Gjellestad, and other Norse Viking Ship Burial Sites

Abstract

This article examines Gjellestad as one of many archaeological sites containing ship burials. These burial sites are our most important source of information about boats and ships in the Late Iron Age. They also shed light on religious practices and reveal past power distribution and the political dynamics of their contemporary society. Instead of focusing solely on Gjellestad as an example of such an archaeological context, the article goes through the entire inventory of ship burials from the Nordic countries, as well as relevant examples from beyond this core region. The focus here is on ship mounds as political messengers; the chapter demonstrates that ship burials were primarily a phenomenon of the Viking Age and clearly indicate a burial practice associated with the elite and ruling class of society. Ship burials were placed in local centres of power, areas that must have held central functions in terms of long-distance trade, political administration, and the exercise of power.