much of the ship's planks survived the excavation itself. Grave Goods Number of grave goods were found in the burial site, including weapons, riding gear, utensils, textiles, tools, and even board games. Special attention has been paid to the ship's anchor, as it is remarkably well-preserved. Mikkelsen discovered the Ladby ship anchor with its chain and rope, and in his journal he recounts the excitement of finding the anchor, noting that many observers watched the discovery with great interest. The Ladby anchor is an example of a stocked anchor, an anchor with a heavy wood stock that is placed at right angles to the flukes, allowing the anchor flukes to grip the sea floor securely. The anchor's chain served two important functions: it increased the weight of the entire anchor apparatus, and it served as a “spring” to reduce the pull of the ship from wind and waves. The other end of the anchor chain was tied to the ship by rope the anchor there is an anchor-rope which is tied to the ship. The Ladby anchor is thought to be larger than the Oseberg ship's anchor, located in Norway. The anchor was located on the port side, right forward in the prow, with the shank in a roughly horizontal position pointing backwards towards the stern. The anchor was in good condition, while the chain was in bad shape, resting in roughly two piles at the bottom of the ship, beneath the shank and chain. Carl V. Solver visited the Ladby ship in 1940 and measured the anchor and chain and removed links from the chain to be analyzed at the State testing laboratory. Solver estimated that the chain contained roughly 60 links and was a total length of roughly 10–12 meters in length. In a later publication, Solver estimated the number of links in the chain to be about 50, with a total length of about 10 meters . When the anchor-chain was cleaned in 1994, it was discovered that Solver's measurement of the first link was incorrect. Solver stated that the length of this link was 10 centimeters, while the 1994 survey conducted by archaeologists has shown that it is only about 15 centimeters long. Corrosion has altered the appearance of the links: the iron has cracked from contact with the soil and flakes off in large pieces on contact. Cleaning the chain revealed that the individual links—which