to it, dating back to the 3rd century BC. Possibly the first clinker-built boat, with overlapping planking such as the tiles of a roof. This technique allowed a better strenght in heavy seas and storms, frequent in these northern latitudes, but also ensured a greater impermeability. They had a lacing of couples in roots of spruce, giving them great flexibility. In this they inherited Neolithic skin boat.