LONDON — Archaeologists this week said they have discovered the remains of a Viking chief buried with his boat, ax, sword and spear on a remote Scottish peninsulaone of the most significant Norse finds ever uncovered in Britain.
The 16-foot-long grave is the first intact site of its kind to have been discovered on mainland Britain and is believed to be more than 1,000 years old.
Much of the wooden boat and the Viking’s bones have rotted away, but scraps of wood and hundreds of metal rivets that held the vessel together remain. The archaeologists also unearthed a shield boss — a circular piece of metal attached to the middle of a shield — and a bronze ring pin buried with the Viking. They also found a knife, a whetstone and Viking pottery on the site on the Ardnamurchan peninsula on Scotland’s west coast.
Vikings made frequent raids on Scotland and what is now northeast Eng land in the eighth and ninth centuries.
The Associated Press
