Editing Gokstad ship (section)

==Discovery==
The site where the boat was discovered, situated on arable land, had long been named ''[[Gokstadhaugen]]'' or ''Kongshaugen'' (from the Old Norse words ''konungr'' meaning king and ''[[wikt:haugr|haugr]]'' meaning [[mound]]), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. In 1880, sons of the owner of Gokstad farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the [[Bow (ship)|bow]] of a boat while digging in the still frozen ground.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=St. Clair |first=Kassia |title=The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History |publisher=John Murray |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4736-5903-2 |location=London |pages=97 |oclc=1057250632}}</ref> As word of the find got out, [[Nicolay Nicolaysen]], then President of the [[Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments]], reached the site during February 1880. Having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artifact, he liaised for the digging to be stopped. Nicolaysen later returned and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing.<ref name=":0" /> With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging found the bow of the ship.<ref>N. Nicolaysen (1882) ''Langskibet fra Gokstad ved Sandefjord beskrevet''  ( Christiania: A. Cammermeyer)</ref>