Construction workers digging at the site for a new waterfront hotel in the coastal town of Larvik suddenly unearthed the remains of a shipwreck that experts have dated back to the 1600s.
The wreckage consisted of two vessels believed to have been specially built cargo ships, each around 45 feet long and built of oak. Their wreckage was found about three meters below the sea bottom, at the site of the planned hotel's underground garage.
One theory is that the ships may have been carrying iron ore that was to be used to build canons in Larvik. National preservationists issued an emergency provision that allowed the wreckage to be moved, instead of excavated at the site.
Scattered around the wreckage were dozens of items from the vessels, preserved in the mud over the centuries. They included ropes and tools like this.
Several bottles also were found in and around the wreckage. Here's the broken neck of one such bottle, believed to be more than 300 years old.
Pieces of pottery were also found by marine archaeologists, called in after construction workers ran into the wreckage last week.
Some of the pottery was decorated, like this ceramic piece from the 1600s.
Two large earthmovers and a 12-wheel crane were brought in to carefully move the wreckage from the site where it had been resting for centuries.
The vessel was in remarkably good condition. It's not often that officials from Norway's national maritime museum in Oslo come across such a discovery.
Several of the items found in and around the wreckage, like this section of rope, were also in amazingly good shape, given their age. Shoe soles, buttons, wooden handles and two anchors were among the treasures lying in the mud.
Marine archaeologist Pål Nymoen from the Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum) in Oslo said the vessels were probably damaged in an autumn storm and abandoned on the waterfront at Larvik. Over the years, the area filled in, and the wreckage was buried. The wreckage was being taken this week to Larvik Museum.
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