cargo bodies of wagons. Many different body postures are found, though the dead are
most often laid out either supine or slightly curled over on their sides, as if sleeping. In
some graves remains of blankets, pillows and other bedding have been found under and
around the bodies, reinforcing this suggestion. In a few unusual instances the dead
are buried prone or in a variety of unnatural postures that necessitate actual damage to
the body, for example by the removal of limbs. Whether this relates to some kind of
punishment or legal censure is hard to say, but the large stones placed on top of some
of these bodies imply a fear that they might somehow leave the grave and presumably
cause harm to the living.
Inhumation burials normally exhibit the same or even greater range of grave goods as
the cremations, though the apparent profusion is perhaps a factor of preservation. Like
the cremations, inhumations were also accompanied by animal and occasionally human
offerings, along with considerable quantities of foodstuffs and, to judge by the con-
tainers, drink as well. Crampons on the shoes of the dead may suggest a winter burial, or
that they were thought to be journeying somewhere cold; there are saga references to
special ‘hel-shoes’ that the dead would need (Strömbäck 1961 ).
In the archaeological material, there are numerous examples of burials associated
with what are undoubtedly means of transport – ships, wagons, sledges or simply horses
- and which might suggest that the dead were on their way somewhere. However, the
same graves sometimes also contain elements that imply the opposite: the Oseberg ship
in southern Norway, for example, was ‘moored’ in the grave by a massive hawser tied
around an immovable rock. The obvious question also remains as to whether these
vehicles of various kinds were there for a functional purpose or merely as expensive
possessions.
Both cremations and inhumations occur singly, in small groups and in cemeteries of
varying sizes from a dozen or so burials to thousands. The great variety of constellations
reflects the spatial and no doubt social patterning of the communities that they served,
from individual farms with ‘family plots’ to larger villages and urban centres such as
Birka and Hedeby. There also seem to be political factors at work, in that some areas
tend to aggregate the dead in clusters whereas others maintain traditions of local burial.
In general the dead were not buried far from settlements, but instead their graves can be
seen as an extended component of the inhabited areas.
The best example of such a cemetery as it originally appeared is found at Lindholm
Høje in northern Jutland, where a grave-field was buried by wind-blown sand and
has survived intact. Almost every burial is marked by stones, often without apparent
pattern, but clearly comprising an integral part of the funerary ritual. Elsewhere in
Scandinavia the countryside is still dotted with small groups of Viking Age burial
mounds in the tens of thousands, with massive cemeteries still visible at sites such as
Birka. In the overseas colonies similarly sized cemeteries are found especially in the
east at sites such as Gnezdovo near Smolensk (Androshchuk, ch. 38 , below), but here
Scandinavian burials are intermingled with those of other groups. In an English
example, the mound cemetery at Heath Wood/Ingleby is one of the largest of its kind
outside Scandinavia (though virtually alone in England), and is typically complex in
including a number of empty ‘graves’ (Richards, ch. 27 , below).
In addition to the kinds of inhumation grave usually found, there are a few isolated
examples of mass graves, the main one being that excavated at Repton in Derbyshire,
England (Richards, ch. 27 , below). Like that deposit, similar though smaller mass
–– Neil Price––