• Ancient fingerprint found on 2,400-year-old Danish war boat A 2,400-year-old war boat reveals its Baltic origins â and preserves the fingerprint of an ancient sailor. • A fresh scientific investigation of the Hjortspring boat, an ancient wooden plank vessel displayed at the National Museum of Denmark, is shedding new light on where it may have come from. • The boat’s origins have puzzled historians for more than a century. • The new findings were published in the open-access journalPLOS Oneby Mikael Fauvelle of Lund University in Sweden and his colleagues. • The Hjortspring boat was discovered on the Danish island of Als and first excavated in the early 1900s. • Archaeologists believe it was used by a band of warriors who launched an attack on the island but were ultimately defeated.
Article Summaries:
- Ancient fingerprint found on 2,400-year-old Danish war boat A 2,400-year-old war boat reveals its Baltic origins â and preserves the fingerprint of an ancient sailor. - Date: - February 16, 2026 - Source: - PLOS - Summary: - More than a century after its discovery, Scandinaviaâs oldest plank boat is finally giving up new secrets. By analyzing ancient caulking and cords from the Hjortspring boat, researchers uncovered traces of pine pitch and animal fat â materials that likely came from pine-rich regions east of Denmark along the Baltic Sea. This suggests the vessel, used by a band of Iron Age
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