Maritime Power in Northern Norway during the Viking Age and Medieval Period: Evidence from Monumental Boathouses Tracing the Rise and fall of the Bjarkøy Clan

Abstract The excavation of multiple monumental boathouses at Nergården on Bjarkøy Island in northern Norway was undertaken from 2019 to 2022 by the authors and supplemented with Ground Penetrating Radar survey data. Results provide detailed insights into the construction and use of three boathouses dating from the Viking Age to the High Medieval Period. Excavations initially focused on a long and narrow 29 × 6 m (m) Viking Age boathouse modified and expanded to a significantly larger three-aisled structure in the first half of the eleventh century. Further excavation revealed an open-air workshop for boat maintenance adjacent to the expanded boathouse in the eleventh and twelfth century. This was followed by the construction of a monumental medieval boathouse that covered the workshop area and was in use from the second half of the twelfth century until the end of the fourteenth century. This three-aisled boathouse had an interior length well over 22 m and width of 9 m between the inner roof-bearing walls. Detailed 3D models combined archaeological data with traditional handwork knowledge to reconstruct each of the boathouses. The collective results reveal the role of the Nergården boathouses as material signifiers for maritime power exercised by the Bjarkøy clan as recorded in the saga literature and other written sources. The Bjarkøy boathouse investigations provide a case study for an overarching research project incorporating recent data from two other locations with exceptionally large boathouses, Sand on Tjeldøya and Holsneset in Lofoten, both in Norway. These sites have close parallels to the Bjarkøy structures reflecting the importance of Viking Age and medieval maritime communication and power in the north.