Figurehead from 17th-century ship washes ashore near Norway

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- A wooden, lion-shaped figurehead from a 17th-century ship has washed up on a remote Arctic island off north Norway, a region once exploited for whaling by European nations.

"Thanks to the climate, the wood has been almost all preserved," the daily Aftenposten on Tuesday quoted Dag Naevestad, a marine archaeologist from Norway's shipping museum, as saying of the 4-meter (13-foot) figurehead.

It was found by a man clearing rubbish from a remote beach at Prince Karls Forland, part of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The name of the ship, of which no other trace was found, was unknown.

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