Tuna in Badelunda
Gold Women Boats
This publication deals with an archaeological excavation with remarkable finds
which partly seem to give new insights into the Iron Age civilization around the
interior of Lake Mälaren.
The story begins at midsummer 1952. In the neighbourhood of' the farm Tuna,
on a low hill gently sloping towards a river which follows the dell from Tortuna
down to Hässlö, a new house is situated. At the kitchen table the county
antiquarian is sitting and looking at a pile of gold objects, which were found
while digging the house foundation. The objects, as was later revealed, had lain
in a burial richer in gold than any previously found in Scandinavia. Not only the
county antiquarian was taken aback by this extraordinary find. Other
archaeologists rejoiced, too, yet at the same time grieved with him. Rejoiced at
this find which, however broken and fragmentary, had now become known to
scholars. Grieved at the thought of the wonderful results that could have been
achieved if the excavation had been carried out by archaeologists and not by a
bulldozer, which had dumped the artefacts in the bulk of soil from the foundation
digging. What results might it not have given! The gold, which many must have
considered the most important, indicated to the archaeologists only the
abundant wealth bestowed on a dead woman. Probably the grave had also
contained much more fragile material, through irreparable damage now lost to
us.
This ill-treated find was the reason for the investigations at Tuna which carne to
reveal further sensations besides the 'gold grave'. Nobody had a presentiment
of the tedious work that followed. The archaeologist can never know in advance
what is hidden underground and what can be achieved with the many small
pieces which, when carefully recovered, are gradually inserted into the never
finished jig-saw puzzle representing our prehistory. With the aid of other
artefacts found in the heaps of soil around the house, as well as wellpreserved
wood which apparently came from a burial chamber, it could soon be
established that the gold artefacts originated from a grave. This soil had to be
sifted of course - a fairly easy task according to the archaeologists who had
inspected the site.
After midsummer the work started under the leadership of Professor Mårten
Stenberger in Uppsala. As the work advanced the heaps diminished in one
place and increased in another, since it was impossible to dump the soil outside
the site. But the work was hampered by the fact that as soon as the topsoil
beneath the heaps was removed, a great number of graves appeared which to
a large extent covered one another.
The first cheerful confidence soon changed to disappointment, as the graves lay
close but the artefacts were sparse. And autumn came, a very rainy autumn.
From day to day the clay became more and more wet, the stones more slippery,
and the site more like a devastated battlefield. But when it seemed most
hopeless, the situation changed. The investigations so far had taken place in
the south-eastern part of the site and had advanced slowly towards the central
and northern parts. There lay, hidden under several small graves, a huge,
circular stone-setting surrounded by a wide stone circle. The construction was
so large that only its southern half was occupied by the new house. Presumably
the gold came from this grave. However, there were many questions, and
therefore the stone-setting was called X (the unknown factor). Was anything left
in it? A primary investigation pointed in a positive direction and hopefully some
part of the burial could he preserved. The filled-in foundation trench at the side,
which in all probability faced the burial, was emptied. Decayed wood and dark
earth showed in the section, earth of the same sort as had adhered to the gold
objects.
On the other side of the house, in front of the entrance, a boat-shaped stonesetting with a promising cavity in the centre was revealed. But winter was
approaching and it was obvious that both constructions could not be excavated
during this season. The trench of grave X was therefore filled with straw and
sand and reinforced by boards as protection against the winter climate. The
work was instead concentrated on the boat-shaped stone-setting. A provisional
tent of tarpaulins was erected over it and electricity was installed, because the
work must be carried on by night, too. The expectations were redeemed.
Already when the covering stones were removed it was proved that it was a
matter of something unusual. The trench, like the stone layer above, was boatshaped and this could mean only one thing-a boatgrave. As few boat-graves-let
alone entire boat-grave cemeteries-had been found outside the central area
along the river Fyris in Uppland, it would be an archaeological sensation to find
boat-graves here.
Late one evening the bottom of the grave was reached. A tot of beads hinted at
the place of the body in the long trench, and soon a large gilt brooch with inlaid
red garnets was visible. Another brooch, pendants and more beads pointed to a
wealthy woman's burial. But nothing of the boat was preserved, not even rivets.
