The wreck and its surroundings

The wrecking location of the medieval ship

The medieval shipwreck site in Nauvo is close to a group of islands called Storskär in the Archipelago National Park. Because of nature protection, one cannot explore the area without permission from the Archipelago National Park. The islands are important nesting places for sea birds. The Storskär islands belong to the outer archipelago zone of Finland, the so-called sea zone, where single treeless islands or clusters of a few islets are separated by large expanses of open water. Since the area is very rocky and difficult to navigate even today, it is not surprising that dozens of wrecks of different ages have been found there in the course of time.

A topographic model was made of the shipwreck site and its surroundings. The model is based on facts about shore displacement and it shows how the environment has changed from the time of the wrecking to our days. Changes in the landscape seem to be surprisingly small in the past seven hundred years. Based on the reconstructions, the largest islands around the wreck site were to a certain extent above sea level already at the time of the wrecking. The ship was likely looking for shelter between these islands that rise sharply from the sea.

The remains of the medieval ship

Structural parts of the ship and remains of the cargo lie app. 20-30 metres apart from each other on a slope in the depth of 5-12 metres. Structural parts are in an underwater canyon-like ravine surrounded by rock walls. It is likely that only a part of them can now be seen on the sea bottom. We will have more information about the shape of the ship when the site is excavated. The documenting and interpreting of the wreck parts is one of the most significant tasks of the next field research period.

Based on the information we now have, the cargo consisted of a number of ceramics dishes, preforms of stone grinders, bronze pots and a bronze church bell. The dishes seem to show no traces of use and the number of them is so great that they probably were merchandise. The league that dominated commercial activity in the Baltic area in the Middle Ages was the German Hanseatic League (Hansa). The ceramics found in the wreck are of German origin.

The ceramics are dated to the 1310’s -1330’s. They were likely manufactured in Bengerode in the Lower Saxony where they practised early mass production of ceramics. Stoneware ceramics were in common use in Central Europe and also in the coastal towns of Scandinavia. Until now, we had only a few finds of this kind here in Finland; only a small number of unbroken or virtually unbroken stoneware dishes from the Middle Ages have been found here. These dishes were found in Kökar, Saltvik, in the town area of Turku and in the Turku Castle, and near a 13th century wreck found in Lapuri, Virolahti.

The ceramics consist of different jugs, mugs and goblets. The dishes were meant for serving wine and beer. They are of exceptionally high quality, and it is likely they were aimed for the tables of higher social groups such as the free peasantry, the clergy and the burghers. Some 30 dishes or pieces of them have been found at the site so far. The dishes are stoneware, hardened at a high temperature and surprisingly well preserved. Some of the dishes, which have been in the bottom of the sea for 700 years, are complete. Dishes found on dry land are usually broken. The well-preserved dishes in Nauvo show more detailed for example traces of the artist's hand, and they help us to learn what kind of articles got to the market in those days.

The cargo of the medieval ship consisted also of a bronze church bell that represents the Romanic style. Throughout the Middle Ages, church bells were imported to Finland for example from Tallinn and Lübeck. In the late Middle Ages they made church bells also in Finland. As far as is known there are sixteen medieval church bells left in Finland. The oldest of these bells is dated to the early 13th century and it is in the church of Eckerö in Åland. The church bell found in the medieval wreck site in Nauvo is one of the oldest bells in this country.

Also a bronze pot and some curved bronze pieces that are partly covered by sediment have been found at the wreck site. The curved pieces may be pieces of pots. One pot had got entangled in the wooden parts of the wreck, which in fact helped us to date the wooden wreck parts that were a bit father away from the other items. The pot is casted in bronze and it is tall and has a tapering mouth, two ears and three slender legs. One of the legs terminates in a paw foot, which is typical for early pots.

Pots were casted in bronze in Germany already at the end of the 12th century whereas in Finland the first known master founder is from the year 1425. Bronze pots or pieces of them are rare finds on dry land since the material of broken pots was usually melted and reused. In other words, the pot find in Nauvo has a lot to offer for the research of medieval artefacts.

Among the cargo, which is spread on the seabed, there are also long and slim “stone sticks” that are likely preforms of grinding stones. Alternatively the sticks may have been used as ballast. Similar stones were found in the wreck of Darsser Cog in the German coast. The whetstones in the Darsser Cog are of Norwegian origin. These stones were significant international merchandise on the southern Baltic already in the 12th and 13th century. Even though the stones were commercially important, their value vas so low that they are rarely mentioned in written sources.