The grave-goods suggest that the first Viking settlers arrived in the last quarter of
the ninth century, possibly from north-west England and Scotland. Nothing is known
of the mechanics of the settlement. The native inhabitants may initially have been
overwhelmed, but inscriptional evidence shows them soon living alongside each other.
Many single finds of weapons may well represent pagan graves (probably those of first-
generation settlers) – this is particularly true of objects (chiefly swords) found in ancient
graveyards, which continued in use into the Viking Age and beyond.
Interment in Christian flat-grave cemeteries is common and is best paralleled in
north-west England and Ireland. Mounds of the size which cover some Manx burials,
while rare in Scotland or Ireland, have been found in England, particularly in Cumbria –
almost in sight of the Isle of Man.
Figure 27. 3. 2 Plan of woman’s grave, St Patrick’s Isle. Above, capstones of the lintel-grave. Below, the
skeleton and grave-goods: JM, JN knives; JL bone comb; JK iron shears; JJ iron cooking-spit; NS down
pillow; the beads are below the skull.
–– chapter 27 ( 3 ): The Isle of Man––