Oseberg 149 Chest

It consisted of an astonishingly well-preserved Viking ship that contained the remains of two women along with a wide array of accompanying grave goods.

This vessel, which is widely celebrated as one of the finest finds of the Viking Age, had been buried within a large mound or haugr.

The burial mound measured approximately 40m long by 6.5m high and it completely covered the boat.

The conditions within the mound were particularly damp and this meant that the ship and its contents survived nearly intact.

The Ship under excavation

Professor Gabriel Gustafson and the crew. Photo: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/ Olaf Væring.

Excavation of the Oseberg ship in 1904. Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/ Olaf Væring.

You can read more about the Excavation at The Story Begins

Centrally placed on the ship were the skeletons of two women whose remains had been placed in a specially built wooden tent.

One of the woman was in her eighties and this was reflected in the condition of her bones which showed that she had suffered badly from arthritis during her final years. The second woman was younger and had died in her early fifties .

The connection between the two women is unclear; it is possible that they were related or more sinisterly represent the remains of a noble woman interred with her sacrificed slave.

Indeed, some have speculated that one of the women may be Queen Åsa, the grandmother of Norway’s first king, although this remains unproven.

For a List of what was contained with in the Ship Grave By the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/ Olaf Væring.

Museum photos of the Oseberg 149 Chest

Photos from the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo and Chest Plan from Osebergfunnet Vol II by the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

the Museums Photos don't show the details of the hinges of the Oseberg 149 chest but they were the same as the Oseberg 178 Chest Hinges

Details about the Oseberg chests from Osebergfunnet Vol I ???

Details on the Original 149 Chest

from Catalogue of extant chests and caskets by Sven Skildbiter ( Stephen Wyley)

Oseberg (Norway) Chest No. 149.

Photos of the Original 149 Chest taken by Sharon Turvey - July 2013

Our Friend & fellow Hodegon NVG club member Asea the well Traveled ( Sharon Turvey )

went to Norway on holiday in July 2013 and kindly took some awesome photos of the chest for us,

so we could get an idea of what the ends and other part of the Original chest where like

These Photo filled in a lot of the gaps of knowledge we had on the chest

- so we are very grateful to Asea ( Sharon ) for taking the photos for us

Our Reconstruction of the Chest details -

Project started on Aug & Sept 2013

Project finished on - not yet - its still in construction

Special Thank you to

Sven the Merchant / Sven Skildbiter ( Stephen Wyley) , Mike Smith, Stosh Thegan ( Joshua Woods )

& Asea the well Traveled ( Sharon Turvey ) and Budd Weston for their help in the research & construction on this project

So What is the Difference between the 156 Chest and the 149 Chest ?

To find out what the difference were between the two chest - we drew up two full size spec drawings of the chests

And what we found the differences are :-

Oseberg 156 Chest

Slope Angle on the Front is 12 degrees >

Slope Angle on the Ends is 3 degrees

Front & Back Length at the top of the chest is 104 cm

Front & Back Length at the base of the chest is 106 cm

Ends width at the top of the chest is 28 cm

Ends width at the base of the chest is 36.5 cm

Height of the Chest is 41 cm

Lid 106 cm long x 28 cm wide

4 Hinges

Lock & hasps - missing

note: The Front & Lid are missing on the original so the measurement on them have been calculated by us from the existing pieces.

Oseberg 149 Chest

Slope Angle on the Front is 5 degrees >

Slope Angle on the Front is 6 degrees

Front & Back Length at the top of the chest is 106 cm

Front & Back Length at the base of the chest is 113 cm

Ends width at the top of the chest is 29 cm

Ends width at the base of the chest is 32 cm

Height of the Chest is 38 cm

Lid 108 cm x 29 cm

9 Hinges

Lock with 3 hasps

Construction Materials Used:

wood - pine from local hardware shop

34 Forged nails - from Talerwin Forge

Lock & Lock hasps - help with the construction of them from Stosh Thegan ( Joshua Woods )

