Kopparsvik burial ground

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The Kopparsvik burial ground is a Viking Age (800–1050 AD) burial site from the 9th and 10th centuries on the Swedish island of Gotland .

description

The cemetery is located south of the old town of Visby in the area of ​​today's harbor. The special forms of burial make Kopparsvik stand out among the burial places of the Vikings .

The graves are oriented in a south-west-north-east direction; only ten of them have an east-west (Christian) orientation. 350 to 400 graves are body burials , in which over 65% of the dead are laid in pits in the ground that have been covered with stones. About a third was buried more elaborately. Traces of wooden planks or coffins were found.

The grave equipment was relatively uniform. The dead were buried clothed, as shown by traces of textile on the fibulae and needles. Belt sets, knives and ring brooches were common in the men's graves . The women's graves contained tin brooches that attached a scarf. The skirt was held on both sides with animal head brooches. Necklaces in the form of glass or mosaic beads were found alongside combs, keys and whetstones. 14 Arabic silver coins (894–936 AD) were found in a woman's and six in a man's grave. The other objects point to Gotlandic origins. Job-related accessories, such as a scale and a set of weights, were rarely found. Few weapons were found; four saxes , three axes and two spearheads .

particularities

Kopparsvik cannot be compared to other burial grounds from the Viking Age . It consisted of two areas that partially overlap. The northern one is dominated by men's graves. Both genders are represented in the south, but hardly any children. Male dominance in the northern part was associated with the profession of the dead (merchants and warriors). However, the additions do not support this thesis. Relatively poorly equipped and carelessly laid out graves could also be observed. Close-up graves and numerous dead in prone position. Sometimes the grave pit was so small that the deceased lay with his knees bent in the pit. Archaeologists interpreted the prone position as an incorrect burial ritual. This phenomenon is already known from the Stone Age (24,000 BC). With 38 such graves, most of them in the northern part, (two are women's graves), Kopparsvik is clearly in the lead. In most cases, the dead received only individual additions. The graves are often on the edge of the burial grounds. Regardless of religion or cultural identity, the prone position seems to be associated with an unaccepted burial position. On the other hand, sitting or other positions are considered normal, while the prone position - with the face turned towards the ground - is assessed negatively. Most of them are single individuals, but the number is higher in some burial grounds. In Kopparsvik it is around 8 to 15%. There was also an achondroplastic dwarf among the buried . The malformed person had disproportionately short arms, short and curved thighs, but a normal torso and head. An adult with such a gene mutation will not be taller than 127 cm. However, the individual was 50 to 60 years old and buried face down. Parts of the costume (ring fibula) nevertheless indicate an accurate burial.

In Kopparsvik, many men have horizontal lines on their upper front teeth that were filed while they were alive. The phenomenon has also been observed in isolated cases on Öland and in Skåne and Denmark . The custom of identifying group membership by modifying the teeth is widespread among different peoples (e.g. Aeta ). 46 men of different ages were found in Kopparsvik. Some had one line on the front tooth, others several. No similarities could be seen in the rest of the skeleton. The good condition of the teeth, the burial in the northern part and the prone position in at least ten individuals were noticeable. The question of how to interpret the northern part of the burial ground remains unanswered.

literature

  • Caroline Arcini: Kopparsvik - a burial ground poses a riddle. In: Archeology in Germany.  1, 2010, ISSN  0176-8522 , pp. 24-25.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes Hoops: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 12 . Ed .: Johannes Hoops, Herbert Jankuhn, Heinrich Beck. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , p. 479 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Coordinates: 57 ° 37 ′ 51.6 ″  N , 18 ° 16 ′ 42.5 ″  E