The king’s spice cabinet–Plant remains from Gribshunden, a 15th century royal shipwreck in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

Maritime archaeological investigations of the wreck of the medieval warship Gribshunden (1495), flagship of King Hans of Denmark and Norway, have revealed diverse artifacts including exotic spices imported from far distant origins: saffron, ginger, clove, peppercorns, and almond. The special circumstances of the vessel’s last voyage add unique context to the assemblage. Gribshunden and an accompanying squadron conveyed the king, courtiers, noblemen, and soldiers from Copenhagen to a political summit in Kalmar, Sweden. At that conference, Hans expected the Swedish Council to elect him king of Sweden, and thereby fulfill his ambition to reunify the Nordic region under a single crown. To achieve this, Hans assembled in his fleet and particularly aboard his flagship the people and elite cultural signifiers that would convince the Swedish delegation to accept his rule. Along the way, the ships anchored near Ronneby, Blekinge. Written sources record that an explosion and fire caused Gribshunden to sink off Stora Ekön (Great Oak Island). Exotic spices were status markers among the aristocracy in Scandinavia and around the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages (1050–1550 CE). Until the Gribshunden finds, these extravagances have rarely or never been represented archaeologically. Evidence of their use and consumption in medieval Scandinavia has been limited to sparse written references. We present here the botanical remains from the Gribshunden shipwreck and compare them to previous archaeobotanical finds from the medieval Baltic region. These opulent status symbols traveled with a medieval king en route to a major historical event. The combination of textual and archaeological evidence allows a novel analytical view of the social environment in which these luxurious foods were consumed.

Identification of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) and South American crops introduced during early settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), as revealed through starch analysis

“…Recently, ginger starch grains have been identified on grinding stones from Vietnam [ 117 ]. Ginger was one of the first Oriental spices to reach the Greeks and Romans about 2000 years ago, was known in France and Germany since the ninth century, England since the tenth century [ 115 , 116 ] and reached Scandinavia only in the 15 th century [ 120 ]. However, information about its eastward spread is scant.…”

Managing Data from Maritime Archaeology Investigations: AIR at Gribshunden

“…The special Acta Archaeologica 94.1 (2023) 146-166 environmental conditions of the Baltic Sea have preserved a variety of artefacts that seldom or never persist in any other archaeological setting. Archaeologists have recovered from Gribshunden a range of ephemeral materials: exotic imported spices such as clove and saffron (Larsson & Foley 2023), artwork embossed on delicate birch bark panels and personal possessions fashioned from wood. Excavations on this shipwreck reveal the elite milieu of medieval Europe's uppermost class (Macheridis et al 2020;Ingvardson et al 2021;Hansson et al 2021;Hansson et al 2022).…”

Delivering the Deep: Maritime archaeology for the 21st century: selected papers from IKUWA 7

“…Another archaeological example of prestigious foodstuffs on Gribshunden comes from the spices and confections recovered in 2021: saffron, ginger, clove, pepper, almonds and other exotic and expensive delicacies. Hans' accounting records from 1487 show that he spent large amounts of money on these food categories, including 36 marks for saffron (Wegener 1864;Larsson and Foley 2023). Spices like these were available around the Baltic in some quantities from at least the middle of the fourteenth century, but they were not widely consumed (Sillasoo et al 2007).…”