Norway 2: The Oseberg Burial Flashcards
What did the Oseberg burial contain?
A well preserved Viking ship
Numerous grave goods (which show it was a burial of high status and there are remains of one fine set of clothes— shows one woman was higher up than the other)
2 female human skeletons
Numerous horses and dog skeletons
Date of the burial
The ship’s timbers have been dendochronologically dated to around 834
What casts light on the fact it may not be a royal burial?
We don’t have another burial of women as rich as this, so it is completely anomalous
Discuss the older woman…
Older woman aged between 60-70
The older woman had a deformed foot and there are two pairs of expensive calf skin shoes that would fit her– suggests she was the chief person in the burial
Discuss the younger woman…
Younger woman aged around 50
Some have argued the younger woman was Alfhild, the first wife of Harald Fairhair’s grandfather, Guthroth (but then Snorri’s dates about him would be wrong)
What casts doubts on the notion of the chief person being royal?
The older woman suffered from Morgani’s syndrome, a hormonal syndrome— What viking man would have married a woman with a beard? and we know of no Viking women who ruled by themselves
The younger woman– DNA analysis shows her ancestors probably came from Iran— she would have offered little benefit in terms of alliances- why would she have married into a powerful family?
Cult leader theory…
Older woman (more likely due to her appearance) may have been a cult leader and the younger a servant or assistant --- The saga of Eirik the Red tells of a soceress in Greenland who needed an assistant to sing songs to attract spirits
How can we judge that the women were important
The ship itself was ‘moored’ in the grave by being tied to a rick and the wagon it was on’s front wheels couldn’t turn.
This somewhat contradicts the general assumption that ship graves are to take the dead into the next world as this ship wasn’t going anywhere
— This suggests that the people did not want the women to sail off or turn away from the community but rather that they should stay and help the community as they had always done
