Medieval Cargo Ship Shockingly Discovered Beneath The Estonian Capital
For centuries, residents of Tallinn, Estonia, unknowingly walked across an important piece of European history. As archaeologists discovered this year, a massive medieval cargo ship was buried about five feet beneath the Estonian capital. They believe the 700-year-old ship may have belonged to a medieval trading network called the Hanseatic League.
Like some other archaeology news stories from 2022, the medieval ship was found by accident. Archaeologists were monitoring a construction project at Tallinn’s Old Harbor when the workers found the vessel.
Priit LättiArchaeologists work to excavate the hulking medieval ship.
Built with oak logs and planks — and held together with animal hair and tar — the ship stretches 78 feet long and is 29 feet wide. A study of its timber suggests that it was built from trees felled in the early 14th century.
But perhaps the most tantalizing thing about the ship is that it could have belonged to the Hanseatic League, a trading alliance that reached its peak between the 13th and 15th centuries. Nations like Russia and England traded goods like furs, flax, timber, wax, weapons, and metal goods.
Historians have only found one other Hanseatic League vessel (in Bremen, Germany, in 1962), but the ship found in Tallinn is in much better condition.
