16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

48 16 th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology Niklas Eriksson Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden The late medieval Bellevue Ship – new findings concerning the oldest wreck in Dalarö harbour, Stockholm Archipelago The Dalarö area is famous for its many shipwrecks. One of the lesser known is the Bellevue Ship that was discovered already in the 1960s and which is named after a nearby hotel. Between 1985 and 1993 the large clinker-built ship was surveyed by a group of diving amateur archaeologists. Despite serious efforts from the group, the age, type, and origin of the ship to a large extent has remained unknown. During the past few years some additional fieldwork and research has been carried out at the site. This has included wood sampling for dendrochronological analysis, creation of a new site plan and re-evaluation of previous work. Alto- gether this has provided new insights regarding the ships architecture, its overall dimensions and its age. This presentation will summarize this research and emphasize how icono- graphical sources can enrich our knowledge and form the departure for analysis and interpretation of ship remains. I will argue that the Bellevue Ship was built around the turn of the 15 th century and represents one of the largest clinker-built vessels of its day, and that it was originally equipped with a forecastle. Another important result of the survey is that it sheds some new light on the activities in the Dalarö area before the 17 th century, which is sparsely revealed from written sources.