Mild steel strips for the banding where purchased from Innovative Metal Fabrication in Bayswater , Victoria

width 65 mm x 0.5 mm thick

Ends - 3 metal bands

Back - 7 metal bands

Front - 7 metal bands

Lid - 9 metal bands

870 Upholstery tacks from a ebay seller

Stud Total - 870

Ends - 152 studs

Back - 222 studs

Front - 172 studs

Lid - 324 studs

7 hinges made of 4 mm flattened wire

Lock with 2 hasps made of 3 mm squared wire

( the original had 3 hasps but since we have never made a lock & these types of hasps before we have decided to only do 2 hasps )

Chest dimensions -

Because we don't need two large chest we have decided to to make this one not as long as the original

Length Front & Back - at top 80 cm

Length at base 89 cm long

Height 39 cm

Width of the Ends at top edge 25.5 cm

Width of the Ends at base edge 29 cm

and because we have shortened it we will only use 7 hinges instead of 9

Our Plans for building this chest can be purchased from Sven The Merchant

Construction photos - The Great work starts ...... or ........ how Gary & Jenny went tacky ..... again !

We estimated that 1000 Upholstery tacks might be needed for the project - these were obtained from an ebay seller

the projected ended up using a total of 870 Upholstery tacks

- Front has 172 tacks,

- Back has 222 tacks,

- Right end has 152 tacks

- Left end has 152 tacks

- Lid has 324 tacks

Oseberg 149 chest before decoration

Hinges

The knocked up - crash test dummy version to see if it would work - what the inside view would be

7 set of hinges sitting on the lid

The original chest had 9 but because we are doing a chest that is not as long as the original we are only putting on 7 hinges on this one

Doing the Hinges

chiseling the lid where the hinge will sit

Filing the lid where the hinge will sit

Marking out the base where the it needs to be chiselled out for the hinge

The base & lid where the hinges sit

The base where the hinges sit - metal bands will sit over the top of these so all that will be seen is the loop

Cutting off the excess

You then have to take base part of the hinges out and do the lid hinge part

Then put the base ones back on

Hinging the lid

Hinging the lid - with the base part hanging down

Hinging the lid to the base - with the lid part hanging down

The Oseberg 149 chest hinges - theses are a right ( please insert creative swearing here ) to do

It hasn't been very successful - from the out side they look good

but on inside they wont clench over tight enough on the base part and we have tried everything we can think of and the more we hit them the worse they seem to loosen up

Hinged at last -

Warning this is a right bitch to do these hinges !

If we were to ever try doing them again we would hinge the lid to the back

and then put the back on to the chest

- to make it easier the get in and clench the hinges over

You Live and learn !

Studs & Banding

Mild steel strips for the banding was purchased from Innovative Metal Fabrication in Bayswater Vic.

We had them cut it into 65 mm x 0.5cm thick strips for us

Mild steel strips for the banding are width 65mm x 0.5mm thick

Ends - 3 metal bands

Back - 7 metal bands

Frount - 7 metal bands

Lid - 9 metal bands

a test photo of one of the studs we used on the other chest on the mild steel - to gauge what it would look like

We not sure yet if we are going to use these or try and find some thing else that is flatter to use

- we ended up getting some flatter studs to use.

Day 1 of the Stud work - We have started to do the studding & band work on the chest

Preparing the mild steel banding that is to go on the chest

Day 2 of the Stud work - banding on one end done

Day 3 of the Studding and Banding

Day 4 of the Studding and banding work

Yayyyyy all Done ! There are 870 studs Now we just have to make the lock and harps for it

Back of the Chest - has 222 studs

Frount of the Chest - has 172 studs note: the plain metal strip is just showing where the lock plate will sit when its done

Ends of the Chest - 152 studs

Lid of the Chest - 324 studs

Making of the Lock

Our Friend & fellow Hodegon NVG club member Stosh Thegan ( Joshua Woods ) was the locksmith who has help us by making the 149 chest lock for us and also helped us with the construction of the hasps closure for the lock.

We are really grateful to Stosh for helping us with part of the chest construction