The reconstruction of archaeological ship finds is a core area in the Viking Ship Museum’s research and dissemination work. We describe the work as ‘experimental archaeology’, not because it is performed by archaeologists, but because the designation contains an expression of the work's basic attitude and intention. We regard a ship find as a source for a comprehensive and complex knowledge of cultural history. We regard it as our task to discover as much of this knowledge as possible in order to achieve greater knowledge of the individual ship’s construction and sailing characteristics and to illustrate a number of cultural-historical issues that concern the interaction between the Viking Age’s ships and society. The reconstruction and testing in full scale is therefore ideally included as an element in the overall analysis of a ship find.

The work takes its point of departure in the idea that every ship was originally created and utilised in a complex interaction between people with differing competencies and attitudes to the ship. These people have left a variety of traces on the ships, some of which are very concrete, such as tool tracks that have been left as primary sources from the hand of the ship-builder. Others are more abstract, such as the ship’s form and nature, and these can tell us about the ship’s function, the waters in which it sailed, the “contractor’s” wishes and the intentions that the boat-builder had for the ship’s sailing characteristics.  The ship can also tell us about the ship technology at the time and the use and understanding of materials. They can also provide food for thought about time consumption, resources, organisation etc.

Nobody has the qualifications to interpret all this information alone. Gathering information from a ship find therefore depends on cooperation between people with a wide range of competencies, experience and approaches. The method of examining and questioning must be constantly developed and refined by a broadly comprised team, who can together process a comprehensive and very diverse source material and who can develop ideas on a wide range of issues, always with the bigger picture in mind. It is the process and the questions it produces that are significant for the analysis.

It is obvious that things have not necessarily been so, simply because it was possible. It is self-evident that the work is not about finding one answer or one solution, but to propose hypotheses and identify possible answers. The results achieved in the experimental archaeological process cannot be compared with the measurements of natural science.

The archaeological ship experiment is so complicated and marked by joint correlations, that it is impossible to choose, isolate and analyse a single factor in the same way as can be achieved in a test facility. However the sailing reconstruction may be seen as a large test method, which gives immediate feedback on all details, as the individual parts “fall out" or report back if they don’t work in the bigger scheme. It might be the hinge joints snapping; tree-nail holes wearing out in a particular are of the ship; a mast which does not work with the mast etc. If the results are to have culturally historic value, they may be carried out in realistic conditions. In practice, that means the trial voyages must be carried out in nature’s constantly changing elements, i.e. wind, current and sea. The human element also plays its part. Can we measure ourselves with modern knowledge and skill? Considering these issues, we must work with an eye on the project’s entirety, and the same trial must be repeated many times under changing conditions in order to infer average values, e.g. speed and cruising characteristics.

The actual product, the reconstruction, can be compared to a historical presentation. It does not represent the truth on how the original or reality was in all details. But to present a picture acts as a catalyst and a tool for a process which highlights new issues and correlations, and allows us to see and interpret the source material afresh.

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