The exhibition highlights how ships were not only practical means of transport, but also powerful symbols of wealth and status in the Viking Age. Ships could accompany powerful women and men to the grave or be sacrificed to higher powers. The exhibition is created in collaboration with the University Museum of Bergen.
The seafaring Viking ships enabled contact with other lands —whether through chieftains leading raids, merchants trading goods, or people settling in new territories across the sea. The exhibition includes fragments of the Kvalsund ship, an archaeological find from the late 8th century, contemporaneous with the earliest known Viking raids.
