Wooden hull fragments came up from beneath central Varberg, where railway work cut into ground that had once been shoreline, harbor floor, and roadstead. During archaeological investigations linked to the Varberg shipwrecks, researchers identified remains from six vessels in Halland, Sweden. Arkeologerna reported that four of the vessels date to the Middle Ages or late medieval period, one dates to the 1600s, and one could not be dated.
The remains were found during an archaeological investigation that began in 2019 in connection with the Varberg Tunnel, a major project by the Swedish Transport Administration in the central part of the city. The construction created a rare chance to examine the city’s original shoreline and harbor roadstead. The buried setting helps explain why multiple vessels from different periods were preserved in the same area.
The clearest published details so far concern Varberg wrecks 2, 5, and 6, which were investigated during the winter and spring of 2022. Arkeologerna said the work was carried out with marine archaeologists and archaeologists from Bohusläns Museum, Visuell arkeologi, and Kulturmiljö Halland. The findings give a close view of Sweden archaeology in a place where harbor activity, shipbuilding, and later infrastructure now overlap underground.
Six Vessels Surfaced From an Old Harbor Zone
The six wrecks were not preserved in the same condition, and the source describes them as vessel parts and remains rather than complete ships. Project leader Elisabet Schager said Wreck 2 was the best preserved of the three covered in the new report and the only one with a connected construction. Wreck 5 had little left and was recovered quickly, while Wreck 6 was found in a time-pressured area during work that also involved a larger investigation of medieval cogs.
That uneven preservation is part of what makes the medieval shipwrecks useful to archaeologists. Instead of one intact vessel, the site produced several different fragments from different periods. Those fragments include hull sections, scattered timbers, a preserved keel, and construction details that can show how the vessels were built and what kinds of waters they may have worked in.
Schager said preserved ship remains have become more common finds on Sweden’s west coast because large infrastructure projects often pass through areas that were water and harbor districts during the Middle Ages and early modern period. In Varberg, the tunnel opened one of those buried landscapes. The result was not just a single discovery, but a group of vessels tied to the city’s older waterfront.
Wreck 2 Preserved a 1530s Oak Sailing Ship
Wreck 2 was the remains of an oak sailing vessel built in the second half of the 1530s. The first bottom timbers were found in 2021 during night excavation, when a contractor was installing sheet piling toward the existing railway. Arkeologerna said no archaeologist was present at the time, and the contractor could not wait, so the parts were pulled up and placed aside for archaeologists to examine the following day.
The examined remains of Wreck 2 included two hull sections from the ship’s starboard side and several scattered timbers. Arkeologerna said the rest of the vessel most likely remains on the other side of the sheet pile. The ship was a clinker-built ship, meaning its planks overlapped rather than meeting edge to edge, a construction detail that helps place the wreck within a known northern European boatbuilding tradition.
One hull section carried a berghult fixed to the outside of the planking. Arkeologerna described this as a reinforcing rubbing strake that could protect the hull when the vessel came alongside a quay and could also help support upper structures. A cutout on the upper side probably served that supporting function, and the archaeologists said the vessel was likely fully or partly decked.
Shipbuilding Clues Show Different Construction Methods
The berghult on Wreck 2 also carried traces of fire, though the source does not say exactly how the burning happened. That detail should not be treated as proof of a specific event, but it does add another physical clue to the ship’s final condition before burial. The same source said the timbers from Wrecks 2 and 5 came from Halland or western Swedish oak stands, and that the vessels sailed in waters outside the medieval towns of Varberg and New Varberg.
Wreck 5 was also clinker-built, but it belonged to a later period. Arkeologerna said the time when its timber was felled can be placed sometime in the 1600s. Much less of the vessel remained, so it was recovered quickly. Even in that limited state, it helps extend the Varberg waterfront record from late medieval ship remains into the early modern period.
Wreck 6 showed a different building method. It was a carvel-built sailing vessel in oak, with planks laid edge to edge against the frame instead of overlapping. It was also the only one of the three vessels with its keel preserved. Arkeologerna described the keel as a rabbeted keel, with a groove designed to receive the first strake of planking.
Dutch Influence Appeared in One Preserved Keel
The remains of Wreck 6 showed some traces of Dutch shipbuilding tradition, according to Arkeologerna. At the same time, dendrochronological analysis could not determine where the timber came from or when the trees were felled. The source therefore supports a careful conclusion: the vessel shows construction features linked to Dutch tradition, but its wood supply and felling date remain unresolved.
Arkeologerna noted that berghults are most often associated with carvel-built vessels, although they also appear on clinker-built ships. The team compared Wreck 2’s berghult with examples from the Osmund wreck in the Stockholm archipelago and the Riddarholm ship in Stockholm. The Osmund wreck was clinker-built in pine and made in the 1540s, while the Riddarholm ship was clinker-built in oak from trees felled between 1516 and 1524.
The Varberg investigation is still continuing beyond these three vessels. Schager said the team is moving ahead with analyses of Varberg wrecks 3 and 4, described as 14th-century cogs, so report work can begin in earnest. For now, the published account states that vessel parts from a total of six ships were found during the excavation.