Oseberg Documents may get on UNESCO list

Oseberg Documents can get on UNESCO listFrom the excavation of the Oseberg ship on the farm Oseberg in Slagen, Sem, Vestfold in Norway in 1904. The Oseberg ship is a Viking ship - a ship of oak.Photo: NTB/SCANPIX

The Norwegian UNESCO Commission has ruled that the drawings, photographs and diaries from the excavation of the Oseberg ship is one of two Norwegian candidates to get on the list of World Heritage documents.
– It’s absolutely amazing, says head of the archive  Anne-Britt Halvorsen and senior consultant Hilde Frydenberg Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo to Uniforum.
The two of them have since last autumn hunted up all the available documentation about the excavation of the Oseberg ship.

Found piece of wood
The Swedish-Norwegian archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson began excavations in 1904, after a piece of wood with decor from the Viking Age was found on the farm Lille Oseberg in Slagen in Tønsberg.
Gustafson had brought the painters Henrik Lund and Ola Geelmuyden along, and the two made drawings of many of the findings during the excavations. Along with the diaries of Gustafson’s , the drawings may now be a part of  the UNESCO World Heritage documents.
– Vikings left traces in Europe, Asia and America. And the drawings, photographs and diaries taken  together show the beginning of the modern Norwegian archeology. Meanwhile the Oseberg discovery is the world’s most famous discovery from the Viking Age, said the two archivists who have been working on the application.

Claim
The final decision will not be made by UNESCO before the summer of 2017. The Castbergian children laws of 1915 is Norway’s second candidate.Among other things, these laws gave children born out of wedlock the right to inheritance from the father.
There are several citeria that has to be met for an area or object to be included on the lists, and at least one out of ten must be met. Among other things, authenticity and local support is required.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today