Two New Ship Settings Found on the island of Hjarnø, Denmark

An article recently published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology by a group of researchers from Flinders University has proposed discovering two new ship settings at the Kalvestene grave field on the island of Hjarnø, Denmark. Researchers used medieval textual witness testimony of the gravesite by a man named Ole Worm to identify the new ship settings. The findings both affirm Ole Worm's credibility as a historical source and opens the door to more potential finds at the site.

What is a ship setting?

A ship setting is a style of burial that was popular in the early Viking Age in Scandinavia. Rather than bury a ship in the ground, as became standard later on for the wealthiest individuals, the dead had the likenesses of ships outlined with rocks around their graves. The image below of the two largest stone ships at Anund's barrow in Sweden illustrates the scope and size some ship settings attained in a dramatic way.

Ole Worm's 17th Century Drawings of The Kalvestene

Ole Worm'…