Oseberg (Viking) Wagon Construction
By Mark Cook
Note: Measurements are approximate and based on the original excavation drawings.
IMAGE to go along with article
1. The trestles are .5 meters tall,1.2 meters wide, .06 meters thick, and support the wagon body. The upper ends are carved human heads. The front heads are stylized while the rear heads are more naturalistic. The broad forward and rear facing sides of these are carved in a simplistic line drawing of bearded faces, while the inner facing sides have simple line carvings.
2. These "M" shaped pieces support the trestles(#!) and have what appear to be handles(#10) carved on the ends, perhaps to assist the wagon through the mud. They are .1 meters tall and .8 meters wide.
1. The wheels are of beech wood and are segmented into six sections, each having two spokes driven in from the outside and into the central hub (#4). Two spokes help to pin the wheel segments into place. The segments are pegged together internally with wooden pegs. The wheels are just over a meter in diameter (.25 meters wide radially) and about 6 cm. wide. They are set 1 meter apart.
- The wheel hubs are carved from a single piece of wood . They are .25 meters in diameter and .35 meters wide.
- Small disks cap the ends of the hubs and act as a washer, preventing the hubs from wearing off the axle pins.
- The axle is carved from a single piece of wood and are square in the center, and rounded on the ends. The axles are attached to pieces #1,2, 7 and 8 by long wooden pins which have a small head on top and are pinned at the bottom to prevent them from riding up. They are 1.65 meters apart from each other.
- The main frame is a "Y" shaped piece of wood cut to be tall and somewhat thin. This may have been to make the frame more flexible to prevent cracking it on rougher terrain. The fork of the "Y" is pinned to prevent it from splitting up the middle. The back ends are carved into handles (#10) similar to the ones on parts #2, and the front extends .8 meters forward of the front axle.
- These ornate pieces attach the rods (#9) to the axle and allow them to rotate vertically around the pins (which are similar to the ones described in #6 only horizontal). These also seem to have "handles" on the rear facing sides but are much smaller than the ones on the frame.
- These rods are connected on the forward end by a chain. The forks are ornately carved with knotwork and human faces. They are 2 meters long.
- The "handles". (These are really the tie down points for tying down a tarp cover.)
The body of the wagon is 2 meters long, .4 meters tall and 1.2 meters wide at the top. It is constructed of 9 overlapping riveted panels which are mortised and nailed into the end pieces. The top two panels on either side are carved as are the end pieces. The top panels are reinforces by L shaped pieces of iron which are nailed the body
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