One further element of this extended funerary behaviour may be the practice of
so-called grave-robbing. While clearly some burials were merely plundered for their
valuables, many of the break-ins to mounds and other graves are so extensive that
they simply cannot have been done in secret or without wider social sanction – the
disturbance of the Oseberg burial is a case in point. Often burials were opened (perhaps
a better term than ‘broken into’) soon after the original interment, as seen in the still
partial articulation of the corpses when they were disturbed. While some of these
removals have a relatively clear motive, such as the translation of Gorm the Old’s bones
to the new church at Jelling, others are more obscure. Often the bodies are moved
around or taken out altogether, some objects are taken while others are left alone,
and sometimes it is possible to see how piles of items were shifted en masse and left
where they were placed, presumably in order to access something else. Some of these
Figure 19. 4 A reconstruction of Birka chamber grave Bj. 834 , showing a couple buried together
seated on the same chair, with horses and a lance thrown over the bodies. (Drawing: Þórhallur Þráinsson,
after Price 2002 .)
–– chapter 19: Dying and the dead––