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Ole Crumlin-Pedersen and Olaf Olsen, eds. Tke Skuldelev Ships I: Topography, History, Conservation and Display. Ships and Boats of the North 4.1. Roskilde: The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde and Centre for Maritime Archaeology of the National Museum of Denmark, 2002. Pp. 360.
This is the long-awaited definitive publication of the remains of five Viking ships, intentionally scuttled to block a neck of Roskilde Fjord in Denmark, which were recovered in the early 1960s and first reported by these two authors. The volume, in the superlative new series being published by the museum where the wrecks are now preserved, is a tribute to the enormous, apparently ever accelerating, strides in maritime archaeology that have been accomplished in a mere half century, led, methodologically, in no small part by the two authors and numerous colleagues also represented in chapters of the book. The organization of the painstakingly thorough exposition, which goes well beyond the concrete evidence of the five vessels, is as follows: Roskilde Fjord; Archaeological fieldwork; Documentation, analysis, and dating; Conservation, restoration, and display; Description and analysis of the ships as found; and Historical background for the ships and the barrier. The chapter on description treats each of the ships in turn under the headings excavation, description of the preserved parts, reconstruction of the ship in torso, analysis of...