most cases the bones of the humans, and sometimes the animals, have been retrieved
from the ashes, sorted and cleaned before being laid back on the charred remains of the
pyre – either directly or in a container such as a ceramic vessel, a box or a bag.
In most cremations objects were burned together with the dead and the resulting
fragments interred with them, though sometimes the ashes are overlain by unburnt
items placed there during the construction of the grave. In some cases objects were
deliberately broken before being burned, perhaps to mark their ‘death’ alongside that of
their owner.
It is among the objects deposited with the dead that the great variety noted above can
be found. The most commonly encountered range of artefacts includes items of personal
dress and ornament such as jewellery; weapons; implements for textile production
and food preparation; smithying tools; agricultural implements; household utensils,
containers and fixtures of various kinds; horse equipment; furniture including beds,
chairs and stools; textiles of varying quality and quantity; food and drink, among many
other kinds of objects. The selection, combination, particular type, quality, quantity and
exact positioning of this material are all factors in the variation within Viking Age
mortuary ritual, but there are also more indicative, local expressions. On Öland in
Sweden, for example, fossils such as ammonites were sometimes deposited with the
deceased (Beskow Sjöberg et al. 1987 – 2001 ). On the Åland islands between Sweden and
Finland, the ashes of the dead were buried in pottery vessels on the top of which was
placed a miniature animal paw made of clay (Figure 19. 2 ). The paws, which were not
present on the funeral pyre, have been identified as characteristic of either bears or
beavers. This rite is found only on Åland, and in specific clusters of graves on the Volga
and Kljaz’ma rivers in Russia; from the accompanying grave goods, these burials have
been convincingly interpreted as those of travelling Ålanders (Callmer 1994 ).
Burial mounds could be of widely varying shapes and sizes, ranging from low
humps in the ground to monumental barrows up to 10 m high or more. Circular forms
predominate, but oval, rectangular and triangular mounds are also known. In some
instances the mounds are augmented by what appear to have been posts set up in
them, for unknown reasons, or by small pits dug into the sides, again of indeterminate
Figure 19. 2 A clay animal paw from Hjortö, Saltvik, characteristic of those found in
cremation burials on the Åland islands (after Roesdahl and Wilson 1992 : 290 ).–– Neil Price––