Assembling places and persons: a tenth-century Viking boat burial from Swordle Bay on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland
By Oliver J.T. Harris et al.
Antiquity, Vol.91 No.355 (2017)
Abstract: A rare, intact Viking boat burial in western Scotland contained a rich assemblage of grave goods, providing clues to the identity and origins of both the interred individual and the people who gathered to create the site. The burial evokes the mundane and the exotic, past and present, as well as local, national and international identities. Isotopic analysis of the teeth hints at a possible Scandinavian origin for the deceased, while Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian connections are attested by the grave goods. Weapons indicate a warrior of high status; other objects imply connections to daily life, cooking and work, farming and food production. The burial site is itself rich in symbolic associations, being close to a Neolithic burial cairn, the stones of which may have been incorporated into the grave.
Introduction: Viking boat burials are iconic archaeological discoveries. Wonderfully preserved examples discovered at Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway have sparked the imagination, and both archaeologists and the general public remain fascinated by these acts of conspicuous consumption. In the UK, examples are well known from the Scottish islands, including Orkney, Shetland and Colonsay, as well as from the Isle of Man. Until recently, however, no intact boat burials had been excavated by archaeologists on the UK mainland. That changed in 2011 when the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, which examines long-term change on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland, discovered and excavated a boat burial in Swordle Bay on the peninsula’s north coast. Although not as spectacular in size as some of the Scandinavian examples, it nevertheless represents a rich Viking grave, adding significantly to the corpus of examples from Britain. Dating most probably to the early tenth century AD, the grave assemblage included a rich collection of artefacts.
Click here to read this article from the University of Cambridge
Assembling places and persons: a tenth-century Viking boat burial from Swordle Bay on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland
By Oliver J.T. Harris et al.
Antiquity, Vol.91 No.355 (2017)
Abstract: A rare, intact Viking boat burial in western Scotland contained a rich assemblage of grave goods, providing clues to the identity and origins of both the interred individual and the people who gathered to create the site. The burial evokes the mundane and the exotic, past and present, as well as local, national and international identities. Isotopic analysis of the teeth hints at a possible Scandinavian origin for the deceased, while Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian connections are attested by the grave goods. Weapons indicate a warrior of high status; other objects imply connections to daily life, cooking and work, farming and food production. The burial site is itself rich in symbolic associations, being close to a Neolithic burial cairn, the stones of which may have been incorporated into the grave.
Introduction: Viking boat burials are iconic archaeological discoveries. Wonderfully preserved examples discovered at Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway have sparked the imagination, and both archaeologists and the general public remain fascinated by these acts of conspicuous consumption. In the UK, examples are well known from the Scottish islands, including Orkney, Shetland and Colonsay, as well as from the Isle of Man. Until recently, however, no intact boat burials had been excavated by archaeologists on the UK mainland. That changed in 2011 when the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, which examines long-term change on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland, discovered and excavated a boat burial in Swordle Bay on the peninsula’s north coast. Although not as spectacular in size as some of the Scandinavian examples, it nevertheless represents a rich Viking grave, adding significantly to the corpus of examples from Britain. Dating most probably to the early tenth century AD, the grave assemblage included a rich collection of artefacts.
Click here to read this article from the University of Cambridge
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