To help safeguard some of Denmark’s most valuable cultural heritage treasures for future generations, the Viking Ship Museum has carried out an extensive digital documentation project of the Skuldelev Ships. The five Viking ships have been 3D scanned in preparation for their upcoming relocation to a new exhibition building. Here, they will be better protected against the climate change and natural forces that are increasingly challenging the museum’s current location by Roskilde Fjord.

Zebicon 3D scanned the ships, which vary significantly in size. The largest ship is 30 metres long, 3.8 metres wide, and has a draught of 1 metre. The smallest is 11.2 metres long, 2.5 metres wide, and has a draught of approximately 0.5 metres.

Due to the ships’ size and positioning, the project was carried out using several different scanning methods. First, the TRITOP photogrammetry system was used to establish a precise reference framework. The ships were then 3D scanned using the ATOS LRX, which is well suited for efficient data acquisition on large objects. In addition, the handheld 3D scanner ZEISS T-SCAN hawk 2 was used for areas that the larger systems could not access – including underneath the ships.

The scans will form the basis for the custom-designed support structures and transport crates that will be built for each individual ship, enabling the 1,000-year-old vessels to be moved safely to the new exhibition building.

“It is always interesting to work with history in this way, especially when it involves something of such significant preservation value. You have to take care of these objects and handle them with great caution,” explains Kasper Fedde Krogh, Zebicon A/S.

At the new museum, the ships will be protected from the forces of nature. At the same time, the scans provide the museum with a digital foundation that can also be used for future research.