A Norseman could also be buried with a loved one or house thrall, or cremated together on a funeral pyre. Both men and women received grave goods, even if the corpse was to be burnt on a pyre. It was common to leave gifts with the deceased. The finds are on display in the Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. There is an 82 centimetres (32 in) wand of iron with bronze details and a unique model of a house on the top. Grave goods from a völva's grave in Köpingsvik, Öland, Sweden. Additional practices included sacrifice or cremation, but the most common was to bury the departed with goods that denoted their social status. Afterwards, piles of stone and soil were usually laid on top of the remains in order to create a tumulus. Some of the most notable of them are at the Borre mound cemetery, in Norway, at Birka in Sweden, and Lindholm Høje and Jelling in Denmark.Ī prominent tradition is that of the ship burial, where the deceased was laid in a boat, or a stone ship, and given grave offerings in accordance with his earthly status and profession, sometimes including sacrificed slaves. Throughout Scandinavia, there are many remaining tumuli in honour of Viking kings and chieftains, in addition to runestones and other memorials. Norse funerals, or the burial customs of Viking Age North Germanic Norsemen (early medieval Scandinavians), are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas and Old Norse poetry.
Excavation of the Oseberg Ship burial mound in Norway
0 kommentar(er)
