Giant's Grave (Fetlar)
Giant's Grave (also called The Viking's Grave) in Wick of Aith on the Shetland island of Fetlar is a boat grave of the Vikings .
A small oval hill covered with rough meadows, resembling an upturned boat, lies on the edge of a rampart above the beach. The hill, built from stones from the seafront outcrop , with its north-east-south-west oriented main axis, measures around 10.7 × 5.5 m. According to local tradition, a giant with his boat and money is buried under his head here.
In 1932 a thick oval bronze plate with a bolt in the center and rivets that once held the boat planks together was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in Edinburgh , believed to have come from the burial site. However, the bronze plate was later recognized as modern.
During excavations in 2002 it was found that the grave was robbed, only a few artefacts were in situ : In addition to other rivets, a large oval bronze brooch with animal ornaments was found. The brooch corresponds to a shape according to which brooches were made in the early Viking Age , around 800–850, and which were usually worn in pairs. This suggests that a woman of high social status was buried here. After the woman buried in the boat grave of Scar , Giant's Grave is the second known boat grave for a woman.
The brooch found was deposited in the Shetland Museum in Lerwick .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Time Team in Fetlar. (PDF; 38.3 KB) Fetlar Museum Trust, 2013, accessed on August 1, 2017 (English, brief description of the boat grave).
- ^ Colleen E. Batey: Viking Burrials in Scotland: Two 'New' Boat Burial Finds. (PDF; 946 KB) In: Shetland and the Viking World - Papers from the Proceedings of the Seventeenth Viking Congress Lerwick. 2016, p. 39ff , accessed on August 1, 2017 (English, also contains a picture of the brooch found).
Coordinates: 60 ° 35 ′ 16.7 ″ N , 0 ° 50 ′ 6.6 ″ W.