Boot chamber grave from Haithabu

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Location of Haithabu / Hedeby

The boat chamber grave of Haithabu in Schleswig-Holstein was located south of the semicircular wall that surrounds the city of Haithabu , on a sandy area in which there are countless other types of graves. It was recognizable as a low oval elevation.

description

In 1908 the site was examined and Friedrich Knorr uncovered a grave that was unique in form in Germany and in which three dead were apparently buried. A grave chamber facing west-east with a base of 3.7 × 2.4 m was used for burial. The wooden floor was 1.9 m deep. The chamber walls consisted of planks , 2 to 3 cm thick, inserted vertically into the floor . A low, vertical plank divided the chamber into the smaller western and a larger eastern part.

The precious burial objects of three men lay in the chambers . The smaller western chamber contained the richer items, including a bronze bowl , a glass beaker , arrows , the remains of two shields , an ornate sword , spurs , carefully made jewelry made of silver filigree and parts of a bridle . In the eastern one, a relatively well-preserved iron- studded wooden bucket, two shield bosses , two swords and other remains of a bridle were found. To the east of the burial chamber, the skeletons of three horses lay in a shallow pit.

Above the burial chamber were the remains of a large boat, from which apart from the iron rivets only small remains of wood had been preserved. While the boat rivets had been excavated in the east of the hill, in the west they were still in their initial order. The length of the boat cannot be determined with certainty because of the destruction. Rivets were found over a length of about 16 m. The width of the boat was about three meters amidships. The boat was keel down over the chamber and lined with stones. Details about the construction cannot be found in the excavation findings. The width of the boat suggests that it was one of the most common Viking vehicles on the Baltic Sea , with a length of 15 to 18 m.

The type of tomb as well as the rich furnishings suggest that high social figures were buried here. The additions provide an indication of the time. The grave will have to be dated to the end of the 9th or the beginning of the 10th century.

The question of who is buried here is more difficult to answer. The type of grave construction is unique. There are older boat graves in England ( Sutton Hoo and Snape's boat grave ) and numerous boat graves in Scandinavia since the Vendel era , but the dead there were buried in boats. Either they are deposited directly in the boat or wooden burial chambers were built inside the ship. Other burials in which the burial chamber was placed below the boat are otherwise unknown. The finding therefore does not allow any direct link to a specific area. There is also no indication of where the dead came from in the additions. The boat chamber grave has been linked to a Swedish royal dynasty that, according to various sources, settled in Haithabu around the year 900, particularly with reference to the fact that there were no such boat burials in Denmark. However, since there are no corresponding burials in Sweden either, but in Denmark in the 1930s a boat grave from the Viking Age was found near Ladby on Funen (meanwhile the Gammelby ship on Jutland and the Flintinge ship on Lolland have been added), the identification remains uncertain of a Swedish dynasty.

The distribution of Viking Age boat graves around the Baltic Sea and in Norway is based on the current state of the art:

Photographic illustration

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Knorr: boat chamber grave south of the Oldenburg near Schleswig. In: Communications from the Anthropological Association in Schleswig-Holstein . Vol. 19 (1911), pp. 68-77.
  • Herbert Jankuhn : Haithabu. A trading post from the Viking Age. 8th edition. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1986, ISBN 3-529-01813-9 .
  • Michael Müller-Wille, Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, Maria Dekówna: Excavations in Haithabu. Volume 8: The boat chamber grave of Haithabu. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1976, DNB 770054552 .
  • Ute Arents, Silke Eisenschmidt: The graves of Haithabu. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2010, ISBN 978-3-529-01415-4 .
  • Christian Radtke: The boat chamber grave of Haithabu: On the afterlife image of a Danish king in the Viking Age. Neumünster, Wachholtz, 2005.

Coordinates: 54 ° 29 '15.4 "  N , 9 ° 33' 47.4"  E