The timbers had many interesting features. The construction is of a type known as clinker construction using overlapping boards held in position by iron rivets, sometimes known as clench bolts or roves. The laps were made waterproof by caulking, which involved filling the gaps with tarred animal hair, in this case goat hair, cattle hair and wool. Wooden pegs known as trenails then held the framing timbers to the planks. These were found closely spaced which indicated a strong construction, typical of a sturdy trading craft. The old vessel had been much repaired in her lifetime with several patches or tingles fastened by iron nails to the planks.
Wooden trenails (left) and iron clench bolts or roves (right)
Below: diagram showing clinker construction
From studying the timbers as a group their proportions could be calculated. Comparison with other ship finds suggests that they may have come from a small trading vessel perhaps 10–12 metres long.
The timbers and patches were oak, and included both fast-growing oak, which might have had an English origin, and the slow-growing types which were known to be imported from the east Baltic at that time. Tree ring dating, or dendrochronology, was carried out on six of the timbers and produced felling dates between 1276 and 1376. This suggests that the vessel was built in the late 14th century, consistent with other dating evidence from the site.
These timbers are on display in an exhibition called Viking Voyagers at JORVIK which explores the importance of ships during the Viking Age. Ships symbolised this great period of raiding, trading, exploration and settlement. The worn out timbers of this medieval trading vessel are a continuation of the same building tradition and owe much to the tremendous advances in ship building which took place during the Viking period. They might have finished their days as a humble river frontage but who knows what trade routes they had ploughed and which ports they had visited during their time afloat!
Timber nos. 69-75,
1981-2.22.
For more information see The Archaeology
of York 17/13, Wood and Wood-Working in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval
York by Carole A. Morris, with reports on the timbers by D.M. Goodburn
and on the caulking by P.W. Rogers; 10/6, Buildings and Land Use at
and around 16–22 Coppergate by R.A. Hall and K. Hunter-Mann.
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