Viking Ships

Recently discovered burial in Scotland

         Even before ships were discovered buried under the earth, we knew that the Vikings navigated the waters all throughout Western Europe on sea worthy and river worthy ships, but we did not know much about their technology used. Today, you could ask any person off the street to draw or describe what a Viking ship looks like, and they would likely come up with something that resembles this. The discovery of ship burials in the 19th century and since has not only allowed archaeologists and historians to better understand the Viking beliefs in terms of death rituals, but it also has allowed the general public to better understand the world of the Vikings (Gould 2011:177).


Buried Ships


In Northern Europe alone there are 420 examples of buried ships discovered in archaeology, not including sites that include ship-like structures of non-traditional material (stone) (Gould 2011:178). Now, not all of these are Viking burials, as the great Sutton Hoo in Scotland is interpreted to be prior to the Viking age and Anglo-Saxon in origin. In the Icelandic sagas, it is suggested that - at least the Icelandic - Vikings did not believe that everyone went on to the after life, but that most people stayed in their burial mounds for eternity (Short 2010:71) - although it is important to note that there are distinctions between Icelandic viking burial rituals and others (Guthmunsson 1967:8).Whether this means those who were buried with their ships were of the select few chosen to join Odin, their god, is unclear. 

Oseberg

(Photo from Brogger 1921:2)

The Oseberg ship is one of the most famous Viking ship burials discovered. It was discovered in Norway in 1903 and in the two subsequent field sessions it was excavated (Holck 2006:188). Through dating it is believed that the ship was buried around 834 A.D. (Bonde Christensen 1993:581) but the ship itself seems to date through dendrochronology back to around 820 A.D. (Bonde Christensen 1993:576). There were two women buried with the boat with a large assortment of grave goods from all over Europe. According to legend, one of the women is Queen Ǻsa and the other is her servant, however we are unsure if this is an accurate supposition (Holck 2006:194).

What can we learn from Oseberg?


Oseberg was neither a trade ship, nor a warship as an expert can see from its lack of strength and the amount of decoration (Bruun 1997:1287). This would indicate that the ship was possibly built as just a funerary vessel. Short suggests that the grave goods in simple graves included only items which would be used in everyday life (2012:70) but the ship which is obviously part of a more elaborate grave, is not. Although the boat predates the peak of Viking ship carpentry (Gould 2011:178) and is not actually meant for sea fairing, the ship structure is indicative of the traditional engineering of a sea vessel.


Transportantion


Ships are an obvious transport vessel. Buried with the ship was a richly decorated wagon, sledges (like sleighs), what appears to be a tent, and remains of dogs, horses, and oxen (Brogger 1921:6). The number of transportation vessels buried with these two deceased is significant in trying to understand the belief systems of these Vikings. They were equipped to traverse all types of landscape and the rich decoration of the items would indicate there was belief in something beyond and possibly even a spiritual being that these decorations are meant to impress.


We need to be careful in our speculations however, since burials are not just meant to represent and honor the dead, but they are also meant to suit the needs of the living (Ucko 1969:265). These offerings of  grave goods to this extreme probably has less to do with what the people did before their deaths and more to do with what the living believe is necessary for safe passage into the afterlife (Pearson 1999:9).

Sources:

Bonde, Neils, and Christensen, " Arne Emil "Dendrochronology dating of the Viking Age Ship burials at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune" Antiquity. (1993) 67

Brogger, Anton. "The Oseberg Ship" American Scandinavian Review (1921) 

Bruun, Per "The Viking Ship" Journal of Coastal Research (1997) 13:4

Gould, Richard. Sailing Ships of the Middle Ages. Archaeology and the Social History of Ships. Cambridge University Press. (2011)

Guthmundsson, Barth. The Origin of the Icelanders. Nebraska. (1967) 

Holck, Per "The Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway: New Thoughts on the skeletons from the Grave Mound". European Journal of Archaeology (2006) 9:185
Pearson, Michael. Archaeology of Death and Burial Texas A&M University Press (1999)

Short, William. Icelanders in the Viking Age People of the Sagas. M(2010)
Ucko, Peter. "Ethnography and Archaeological Interpretation of Funerary Remains" World Archaeology (1969) 1:2

Who Were the Vikings?

Before we can begin analyzing the ritual practices and the afterlife belief systems of the Vikings, we have to identify who the Vikings actually were. 


This is not a Viking, and neither is this. 


