The antiquities, none of which are of Roman origin, seem to have been thrown in without any order, but spears with thin iron points on the end formed the boundary of the find.
In this as in the other bog finds, weapons are twisted together in extraordinary knots and many objects destroyed.
The Nydam Bog Find.—The remarkable bog find at Nydam[[164]] is extremely valuable on account of the boat, and the discovery of Roman coins enables us to approximate the date of the objects,[[165]] which is probably about the years 250 and 300 of our era.
The Nydam oak boat was discovered in 1863 near Slesvig, in Southern Jutland. Its length is about 75 feet; its widest part, about 10½ feet. It held 14 benches, and was rowed with 28 oars, the average length of which was 12 feet. By its side was the rudder, about 10 feet long.
The bottom plank, which is not a keel proper, is 45 feet 3 inches long, and of a single piece. The oar-tholes are fastened to the gunwales with bast ropes, and, though they have all one general shape, there are no two alike.
Fig. 422.
The boat is clinch-built; that is, the planks are held together by large iron bolts with round heads outside, and clinch plates on the inside, at a distance of 5½ inches from each other. The space between the planks is filled with woollen stuff and a pitchy sticky mass. The boards are joined in a very common manner to the frame with bast ropes. In the frame are holes, which correspond to elevated pieces on the boards which are also bored through; these pieces had not been nailed to the planks, but were hewn out of the latter, which thereby had lost more than half their thickness. Vessels by this peculiar manner of joining frame and boards acquired great elasticity, which must have been of good service in the surf and in a heavy sea.
Fig. 423.—Oar-thole of red pine. ⅒ real size.