This grave was the cause of a new phase in the excavations. In the immediate
vicinity another boat-grave was found and then an additional one, and
inbetween these a number of graves which may have contained coffins or
chambers. With the knowledge of the grave sequence in the boat-grave
cemeteries in Uppland, it seemed probable that more could be expected and
that further excavations would answer some of the questions which suddenly
arose; the boat-grave cemetery differed, namely, from those in Uppland, where
this burial custom seems to have been reserved for men, and moreover only
one of each generation in certain important families. At Tuna women were
buried in boats. This and many other problems had to wait for their solution,
while the archaeolooists moved indoors to analyse the material already found.
With a certain optimism and expectation the investigations were resumed the
following spring, first by opening the remaining part of grave X. This
investigation answered the questions which had initiated the excavations.
Enough was left of the grave to allow an approximate reconstruction of its
original appearance. Parts of' one short end of a timbered chamber remained
and there was found, undisturbed, i.a. a well-preserved Roman silver spoon,
corresponding to the one found earlier in the soil from the digging for the new
house.
During the investigation of the remaining third of the site in the summer,
cremation graves were excavated as well as another five boat-graves, all with
buried women judging from the ornaments and other objects. There was quite a
little flottila of'grave boats, all heading southwestwards.
The most remarkable find this year, and also one of the most important from a
scientific point of view, was grave 75, the northernmost of the boat-graves.
Without regard for an older, beautifully built stone-setting, a trench had been
dug so deep into the clay that the buried boat lay under the subsoil water level.
Over the trench had lain a timber roof weighted by large boulders which
together with the roof gradually had caved in on the boat. Because of this heavy
shelter and-above all the wet clay a boat-grave had been preserved here with a
boat as well as wooden and metal objects which gave an impression of' an
unusually complete boat-burial. These fortunate circumstances also helped to
explain the problem with the other boats on the site without rivets. It appeared
that an elegant seam of withe replaced the usual rows of rivets in the planks.
The excavations of' this boat lasted two months and was accomplished by the
boat being removed to the museum in Västerås, where it was exhibited with its
contents of wooden objects and ornaments.
What results were achieved by these excavations during two seasons? The
main purpose of the investigations was initially to conclude where the gold
objects came from and, if possible, to reconstruct what had been destroyed by
the house. But the task became more and more complicated. Out of one grave
had become about eighty, covering a space of time from the 4th century A.D. to
the end of the Viking Age at the mid 11 th century. We now know that a wealthy
woman in the beginning of this era had been buried on the small hill c. 200
metres from the present-day Tuna farm. She lived at the time when the
foundations of the Roman Empire were shaken by the violent attacks of the
Germanic peoples. Besides a probably rich equipment of textiles and other
perishable materials she had been supplied with one necklace, two armrings,
two finger-rings and two pins of gold, as well as three bronze vessels, two silver
spoons and a splendid glass beaker, these latter certainly as highly valued as
the gold objects. Everything except the beautifully worked gold was imported
from the Roman Empire, one example among many other of the cultural
dominance of this empire.
We do not know who the buried woman was. Undoubtedly she had an important
social position and created at her Tuna estate a tradition inherited by the
women who were buried in their boats. Around her grave a cemetery gradually
developed, of which the excavated site is the eastern part, while the rest
extends out in the adjacent fields westwards.
As a result of the site being filled up by large grave constructions during the
following centuries, younger graves were placed on top of the older ones. The
many small cremation graves which were in majority roughly covered the whole
space of time between the 'gold grave' and the end of the Viking Age. Towards
the centre of the field were eight boat-graves dug down through older
constructions, constituting a series from the 8th to the mid 11 th century. The
abovementioned grave 75 is one of the oldest, from the early 9th century. In it
were found many objects of perishable materials, in this case remarkably
preserved; presumably the same equipment had once lain in the other boatgraves, along with the rather standardized ornaments. In spite of the
sensationally rich contents of grave X, the more commonplace objects in the
preserved wooden boat must be regarded as among the most remarkable in the
cemetery from a scientific point of view. This includes to a great extent the
remains of the boat which, through its construction - a dug-out with sewnon
planks - is an important contribution to the history of boat-building in
Scandinavia.
