Ship Burial (A Viking Funerary Tradition)

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
Arturo
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:11 pm

Ship Burial (A Viking Funerary Tradition)

Post by Arturo » Tue Mar 24, 2015 9:09 pm

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. Ship burial was used among the Germanic peoples, particularly by Viking Age Norsemen for a religious belief of ferrying the dead to the afterlife.

A unique eye-witness account of a 10th-century ship burial among the Volga Vikings is given by Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan. 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, Old Norse poetry, and notably from the account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan.

Throughout Scandinavia, there are many remaining tumuli in honour of Viking kings and chieftains, in addition to runestones and other memorials. 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.

A 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. Afterwards, piles of stone and soil were usually laid on top of the remains in order to create a tumulus.

There are some ship burials, such as, The Gokstad ship is a Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built around 890 AD. Another ship burial is the Oseberg ship burial in Norway, which dates to 10th century.

See Topic: “Oseberg Ship 800”

Within the Oseberg ship burial were the remains of two individuals, although they lacked any grave goods- presumably robbed from the burial soon after it was created in the 10th century. What is interesting about this burial is that the two individuals, initially thought to be male warriors are actually female.

The Scar boat burial is a Viking boat burial near the village of Scar, on Sanday, in Orkney, Scotland. The burial, which dates to between 875 and 950 AD, contained the remains of a man, an elderly woman, and a child, along with numerous grave goods. Although the site had to be excavated quickly because of the threat of coastal erosion owing to bad weather conditions, it yielded many important findings.

The Port an Eilean Mhòir ship burial is a Viking boat burial site in Ardnamurchan, Scotland, the most westerly point on the island of Great Britain. Dated to the 10th century, the burial consists of a Viking boat about 5 metres (16 ft) long by 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) wide in which a man was laid to rest with his shield, sword and spear as well as other grave goods.

In 1924 nails, rivets and other finds were discovered by T.C. Lethbridge at Cul na Croise (English: Gorten Bay) in Ardnamurchan, which were characterised at the time as having come from a ship burial; the exact location of this site is lost and so the nature of the finds cannot be determined with certainty. A similar case was the mainland burial site at Huna, in Caithness, discovered in 1935, although this was better documented and is accepted as a ship burial. Nine other Viking ship burials, or possible burials, have been found on Scottish islands, including six in the Hebrides and another three in the Northern Isles.

Isle of Man 2008, S.G.?, Scott: ?

Source: Wikipedia.
Attachments
Ship Burial.jpg
1.jpg
3.jpg
4.jpg
5.jpg
6.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Ship Burial (A Viking Funerary Tradition)

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed May 17, 2017 8:58 pm

Bequia-Grenadines of St Vincent 1988 15c sg?, scott251.
Attachments
Image (42).jpg

Post Reply