Archaeology, photography, and art come together in a new book covering death and burial in the Viking Age. Terri Barnes reviews a visually striking work that transforms Viking funerary customs into reflections on memory, loss, and mortality.
By Terri Barnes
A brand new publication sheds fresh light on the subject of death and burial in the Viking Age. Earth Wounds: Creative Explorations of Viking Age Funerary Customs is beautifully written and photographed, using both 35mm film and digital photography, by experimental archaeologists Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings. It is published by Hyldyr, a small, artisanal publisher in Washington State known for popularizing medieval and ancient materials, and includes introductions by archaeologists Leszek Gardeła and Giorgia Sottotetti.
Using art to document the stuff we unearth – what archaeologists call ‘material culture’ – is not new. But Earth Wounds will make you see the archaeology of death in the Viking Age like never before with art that is grounded in scholarship. Through carefully and thoughtfully-staged recreated burials that are based on actual graves, Kevin and Devon have created a way to engage with the past that is fresh for modern audiences. Their unique approach started as an art project with the goal of illuminating an often misunderstood subject that turned into something much more.
Though it has 200 pages, the book is tiny and fits in your hand like a small prayer book. As a historian who researches and teaches about the vikings, I found the photos and line illustrations, as well as the well-chosen excerpts from Old Norse poetry and literature, to be interesting and engaging. But there was also an overwhelming feeling that the book spoke to something deeper. The vikings are but a vehicle. The meditations on life and death feel universal in a way that I could imagine this book being helpful for someone experiencing and grieving a loss.
By blending their interests in living history, photography, drawing, and literature, they have created an approachable and visually-engaging volume that invites readers to think of not only viking funerals, but death in a new way. Readers don’t have to know anything about vikings or their age to appreciate and experience the gravity and even beauty of something that eventually comes to us all. The simple elegance of Earth Wounds, published completely in black and white, reminds us that in death is our shared humanity.
I had the great fortune of speaking with the authors about the book and their process on Vikingology Podcast earlier this year, which I cohost with C.J. Adrien. To appreciate all the effort and thought that went into this project, I recommend taking a look or listen.
In this day and age where we experience so much via the unreality of a digital, online world, this small tome is worth buying just so you can hold it in your hands. It’s not only the best way to read the content, but the best way to experience the craftsmanship that went into producing it. If you’re an enthusiast of all things medieval like I am, it’s the closest you’ll come to experiencing a precious illuminated manuscript, just like they would have done in the Middle Ages.
Earth Wounds: Creative Explorations of Viking Age Funerary Customs, by Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings, is available through the Hyldyr website.
Terri Barnes is a medieval historian and a post-graduate researcher at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Check out her Substack
Archaeology, photography, and art come together in a new book covering death and burial in the Viking Age. Terri Barnes reviews a visually striking work that transforms Viking funerary customs into reflections on memory, loss, and mortality.
By Terri Barnes
A brand new publication sheds fresh light on the subject of death and burial in the Viking Age. Earth Wounds: Creative Explorations of Viking Age Funerary Customs is beautifully written and photographed, using both 35mm film and digital photography, by experimental archaeologists Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings. It is published by Hyldyr, a small, artisanal publisher in Washington State known for popularizing medieval and ancient materials, and includes introductions by archaeologists Leszek Gardeła and Giorgia Sottotetti.
Using art to document the stuff we unearth – what archaeologists call ‘material culture’ – is not new. But Earth Wounds will make you see the archaeology of death in the Viking Age like never before with art that is grounded in scholarship. Through carefully and thoughtfully-staged recreated burials that are based on actual graves, Kevin and Devon have created a way to engage with the past that is fresh for modern audiences. Their unique approach started as an art project with the goal of illuminating an often misunderstood subject that turned into something much more.
Though it has 200 pages, the book is tiny and fits in your hand like a small prayer book. As a historian who researches and teaches about the vikings, I found the photos and line illustrations, as well as the well-chosen excerpts from Old Norse poetry and literature, to be interesting and engaging. But there was also an overwhelming feeling that the book spoke to something deeper. The vikings are but a vehicle. The meditations on life and death feel universal in a way that I could imagine this book being helpful for someone experiencing and grieving a loss.
By blending their interests in living history, photography, drawing, and literature, they have created an approachable and visually-engaging volume that invites readers to think of not only viking funerals, but death in a new way. Readers don’t have to know anything about vikings or their age to appreciate and experience the gravity and even beauty of something that eventually comes to us all. The simple elegance of Earth Wounds, published completely in black and white, reminds us that in death is our shared humanity.
I had the great fortune of speaking with the authors about the book and their process on Vikingology Podcast earlier this year, which I cohost with C.J. Adrien. To appreciate all the effort and thought that went into this project, I recommend taking a look or listen.
In this day and age where we experience so much via the unreality of a digital, online world, this small tome is worth buying just so you can hold it in your hands. It’s not only the best way to read the content, but the best way to experience the craftsmanship that went into producing it. If you’re an enthusiast of all things medieval like I am, it’s the closest you’ll come to experiencing a precious illuminated manuscript, just like they would have done in the Middle Ages.
Earth Wounds: Creative Explorations of Viking Age Funerary Customs, by Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings, is available through the Hyldyr website.
Terri Barnes is a medieval historian and a post-graduate researcher at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Check out her Substack
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