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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=386330318-23102003><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>From another
list: </FONT></SPAN><BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV><TT>Researchers zero in
on 'new' Viking ship<BR><A
href="http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=652358">http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=652358</A><BR><BR>Pulse
levels are rising among Norwegian researchers who think they may have<BR>found
the country's fourth intact Viking ship buried in a mound near<BR>Toensberg.
The site is just next to the spot where the famed Gokstad ship<BR>was found in
1880.<BR><BR>Researchers from the University of Oslo have been using radar to
examine the<BR>Viking burial site. Photos have revealed an oval shape lying
about a meter<BR>under the pile of stones atop the mound, called a gravroeysa
in Norwegian.<BR>Newspaper VG reported Tuesday that the pictures may denote
another Viking<BR>longship buried with its owners' possessions in the
traditional manner.<BR>Researchers also think the ship may be intact. Clay in
the area preserved<BR>the Gokstad ship for more than a thousand years, so it's
entirely possible<BR>that conditions have allowed the perservation of another
ship as well.<BR>The Gokstad Ship, now the crown jewel in Oslo's Viking Ships
Museum on the<BR>Bygdoey peninsula, was found just a kilometer-and-a-half
away. It measured<BR>22 meters long by five meters wide and belonged to a
powerful Viking queen<BR>who died in 834.<BR>Archaeologist Trude Aga Brun of
Vestfold County wants to examine the site as<BR>soon as possible. She said
officials will try to undertake a focused<BR>excavation this autumn. "If we're
lucky, we'll find some woodwork," she told<BR>VG.<BR>Many Viking ship graves
have been found in Norway over the years, but most<BR>of the vessels had
rotted away and graves also had been plundered in
earlier<BR>centuries.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></TT></BODY></HTML>