Ballateare's ship grave
Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 33 ″ N , 4 ° 33 ′ 12 ″ W.
The ship grave of Ballateare was in 1946 at Jurby the north of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea off the coast of Wales discovered. The grave was excavated by the German archaeologist Gerhard Bersu .
It contained the burial of a late 9th century Viking . Nothing remained of the ship itself. The most important burial object was a sword , decorated with a silver inlay. The blade had been broken into three pieces before laying down. The sword scabbard made of leather, wood and fabric has also been preserved. The other finds, three spearheads , a knife and a shield boss are made of iron . The wooden sign was painted black, white, and red. The Viking was buried in a cloak held by a ring brooch .
On the mound that was built over the grave was a layer of burned animal bones, believed to be an offering. A 20 to 30 year old woman was buried 70 cm below this layer of fire. She was hit on the back of the head with a sharp weapon. According to Dr. R. D. Teare of the Forensic Medical Institute, University of London, was hit on the back of the head within 48 hours of death. It is not certain whether this is a secondary burial . On the one hand, for reasons unknown, the woman was only hit on the head after death, on the other hand, the burial took place under the dome of the burial mound and not next to the man below the 3 m high burial mound. The construction of the burial mound (also called tumulus ) took up to a month. The evidence suggests a secondary burial . The blade and other items from the Ballateare tomb are on display in the Manx Museum.
Nearby is the ship grave of "Knock-e-Dooney", excavated in 1927 by Philip Moore Callow Kermode (1855–1932). The mound was 15.5 m in diameter and 2.4 m high. It turned out to contain a boat burial from AD 900–950, with the boat defined by about 300 iron rivets. The position of the rivets indicated that the boat was 8.5 to 9.0 m long and 1.8 to 2.4 m wide.
Also on the Ile de Groix one was ship grave of Viking excavated. In addition to game pieces made from walrus bones , it contained the incomplete remains of an adult woman without grave goods.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Bersu: A Cemetery of the Ronaldsway Culture at Ballateare, Jurby, Isle of Man . Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 13, 1947, 161-169.
- Gerhard Bersu / David M. Wilson : Three Viking Graves in the Isle of Man. The Society for Medieval Archeology. Monograph Series 1, London (1966).
- James Graham-Campbell: The Vikings , Munich (1994)
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Bersu / David M. Wilson: Three Viking Graves in the Isle of Man. The Society for Medieval Archeology. Monograph Series 1, London (1966)