612 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



(0) Three i)rofile(l fragments of oak with ornameuted edge. 



(10) Several pieces of bast rope. 



The observations made would indicate that the vessel had served as 

 the last resting i>lace of a chieftain whose remains were placed in a 

 sepulchral chainber erected over the ship formed of rafters which found 

 a support upon the stone walls beyond the board and erected for that 

 purpose, while the intersecting- cross wall gave support to the gable 

 end of the roof. In the chamber thus formed and covered with plenty of 

 birch bark, as shown by the shavings left in the place, the dead was 

 deposited in a sitting or lying position, near the south end of the wall 

 upon which vreve found two swords, one spear, several blacksmith tools, 

 whetstones, a little box, fire steel and flint, etc. 



At the foot of the wall stood an iron pot with a round edge bent 

 over but sadly rusted away; near by two beautiful checkers, a sinker, 

 a waxen tablet bearing the mark of a cross, and a gold buckle. 



While of animal remains only the accidentally ineserved Jaw of a 

 horse was found, its occurrence suggests tlie usual funeral customs ob- 

 served in other shii3 graves of that kind, after the completion of which 

 the mound was erected over the entire structure. 



The gradual settling of the eartli and the enormous pressure exerted 

 thereby upon the funeral chamber resulted in the crushing in of the 

 comparatively frail structure, the earth tilling the entire vessel, tearing 

 it asunder and distributing its contents throughout the soil ; the absence 

 of human and animal remains may, therefore, be ascribed to the direct 

 contact with the soil into which they, in the course of centuries, be- 

 came absorbed without leaving any distinguishable traces. 



With regard to the antiquity of the ship, tradition connects the place 

 upon which it was found with the battle of Rastarkalv, in which Hakon 

 the Good defended Norway's independency against the Danisli king. 

 The saga tells us that after the battle was over the king had some of 

 the ships of Eriksson drawn ashore, placed Egil Ullsaerk and other 

 slain men into it and built them an honorable grave; he had the mound 

 raised over the funeral ship and erected bauta-stones upon the same; 

 and it is, therefore, not impossible that the ship found at Storhaugen 

 is the ship which Hakon "mounded" in memory of the fallen lieroes 

 in the year 953. 



The Tune l>)hip ' (Plate LXXVii). — According to old reports, a ship 

 was said to bo buried in a mound located on the farm of Haugen on the 

 Rolfsisland, about three-quarters of a mile above the town of Frederiks- 



' Skillings Magiiziiie, 1867, pp. 717-719, 724, 738-739. Polyteknisk Tidsskrift, 1867. 

 Gfide, G. : the aiipimit vessel found in the parish of Tune, Norway; Christiana, 1872 

 [employed in the description here given], Miiller, H. : S^krigshistoriens vigtigste 

 Begivenheder, p. 1. Tuxen, N. E. : De nordiske Laugskibe. In Aarb. f nord. Oldk. 

 og Hist. Copenhagen, 1886. Parker, Foxhall A.: The Fleets of the World, New- 

 York, 1876, p. 151. Nlcolaysen, iV. : Langskibet fra Gokstad Kristiania, 1882, p. 12. 

 Mouiclius O.: The Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times; translation by F. H. 

 Woods, London, 1878, p. 185. Boehmcr, Geo. H. : Norsk Naval Architecture; in Pro- 

 ceedings U. S. National Museum, vol. ix, p. 454. 



