Boat graves from the Vendel period
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The boat graves of the Vendel period (550–800 AD) occur primarily on regular burial grounds in the Swedish province of Uppland . Boat burial were at Ulltuna / Bondkyrka in Uppsala in the Church of Vendel (15) north of the great Ottarshügels (but 15, only 2 vendelzeitliche) found and Valsgarde / Gamla Uppsala. The Tuna / Badelunda and Norsa / Köping boat burial grounds were discovered in the Mälar area , both in Västmanland near the mouth of the Hedströmmen River .
The structures known as boat graves by research (unlike the ship graves of the Viking Age (800–1050 AD)) were built from the beginning of the Vendel Period to the end of the Viking Age from around AD 600 to 1050. Each century are up to There are three burials. The richest are from the Venetian period. Much more modest are the furnishings of the Viking Age burials ( boat chamber grave from Haithabu ). The traditional cremation also existed .
Research history and finds
The first boat grave ( Swedish båtgrav ) of the Vendel period was found in 1854 near Ulltuna (Uppsala). The historian Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630–1702), who is also called Sweden's first field archaeologist , became aware of the site with around 700 prehistoric burial mounds . He dug some mounds in 1672 and found over 1,000 iron rivets . He concluded that this is where sailors and their boats had been burned. A man in warrior gear was buried in a narrow, riveted vehicle. The findings from 1854 are characteristic of the burial custom. The main findings were an ornate, gilded sword hilt, a press sheet decorated shield boss of iron and an associated shield bondage , fittings for two more shields, parts of a helmet, about 20 arrowheads, about 40 hemispherical pieces and dice made of bone .
The boats
The boats used for burials in the Mälar area during the Vendel and Viking Ages were not intended for trips on the open sea. No boat from Uppland grave fields has survived, but the shape of the grave shafts in Valsgärde and the location and size of the rivets allowed the appearance of the boats to be roughly determined. A 9 m long boat was about 2 m wide in the middle and 0.6 m deep inside. All were pointed at both ends. The longest boat measured about 13 m, the others were 8-10 m. They had a narrow keel plank and up to four sideboards on each side, which were attached to the frames made of crooked wood. The boats could accommodate up to 12 rowers. The length of the rivets shows that the curb planks were thinner towards the stems in order to make the vehicles, which also had to be pulled over land, as light as possible. Within a plank, the length of the rivet can be reduced from 4.5 cm amidships to 2.5 cm at the stem.
- Boat graves
Valsgärde grave find
Vendelzeit helmet from a boat grave
Replica of Årbybåten
Boat from Tuna
Boat from Tuna
Vendel
In 1881 a boat grave was discovered near the church of Vendel in connection with the expansion of the cemetery. After this site, the period was given the name "Vendelzeit". The grave was one of the few that had escaped looting. However, it was badly damaged. The remaining graves are believed to have been robbed when the church was built around AD 1300. The Birka researcher Hjalmar Stolpe (1841–1905) examined ten of these graves. In 1893 three more were excavated, so that the contents of 14 are now known. Twelve of them are boat graves, while two are wooden box graves that date from the Viking Age.
The graves lay in a group on the slope southeast of the church. On the surface, they were recognizable by flat, elongated depressions that were created by the collapse of the grave. Characteristic of the boat graves at Valsgärde and Vendel is the large number of domestic animals or parts that were given to the dead. They were usually found in the foreshore or just outside the boat. In some vendel-era boats, the remains of up to four horses were found - mostly lined up on the starboard side. On the port side or inside the boat lay the skeletons or remains of butchered cattle, sheep, pigs and at least two dogs each, as well as occasionally some birds (goose, duck, crane, falcon and mountain owl). With a few exceptions, only dogs and horses were given to the dead in the Viking Age graves.
Despite the damage to most of the graves, some of the finds are unique evidence of metal art in the Vendel period. The weapons in the most richly furnished grave consisted of two double-edged swords , a cutting knife , spear and arrowheads , a helmet decorated with pressed sheet metal , ornate shield fittings , as well as found objects for practical use. Four glass vessels, two of which are proboscis and two bowls. In addition, the grave contained a knife, an ax , an iron fork, fire tongs, scissors , an iron kettle , a spit, a hammer and a grindstone .
In one of the graves there was a magnificent helmet adorned with figured pressed sheets. In another, otherwise badly damaged grave, an object had escaped looting, a bridle unique in the north with an iron snaffle and gilded bronze fittings with red and yellow enamel inlays on leather straps, some of which were still intact. The enamelled fittings may be of English provenance.
Valsgärde boat graves (Uppland)
To the east of the Fyris River, near Hof Valsgärde and Gamla Uppsala, there is a striking oval moraine hill 100 by 125 m in diameter. On its west side facing the river, a series of parallel, elongated depressions was discovered, which were interpreted as sunken boat graves. In 1928 two boat graves were uncovered. The mound was then fully explored over the years. Initially, it was used for cremation graves and body burials in wooden boxes, which were, however, looted in ancient times. Overlooked utensils made it possible to date back to the time of the Great Migration . A good 100 years later the boat burial began. In addition to these, around 60 mostly simple cremation graves with poor content were found, most of which belong to the Vendel and Viking ages.
In Valsgärde, five of the 15 boat graves are from the Venetian Age. The boats were placed in grooves about 1.5 m deep in the moraine gravel and covered with layers of beams and earth. The dead man had his place in the back of the boat. The oldest boat graves (e.g. Vendel and Valsgärde) contained horse burials in the bow or nearby , which were combined with dog burials. The same splendor that characterizes the boat graves in Vendel also determines the Vendel era in Valsgärde. There are the same combinations of ornate weapons and harness and the same generous equipment.
