The Skeleton from the Gokstad Ship: New Evaluation of an Old Find

Abstract

Concern whether the skeletal remains from the Gokstad ship could be destroyed in the moist leaden coffin, re-buried in 1928 after the excavation in 1880, resulted in a re-opening of the mound in 2007. The anthropological examination produced evidence of a male person in his 40s, about 181 cm tall and of extreme physical constitution. Pathological changes in his left knee revealed an older injury with fracture of the medial tibial condyle and arthrosis of the joint. Several marks of peri-mortal blows from slashing weapons showed that the man had been killed, probably in battle. A flattening of the hypophyseal fossa (sella turcica) in the skull base made it possible that ‘the Gokstad chieftain’ may have suffered from a hypophyseal tumour, leading to acromegaly, a pathological condition in accordance with the extreme appearance of his skeleton.