Boat Burial

A type of burial during the Late Iron Age in which a body or its cremated remains were placed in a boat, which was then covered by a mound of earth. This was a north European practice, common in Scandinavia and Britain from c 550 to 800 AD. This pagan ritual was widely adopted by the Vikings and practiced to a lesser extent by the Anglo-Saxons and Germans. In Norway alone there are 500 known boat burials, and many more from the rest of Scandinavia and other Viking colonies. To these seafaring people, ships were a means of transport, a way of life, and symbols of power and prestige. The Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" describes the belief that the journey to the afterlife could be achieved in a vessel. In Anglo-Saxon Britain there are three 7th century examples in Suffolk including the rich burial of Sutton Hoo. The best-known after Sutton Hoo are the 9th-century barrows of Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway and the 10th-century barrow at Ladby in Denmark. Burial in churchyards became customary in the 11th century in those areas.

A pagan burial ritual widely adopted by the Vikings, and practised to a lesser extent by the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic races before them. The AngloSaxon poem Beowulf demonstrates the belief that the journey to the afterlife could be achieved in a vessel, and indeed the Saxon boat graves excavated beneath the barrows at Sutton Hoo and Snape in East Anglia provide physical evidence to bear out the literature. But, although boat burials are known from Europe at this time, they are a fairly rare phenomenon and it was the Vikings who from the 9th century onwards developed boat burial into a cult. In Norway alone there are 500 known boat graves, and many more from the rest of Scandinavia and other Viking colonies. To these seafaring people, ships were a means of transport, a way of life, and symbols of power and prestige, in death as in life. Usually the body or cremated remains were placed in a vessel which was then deposited under a mound; when excavated, only traces of planks in the soil and a few iron clamps tend to remain. The best-known burials after Sutton Hoo are the 9th-century barrows of Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway, and the 10th-century barrow at Ladby in Denmark. These boats have been a major source of evidence for the history of seafaring.