Medievalists.net

Where the Middle Ages Begin

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Online Courses
  • Podcast
  • Patreon Login
  • About Us & More
    • About Us
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Films & TV
    • Medieval Studies Programs
    • Places To See
    • Teaching Resources
    • Articles

Medievalists.net

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Online Courses
  • Podcast
  • Patreon Login
  • About Us & More
    • About Us
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Films & TV
    • Medieval Studies Programs
    • Places To See
    • Teaching Resources
    • Articles
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Articles

Buried with Honour and Stoned to Death? The Ambivalence of Viking Age Magic in the Light of Archaeology

by Medievalists.net
December 5, 2011

Buried with Honour and Stoned to Death? The Ambivalence of Viking Age Magic in the Light of Archaeology

By Leszek Gardeła

Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia, Vol.4 (2009)

Introduction: In 1981 Danish archaeologists revealed a remarkable Viking Age grave mound in the village of Gerdrup. It was located on a beach ridge near what was once an old arm of the Roskilde fjord and inside they found skeletal re- mains of a man and a woman. The man’s legs were positioned in a very peculiar way, but the treatment of the woman’s corpse was even more striking – her remains were crushed with two large boulders: one placed on the chest and the other on her right leg. A few years later another puzzling burial was excavated in the island of Langeland (Denmark) at the Viking Age cemetery in Bogøvei. The remains of a man were lying prone in a shallow grave with two stones placed on his body, one on his left hip and the other partly covering his left arm and back. At least ten other graves in which the dead were buried in a similar manner – namely crushed or held down with stones – are known from Late Iron Age Scandinavia. Most of them are located in Denmark, but there are also some examples from Sweden and Iceland.

Who were these people and why were they treated in such a manner? Do their graves demonstrate a negative attitude to the deceased shared by those responsible for the burial? Can we interpret such graves as those of individuals who were considered a dangerous threat to their societies? Were they thieves, murderers, sexual offenders or agents of magic executed for malevolent deeds? Or maybe they just were ordinary people, decent and hardworking, but nonetheless someone had decided that they should be seen otherwise? Can archaeological interpretations reveal the past identities as they really were or can they only reveal how the dead may have been remembered by their contemporaries? How are Viking Age death rituals of the past interpreted and reconstructed today? These and other questions shall be explored in this paper.

Click here to read this article from Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia

Click here to read this article from Academia.edu

Subscribe to Medievalverse




Related Posts

  • 'Warrior-women' in Viking Age Scandinavia? A preliminary archaeological study
  • Cumbrian Heritage: Viking Cemetery
  • Viking warrior women with Leszek Gardeła
  • Archaeologists uncover human remains in Dublin
  • Mysterious Viking boat graves discovered in Norway
TagsFolklore • Medieval Archaeology • Medieval Denmark • Medieval Social History • Norse Society and Culture • Scandinavia in the Middle Ages • Vikings

Post navigation

Previous Post Previous Post
Next Post Next Post

Medievalists Membership

Become a member to get ad-free access to our website and our articles. Thank you for supporting our website!

Sign Up Member Login

More from Medievalists.net

Become a Patron

We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model.

 

We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval. Our website, podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages. We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast, hire more writers, build more content, and remove the advertising on our platforms. This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce.

Become a Patron Member Login

Medievalists.net

Footer Menu

  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Copyright © 2025 Medievalists.net
  • Powered by WordPress
  • Theme: Uku by Elmastudio
Follow us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter