By a stroke of luck, a team of archaeologists happened upon a Viking ship buried less than two feet underground in Edøy, Norway.

The team was on-site for a different expedition, which they had wrapped up, when they decided to survey another area and found the burial mound containing the ship.

The archaeologists hope to continue researching their incredible find with additional GPR imaging and possibly digging a trench to test some wood samples.

Imagine sitting on a pile of hidden treasure without even knowing it? That’s exactly what happened to a farmer in the town of Edøy when archaeologists with the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) happened upon a hidden ship buried on a farm in Edøy, Norway. The ship is estimated to be from either the Merovingian or Viking periods , indicating that it's at least 1,000 years old.

Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), the scientists spotted the outline of the ship. They were able to identify the ship thanks, in part, to a mound encircling the vessel which was typical for ritualistic burial rites during the time. A similar technique was used in 2018 to discover the GJellestad Ship near the Jell Mound in Østfold County, Norway. This ship was hidden under an amazingly minuscule 1.6 feet of topsoil.

The Viking ship discovered underground in Edøy. Manuel Gabler / NIKU

“In addition to having potentially symbolic meaning, it is thought that [ditches] have the very practical function of making the mounds seem bigger than they really were,” NIKU archaeologist, Dag-Øyvind Solem, told Ars Technica .

Discovering the ship happened by chance as the researchers originally hadn’t planned on surveying this particular area. After wrapping up their research within the original designated area, Manuel Gabler and Solem, two of the team members responsible for conducting the surveys, decided to check out another area nearby.

“We had time to spare and decided to do a quick survey in another field,” Gabler shared in a statement . “It turned out to be a good decision,” he added.

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Sadly, over the course of time, the ship has deteriorated and farm plows have caused damage to both ends of the vessel which is estimated to be around 52 to 55 feet in length.

The team hopes to continue researching its find with additional GPR imaging before digging a trench to test some wood samples, though nothing is certain at this point in time. What happens with the remains of the ship is up to Norway's Directorate of Cultural Heritage.

Gabler and Solem also want to further explore more of Edøy and the surrounding area to find out if there's any more hidden treasure like the one they've recently found.

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