Boats Apart. Building and Equipping an Iron-Age and Early-Medieval Ship in Northern Europe.

Archaeological ship remains usually induce a functional, i.e. technological and social, interest. This text introduces what is not 'another' aspect in fact, but rather something that runs parallel or is contained within both. Maritime societies and individuals develop cosmologies and rituals, not only strategies for sustenance, which to them are supposed to be as necessary for survival. It is an additional challenge to archaeology to explore and interpret these cognitive elements and their role in maritime cultures of the past, illustrated here by the wood, the building place, the equipment, the ship as a unit, illustrating power, ancestors, and pars-pro-toto .
© 2007 The Author