The Vikings were a group of people from Scandinavia who for upwards of 300 years in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries A.D. pillaged and plundered much of the northwestern part of Europe extending as far wast on Constantinople, as west as Greenland and as far south as the Strait of Gibraltar. In the late 8th century the people who are known as the Vikings began small invasion in search of wealth and power (Sawyer 1982). Initially the kings were not involved in the invasions of the Vikings, but as the expanse of the Viking wealth and influence grew the Kings began to take their share (Sawyer 1982).


After a prosperous Bronze Age, the Iron Age trade network of riches to the Scandinavian peninsula was much depleted because the early methods for making iron goods and weaponry failed at latitudes as far north as most of the peninsula (Jones 1968). This as a result meant that the wealth of the Viking nations was quickly depleted and they were forced to make do with what they had, or invade the most prosperous, southerly nations. Despite the Viking inferiority in metalworking, they developed and refined boat technologies that allowed the Vikings to easily roam the North Atlantic and to sail up river (Sawyer 1982). 


In the archaeological record we have a rich history of Viking ships because there were several instances where a ship was buried as a funerary ritual to honor a dead high in status (Gould 2011). Many of these burials were rich in grave goods, and as we can tell from Ibn Fadlan's account of a Viking burial, there was as much happening ethnographically that is lost to the archaeologist as can be re-discovered in the ground (Pearson 1999). These Viking burial ships are like the great tombs of Egypt, survive the test of time and are saved for the elite. 


They say that 'history is written by the winners' and this is one case where it is really true. Must of what we have in terms of written primary sources from the age of the Vikings comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Icelandic Saga, and a few other sources from France, Rome and other sources. The Vikings did not write down their own history. There are instances where runes, a type of writing, were left on stones, grave markers and swords that can be helpful in our discovery of Viking beliefs and their extent of influence on culture, but without archaeological context, they are of little use (Page 1971).



Over the centuries the Viking influence on Northern Europe grew and at points parts nations were divided into Viking rule and native rule. In this blog we are going to look at the burial practices of the Vikings. Over the course of the next few months we will look at ship burial sites such as Sutton Hoo and Oseberg as well as other burials that are lower in rank. We will examine the influence of Christianity on Viking burial and the influence of Viking beliefs and customs on the people whose home were invaded. Not all of Viking history is characterized by invasion, and we will take a look at the burial rituals for King Cnut and his successors. The real question we hope to answer is not what did the Vikings do, but what can it tell us about who they were?




Sources:


Page, Raymond; Parsons, David. How long did the Scandinavian Language Survive in England? The Epigraphical Evidence. Runes and Runic inscirptions: collected essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking runes. (1971) p. 183
Jones, Gwyen. A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. (1968)
Gould, Richard. Sailing Ships of the Middle Ages. Archaeology and the Social History of Ships. Cambridge University Press. (2011) p. 171
Sawyer, P. H. Kings and Vikings: Scandinavia and Europe, A.D. 700-1100. Methuen & Co. ltd. (1982)
Pearson, Mike Parker. Archaeology of Death and Burial. Texas A & M University Press. (1999) p 1-3

Meet the Authors

Jacob Thompson:
The only experience I have with Archaeology is digging in my backyard when I was just a child. My brother and I were supposedly looking and finding dinosaur bones!!! We actually thought at one point that we have found a true Indian arrow-head, but I'm pretty sure it was just gravel from my neighbor's driveway. Anyway, I am very excited about learning about the burial rituals of the mighty Vikings!


Stephanie Hutson:
I'm an Archaeology and Environmental Science major and have briefly studied Vikings in classes of mine. I'm interested in the development of Viking ritual through the continent, how it was affected by the areas around it and how their burial practices affected that areas they have touched. I was in Scotland for a semester and I would love to see if I can apply the things I learned there to the content I hope to include in this blog.


Angie Huth:
I'm an Anthropology and Archaeology major. I'm interested in Paleolithic and Bronze Age burial rituals in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. I want to apply this interest to the topic by studying the Vikings' effect on Celtic burials, and how they treated their dead in the British Isles. Also, I'm interested in gender, class, personal identity and mythology.


Beth Luder:
I'm a third year Anthropology and Psychology major and as an avid water enthusiast and secret pyromaniac, I have always found Vikings to the epitome of cool. Through this project I hope to learn more about the widespread influences of this dominating culture.


Through this blog we hope to make viking burial research accessible and to disambiguate popular myth and even clear up some of our own misconceptions. We're ready to take the world of Viking Archaeology into the blogosphere!