Tuna
The seven boat graves of Tuna near Badelunda are women graves. One of the graves dates from the Vendel period and contained, for example, a large, garnet-decorated bow-shaped disk. The strangest of the graves probably belongs to the middle of the 9th century, that is, to the older Viking Age. The partially preserved six-meter-long boat was buried in damp clay, so that a number of wooden objects were preserved. The pointed boat was composed of a floor plank and two board planks each. The lower boarding boards were attached to five frames with wooden nails , the upper ones were attached to the frames and the lower planks with fibers.
The dead woman rested on a bed made of hay or straw, which lay on a stretcher above the rowing benches of the boat. Her jewelry included around 150 glass and glass river pearls, 13 silver pendants that were modeled on Arab silver coins, three bronze brooches and two bronze bracelets. Preserved pieces of fabric indicate that her clothing was made of finely woven Byzantine silk and presumably of Frisian , patterned linen twill . On wooden objects there were two straps on the railing and household appliances. A wooden vessel, a roasting platter, a dough trough, a carved mug, a spoon and a birch bark box .
In the cemetery of Tuna there are also body burials. The contents of one of these graves is known as the Tuna Gold Treasure and dates back to the 4th century. The graves are not to be confused with the graves of Tuna near Alsike , where a number of boat graves and other burials are also known. The boat graves there no longer belong to the Vendel period, but to the Viking Age .
Norsa
The Norsa cemetery in Västmanland is one of the boat burial grounds. The only grave examined seems to equate him with that of Tuna. It contained the skeleton of a young woman and jewelry that point to the late Vendel period.
Nabberör
Among the boat graves found , the one from Nabberör at Grankullaviken on Öland was informative. The grave will have been dug in the early 8th century. The find inventory was badly disturbed or lost. The hill had been piled up over a 10 m long boat. Skeletal parts of at least four individuals, presumably three men and one woman (Germanic pantheon) were found.
Southern sweden
The Venetian custom in Uppland and Västmanland of burying the dead unburned in boats has also been found in isolated cases in southern Sweden, but there is no wealth in Uppland graves. In addition, the dead were sometimes cremated along with their boat and other equipment. There were not only practical reasons for burying the dead unburned in a boat. The boat was part of the dead man's equipment, just as indispensable in the afterlife as the other possessions that followed him to the grave.
Oscar Montelius investigated a boat grave near the Lyckebyå river in the parish Augerum in Blekinge in 1895 . The approximately five meter long boat was joined together with iron rivets. Judging by the findings, it belonged to a woman. The jewelry consisted of three equal-armed brooches, a round disc brooch, four needles made of bronze and 58 pearls made of glass, glass flux and bronze. The equal-armed fibulae can be dated to the 6th century. This makes it the oldest known Swedish boat grave.
Under a burial mound by the Albäckså river in the Maglarp parish in Skåne , about 150 iron rivets were found in an approximately 4.5 m long, pointed oval arrangement, which most likely marks a boat. Skeletal parts of a person and a simple iron buckle of an unspecified time position were recovered. The grave should belong to the younger Iron Age .
A burial mound over a layer of fire near the Kävlingeå river in the Lackalänga parish in Skåne contained around 100 iron rivets. It is believed to be the remains of a boat grave that was badly damaged when it was discovered in 1853. The facility is unique in that the dead man was burned, but the boat and the additions were left unburned. A cross piece of a sword hilt, bridle parts, two belt tongues and bronze fittings, two stirrups, two horse snaffles and some 100 boat rivets were saved from the surely very extensive grave equipment. The grave was from the early 8th century.
A burial mound about 2 m high and 22 m in diameter from Gunnerstad / Gamleby, Småland, lay over a layer of burned bones and the remains of a 5 m long boat that was probably burned at this place. The bones weighed about 100 kg in total. The finds consist of a fragment of a helmet's nose protector and eye-bow protector, a lump of a melted trunk cup, around 30 game pieces, and a belt buckle. This burial also belongs to the Vendelzeit.
Other boat graves
The "Snape boat grave" is a boat grave from the 6th century, found at Snape Common, near Aldeburgh in Suffolk , East Anglia (East England) , at the same time as the Vendelzeit systems in Sweden .
In Norway, the boat graves excavated in Bitterstad in Hadsel in Fylke Nordland in 2016 were classified at the same time.
literature
- H. Arbman: Båtgravarna i Vendel . Stockholm 1980
- Ture J. Arne: Tuna boat graves . Stockholm 1934
- B. Arrhenius: The Chronology of the Vendel Graves . In: JPLamm & H.Å. Nordström: Vendel Period Studies. Statens Historiska Museum. Stockholm 1983.
- Greta Arwidsson : Valsgärde 8 The grave finds from Valsgärde 2. Uppsala 1954
- Erik Nylén, Margareta Nockert, Bengt Schönbeck: Tuna i Badelunda. Guld Kvinnor Båtar. Vol. I-II . Västeras kulturnämds series 30. Västerås 1994.
- H. Williams, M. Rundkvist, A. Danielsson: The Landscape of a Swedish Boat-Grave Cemetery In: Landscapes, 11 2010 pp. 1-24.
- H. Williams: Memory through Monuments: Movement and Temporality in Skamby's Boat Graves . In: H. Alexandersson, A. Andreeff, A. Bünz (eds.): Med hjärta och hjärna: Eb vänbok till professor Elisabeth Arwill-Nordblach. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg Archaeological Studies 5), 2o14 pp. 397–413.