These animal heads decorated the top of a #VikingAge tent found in the #Gokstad Ship burial, ca. AD 900. C10409 @Kulturhistorisk

The Gokstad tent boards where displayed like this on the wall at the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo, Norway until recently. Four such boards are preserved. They are made from oak, each about 350 cm in length.

An older picture from the early 20th century show the two boards in a more rough state. The intact hook/heel at the end of one of the planks has since been damaged. A second round of quite invasive restorations where performed on the tent parts at some time prior to 1934.

We do not have the other parts of the Gokstad tent, but we can compare it with the two similare but even larger tents found in the #Oseberg Ship burial (ca. AD 834). A probable estimation of the footprint of the Gokstad tent can be made from the comparison.

The Oseberg tents are made from ash. They where more complete, but more fragmented than the Gokstad tent. The animal headed boards of the largest tent from Oseberg (C55000/219) where ca. 480 cm long. This is an old model of that tent, one of the animal heads & fragments of poles.

The edges of the tent boards have a decorative profile made with a special tool, a 'båtastrek' (norwegian). This tool was also used to decorate the planks of the Viking Ships. Here is an example of such a tool found in a Viking Age grave at Arna in Hordaland. B5800 @UiB_museet

Auripigment (containing arsenic) was used as the yellow pigment, soot for the black. The pigment analysis is based on better preserved remains of paint on the handle of the steering oar from the Gokstad skip. Linseed oil could have been used as a binding medium for the paint.

The tent canvas could in theory have been made from linen, but would probably have been from densely woven wool, something similar to the woolen sails of the Viking Ships.

Possible lump of tent fabric (or sail) from the Oseberg grave.
http://www.unimus.no/foto/#/search?q=CfO1455_15_C55000_023