Ship burial

Ship burial of Igor the Old in 945, depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902).

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was used in the Vendel era and by the Anglo-Saxons, the Merovingians, the Vikings, the Rus, the Balts (especially the Curonians), and occasionally the Ancient Egyptians. For the Germanic peoples, this burial was seen as a way for the dead to sail to Valhalla; ship burial was a high honour.

Examples of ship burials

Khufu ship - from the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza
Ladby - from Kerteminde on the island of Funen, Denmark^[1]
Gokstad - from Kongshaugen, Vestfold, Norway^[2]
Oseberg - from Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway^[3]
Tune - from Haugen farm on Rolvsøy in Tune, Østfold, Norway ^[4]
Valsgärde - from a farm on the Fyris River, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden^[5]
Vendel - from Ottarshögen (the mound of Ohthere) in Uppland, Sweden
Anundshog - the mound of Anund just outside Västerås in Västmanland, Sweden^[6]
Snape - from Snape Common in Suffolk, East Anglia, England
Sutton Hoo - Anglo-Saxon burial site near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
Balladoole and Knock-e-Dooney - Viking ship burials on the Isle of Man^[7]
Rurikovo Gorodishche - situated on an island on the Volkhov River near Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Sarskoye Gorodishche - from a medieval fortified settlement in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia
Timerevo - from site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, Yaroslavl, Russia
Black Grave - from the largest burial mound in Chernihiv, Ukraine

References

^ The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde
^ Gokstadhaugen - Artificial Mound in Norway
^ Osebergskipet - The Oseberg Ship, Norway
^ Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy
^ Valsgärde
^ Anundshög, Stoneship
^ Vikings on Mann

Ship burial

Examples of ship burials

References

See also