‘country’ to which it allegedly applied. This does not mean that every part of his
description is inaccurate, but instead we should examine it in specific rather than
generalised contexts.
In landmark studies of specific burial practices right across Scandinavia, Johan
Callmer ( 1991 , 1992 ; Figure 19. 1 ) has demonstrated how local variation was present at
the level of individual communities, villages and even extended farmsteads. From one
settlement to another people handled the dead in broadly consistent ways – essentially
through cremation or occasionally inhumation – but differed in the details of grave
construction and elaboration, the placement of the body and the selection and
deposition of objects that accompanied the deceased. It should be stressed that these
‘grave goods’ could include not only small artefacts but also vehicles, furniture, farm
equipment, slaughtered livestock and even (in isolated instances) other humans who
were apparently killed in connection with the funerals.
We find special rituals in island communities, and in general the funerary rites of
places such as Gotland, Öland, Bornholm and Åland are unlike those of their respective
mainlands, which differ in turn from the surrounding areas (Thunmark-Nylén 1998 –
2006 ; Beskow Sjöberg et al. 1987 – 2001 ). Recognisably Scandinavian burial traditions
are also found across the Viking world, again with local traditions in evidence. In the
North Atlantic colonies such as Iceland and Greenland, cremation is extremely rare
Figure 19. 1 Settlement distribution in southern Scandinavia, c. ad 800 , based on differentiation
in the detail of funerary custom. Circled areas show affinities of burial ritual (after Callmer 1992 ).–– Neil Price––