Fragments of a conversion: handling
bodies and objects in pagan and
Christian Scandinavia AD 800–1100
Julie Lund
http://wwwtandfonlinecom.ezproxy2.acu.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2012.759511#aHR
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The article discusses aspects of changing relationships between the
living and the dead in Scandinavia in the Viking Age (800 – 1050AD) and
the beginning of the Early Middle Ages (1050 –1100AD). This period was
characterized by the change of religion from Paganism to Christianity.
Studies of the process of religious conversion in Scandinavia are often
based on the changes in burial customs from paganism to Christianity.
The overarching message of these interpretations is that this process ran
from the complex to the simple – from elaborate pagan burials to
Christian inhumation graves in churchyards without any grave goods.
Within archaeology, the change of religion in Scandinavia has been
studied through analyses of burial customs, the presence of pagan
amulets or crucifixes, inscriptions on runestones, identification of the
oldest church buildings and a related debate on the existence of
continuity in use of place or area. A grave was determined as Christian if
it was an inhumation grave, did not contain grave goods, was oriented
east-west, was located in a churchyard and so on. The presence of
crucifixes and other objects related to Christianity or objects interpreted
as pagan amulets such as Thor’s hammers was used to determine
whether the grave was pagan or Christian. This meant that the change of
religion was generally seen as a one-way development towards an ideal:
the Christianity of the Scandinavian high Middle Ages reached by the
thirteenth century.
Bodies and objects: parallels or overlaps in the Viking Age
One simple way of summing up the burial customs of Viking Age
Scandinavia is to describe it as an abundance of varieties. In Gammel
Lejre, Zealand, Denmark, a combination of inhumation and cremation
graves of the ninth and tenth centuries is found. Burial customs
at Gammel Lejre include large ship stone settings, double graves and a
grave with a decapitated body. There are inhumation graves which
contain burnt human bone, one inhumation grave where the deceased
had been placed in a wooden chest with a lock, graves with an
abundance of grave goods in terms of precious objects and animal bones
from many different species of farm animals and graves with single
objects or no objects at all.
Cremation graves appear in the Viking Age with many variations. One of
the most dominant types are graves placed on the location of the pyre
(Shetelig 1912: 179). In other cases the deceased is cremated in one
place, but the bones and artefacts from the pyre are buried in another.
Normally, this reburial of the material from the cremation includes
parts of the charcoal and ashes of the pyre.