Viking ship graves from Salme
Coordinates: 58 ° 10 ′ 3 ″ N , 22 ° 15 ′ 1.6 ″ E
The Viking ship graves of Salme were discovered from 2008 at the Isthmus of Läätsa near Salme ( Saaremaa rural community ) on Saaremaa (Ösel), the largest Estonian island. The clinker- built ship Salme 1 contained the remains of seven presumably male people. The later found Salme 2 contained 33 dead. The first prehistoric ship find in the eastern Baltic Sea is provisionally dated to around 700–900 AD.
location
The first bones and remains of the Salme ship were discovered by chance while the road was being built. The archaeological excavation took place a month later. The ship's grave was located near the former coastline, only about 1.5 m above sea level at the time. Today it is four meters above the water and 230 m from the coast. Only a few of its wooden parts have survived. Part of the ship was destroyed while electrical cables were being laid. The position of the ship is marked by rows of iron rivets in the sand.
Salme 1
With reference to the preserved ship parts, the original length of 11.5 m, the width of two meters and the depth of 75 cm could be determined. Its main elements were made of pine wood. The ship had eight frames, probably connected with fiber material. The 30 cm wide boards were extremely thin at only 15 mm. Salme 1 was probably rowed with six pairs of oars, but not yet sailed. The shape of the ship is characteristic of ships that had to be fast, light and agile. It is a good example of early shipbuilding technology in the Baltic Sea region.
The finds
The remains of seven men aged 18 to 45 were found along with the fragments of their weapons. Among them were swords, two spearheads and six arrowheads. The smaller objects consisted of a small ax, 18 knives, eight whetstones and an ornate bone comb. 71 pieces made of bone or antlers and three dice are also of interest. While the human remains were in the stern, sheep and cattle had been laid down in the bow. The ship contained only the hulls of the animals, leg or skull fragments were not found. Archaeologists assume that the men fell between 700 and 750 AD, before the " Viking Age " in the Vendel Period .
Salme 2
A little later, Jüri Peets discovered a second ship only 30 meters away, which was named Salme 2 and was excavated in 2012. From the remains of wood he concluded that it had a keel . This is necessary to sail a ship. In the middle of Salme 2 he discovered a pile of iron and wood. There were also traces of material that he hid from the earth. If his assumption is correct, then the Vikings were already using the wind to cross the sea about a century before the attack on Lindisfarne Monastery , which is considered to be the beginning of the Viking Age . The Kvalsund ship from around 700 AD could have been sailed with its pronounced keel, but there was no evidence of a mast. The Oseberg ship , built around 820, ie in the “Viking Age” (800-1050 AD), was clearly equipped with sails and was previously considered the oldest sailing ship of the Vikings. This assignment would be transferred to Salme 2 if the Dating proves correct.
The finds
The 16.3 m long and about three meters wide ship was better than its little sister Salme 1 and the crew seems to have had a higher status. The 33 dead of Salme 2 were layered in rows - four on top of each other. Their average height of over 1.80 m suggests particularly well-chosen tall men. Their gifts were richer than in Salme 1: they were accompanied by weapons, combs made of elk antlers and animal sacrifices. The excavators found bones of sheep, pigs, cows, dogs and even a hawk. Finally the dead were covered with their shields.
Rich burials in ships are also known from later times. But it was always individuals who found their final resting place in a ship - or at least one individual was significantly higher up than the others. Here we are dealing with a collective burial - a preliminary form of ship burials. The dead of Salme 2 were not equal. While those below carried simple iron blades as weapons, those above were equipped with double-edged swords with decorated handles. The most notable of these has jewels on the handle. It lay next to a man with a walrus ivory chess piece in his mouth.
It was probably a battle that ended their lives between 700 and 750 AD in the pre-Viking era . Five of the dead have wounds that have not healed - that is, the cause of death. It was probably surviving comrades who paid their last respects. A Scandinavian legend tells of the Swedish king Yngvar , who fell in Estonia. “The men of Estonia came from inland with a large army and there was a battle; but the country's army was so brave that the Swedes could not withstand it, and King Yngvar fell and his men fled, ”it says. The temptation is great to assume that the dead man with the chess piece is Yngvar - but this cannot be proven archaeologically. However, the finds show that events such as those described in the saga did indeed happen.
rating
Compared to Scandinavian boat graves from the Vendel and Viking ages , Salme 1 and 2 have some peculiarities. The most obvious difference is the lack of the burial mound. While the boat graves of Scandinavia lie within hills, the salme ships lay in the sediment and were filled with it. Another special feature is the large number of people buried. The other boat graves usually contain the remains of a single person of presumably high social rank. In rare cases there were two ( Oseberg ship ) or three ( boat chamber grave of Haithabu ). The Salme ships with their seven or 33 bodies are therefore an absolute exception. None of the traditional grave goods or jewelry accompany the dead. Pottery, usually common in graves, is also absent. Therefore, the Salme ships cannot be considered a typical boat burial. In written sources, however, this form of burial is mentioned for warriors who have fallen afar. The events that led to the ship being buried on the beach with part of the crew and equipment are completely unclear.
Parallels
The wreck of a 9th or 10th century ship was found in 1997 in Dalnaya Bay near Vyborg , Russia . Sections of the lower part of the hull and a long piece of the keel are well preserved. The boards were fastened with iron nails, wooden stakes, and tarry ropes. The structure of the Dalnaya ship suggests that it is older than the Gokstad ship .
In the same year, another ship's grave was discovered in a hill on the Stein farm in Hole near Ringerike in Norway . The mound may contain the burial of Halvdan Svarte (the black) who, according to Scandinavian legends, was the father of Norway's first king, Harald Fairhair . The Heimskringla written a history of the kings of Norway from Snorri Sturlason (1179-1241), said that about 860 to 870 Halvdan and his entourage from a festival in Hadeland across the frozen Randsfjord went. The ice broke and Halvdan and many with him drowned. His body was divided into four parts, the head was buried in a mound near Stein and the other three parts in mounds in other districts. Another report, probably written 50 years before the Heimskringla , says that Halvdan's entire body was buried at Stein in Ringerike. Initial tests show that the mound was formed between 800 and 900 AD, which is in line with Halvdan's supposed death.
See also
literature
- Kristina Johanson, Tönno Jonuks, Ester Oras: Find-rich Northeast - Salme extraordinary ship burials In: Archeology in Germany 02/2016 p. 54 ff.
Web links
- Finds off Estonia: Vikings on the prowl.
- The Salme shipfind on Salme muinaslaev (English, sighted November 2, 2009)
- Description Engl.
- Image by Salme 2
Remarks
- ↑ Historia Norwegiae (12th century), Ynglinga saga (13th century)