Because this grave was excavated in an undisturbed condition, many valuable
observations could be made in detail. The woman had been buried on a
stretcher placed over the thwarts, on a mattress of straw or hay. From the
osteological investigation of the tooth enamel - the only skeletal remains
preserved - it is evident that she was old when she died. On her chest she wore
several strings of beads of multi -coloured glass. On one of the strings, between
groups of small white and blue beads, hung at least thirteen pendants
manufactured of sheet silver pressed on Arabic coins from the mid 8th century,
the foreign inscription forming an ornamental pattern. These pendants are
hitherto unique in Sweden. The woman's dress had been fastened together by
three bronze brooches. On her wrists she wore two heavy armlets with traces of
rich ornamentation and a spiral ring. We get a faint impression of the woman's
splendid dress through the preserved remains of different fabrics, probably in
dazzling colours: silk from the Near East, and linen and wool woven in broken
lozenge twill.
The boat in which the woman was buried was richly furnished for the last
journey. On the railing lay the oars and in the prow the household utensils: a
clay pot, a large birchbark box, a wooden cup on foot, an extremely wellpreserved wooden spoon, and likewise of wood a pail, a plate, a dish, a trough
and a small rectangular box. All the vessels probably once contained food and
beverage.
These boat-graves are interesting not only because of their contents but also as
further proof of the importance that certain estates of the name Tuna had in our
prehistory. All but one of the boat-grave cemeteries in Uppland are situated at
Tuna farms. These estates seem to have been centres of the regional
government as well as of the cult. The problems concerning them are closely
connected with the question about the beginning of the formation of a state.
There are striking similarities between the boat-graves at Tuna and those in
Uppland, e.g. apparently only one person of each generation, probably the head
of the family, was given such an expensive and extraordinary funeral. But the
decisive difference is that the boat-graves in Uppland practically always contain
men, richly equipped with weapons and horses. The most splendid graves
belong to the Vendel Period (c. 600-800 A.D.). Here in Tuna it is amazing to find
that women were buried in all the boats - as in the rich “gold grave” - while the
men were cremated and buried in rather insignificant stone-settings, only
exceptionally with weaponry. These remarkable graves strengthen the opinion
that Scandinavian women were able to assert themselves, an opinion found in
the works of Latin authors and in the Norse sagas.
The 'gold grave', the boat-graves, and the commanding area around Anundshög
- possibly the largest burial mound in Sweden with old traditions as a thing place
- together hint at another historic problem. We have reason to believe that the
concentration of power in the Svea region, from the Migration Period on was
located in the area of (Old) Uppsala, where the three large burial mounds still
bear witness of power and glory. The area around Västerås with its multitude of
graves has obtained, through the 'gold grave', further accentuated significance
during the period preceding these graves.
Originating in this period and this area is among other important finds a famous
bronze vase with silver-inlaid ornaments which tells us a story about
connections from afar. According to its Latin inscription, it was dedicated to a
half Celtic, half Roman sun god, Apollo-Grannus. The vase was used as a
grave urn in a mound at Fycklinge, Björksta parish. Do this wealthiness and the
multitude of imported valuables indicate that the centre of the 'Svea state' was
once situated in this area?
The few boat-graves and their position in the Tuna cemetery seem to indicate
that they form only a part of a greater collection of boats, placed on top of the
slope to the west of the investigated area, now under cultivated fields. The
chamber from the 4th century as well as the boats contained women. The great
number of cremation graves speaks in favour of a continuous sequence
between this oldest burial and the youngest boat-grave. Outside the excavated
area lie probably the missing links in the series of richer graves paralleling the
simple cremations. In spite of this lack of completeness in the grave series there
appears nevertheless the impression of a family cherishing tradition, maybe
originating in religious ideas.
When the light vessels were rowed up the at that time navigable river Tortuna,
they passed within sight of the Tuna estate which, from its promontory,
dominated the wide dell. Past estate and cemetery, through the ford at
Anundshög and over the Badelunda ridge led the road which must have been
old already when the kings came this way on their “Eriksgata”. The power of the
estate must have been great, as the wealth concealed in the cemetery to a
great extent had been protected from robbers. The ladies would be able to
assert their authority if it was necessary. Still, we do not know enough about
these noble women. Perhaps an excavation of the remaining parts of the
cemetery would shed light over them and their life, but perhaps even more over
the history of the development during the obscure centuries called the Migration
Pcriod.
This essay is a translation of an article in the daily newspaper “Vestmanlands
läns tidning”, special issue for Christmas, December 22, 1953, written by Erik
Nylén and Bengt Schönbäck.
English revised by Laura Wrang