Ship burial

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

Model of the Sutton Hoo ship's structure as it might have appeared, with chamber area outlined

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 among the Germanic peoples, particularly by Viking Age Norsemen.

A unique eye-witness account of a 10th-century ship burial among the Volga Vikings is given by Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan.^[1]

Viking Age ship burials

Scandinavia

• Ladby - from Kerteminde on the island of Funen, Denmark^[2]
• Gokstad - from Kongshaugen, Vestfold, Norway^[3]
• Oseberg - from Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway^[4]
• Tune - from Haugen farm on Rolvsøy in Tune, Østfold, Norway ^[5]
• Valsgärde - from a farm on the Fyris River, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden
• Vendel - from Ottarshögen (the mound of Ohthere) in Uppland, Sweden
• Anundshög - the mound of Anund just outside Västerås in Västmanland, Sweden^[6]

British Isles

Viking/Norse burial

• Balladoole and Knock-e-Dooney - Viking ship burials on the Isle of Man^[7]
• Port an Eilean Mhòir - The only Viking burial yet discovered in mainland Britain, the mound was found in 2006 and excavated in 2011^[8]
• The Scar boat burial - a Viking burial found on Sanday, one the Orkney Islands ^[9]

Anglo-Saxon

• Snape - from Snape Common in Suffolk, East Anglia, England
• Sutton Hoo - Anglo-Saxon burial site near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England

Eastern Europe

• Salme ships - from the island of Saaremaa, Estonia
• Rurikovo Gorodishche - situated on an island on the Volkhov River near Veliky 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

See also

Media related to Ship burials at Wikimedia Commons

• Norse funeral
• Ímar Ua Donnubáin, legendary Irish navigator of partial Norse descent
• Stone ship
• Chariot burial (Iron Age tradition)
• Solar barge (Bronze Age tradition)
• Khufu ship (Ancient Egypt)

References

v t e Ship burial customs in Germanic paganism Ship burials Scandinavia Gokstad Ladby Oseberg Tune Vendel Valsgärde Estonia Salme Britain Port an Eilean Mhòir Scar Snape Sutton Hoo Stone ships Ale's Stones Altes Lager Menzlin Gettlinge Hulterstad Jelling Lindholm Høje