Ship burial of Igor the Old in 945, depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902).

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was used in the Vendel era and by the Anglo-Saxons, the Merovingians, the Vikings, the Rus, the Balts (especially the Curonians), and occasionally the Ancient Egyptians. For the Germanic peoples, this burial was seen as a way for the dead to sail to Valhalla; ship burial was a high honour.

[edit] Examples of ship burials

• Khufu ship - from the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza
• Gokstad - from Kongshaugen, Vestfold, Norway
• Ladby - from Kerteminde on the island of Funen, Denmark
• Oseberg - from Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway
• Tune - from Haugen farm on Rolvsøy in Tune, Østfold, Norway.
• Valsgärde - from a farm on the Fyris River, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden
• Vendel - from Ottarshögen (the mound of Ohthere) in Uppland, Sweden
• Anundshog - in Västmanland, Sweden
• Snape - from Snape Common in Suffolk, East Anglia, England
• Sutton Hoo - Anglo-Saxon burial site near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
• Balladoole and Knock-e-Dooney Viking ship burials on the Isle of Man^[1]
• Rurikovo Gorodishche - situated on an island on the Volkhov River near Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
• Sarskoye Gorodishche - from a medieval fortified settlement in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia.
• Timerevo - from site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, Yaroslavl, Russia
• Black Grave - from the largest burial mound in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Ibn Fadlan - gives an eye-witness account of a 10th century ship burial near what is now Balymer.
• Stone ship
• Solar barge
• Chariot burial

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