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A ship burial or boat grave is a burial
Burial

Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over....
 in which a ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
 or boat
Boat

A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane on water, and provide transport over it. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas....
 is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was used in the Vendel era
Vendel era

In Sweden prehistory, the Vendel era is the name given to a part of the Germanic Iron Age .The migrations and the upheaval in Central Europe had lessened somewhat, and two power regions had appeared in Europe: the Merovingian kingdom and the Slavic peoples princedoms in Eastern Europe and the Balkans....
 and by the Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
, the Merovingians, the Vikings, the Balts
Balts

For the similarly named ethnic group inhabiting northern Pakistani Kashmir, see Balti peopleThe Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European languages family, are descended from a group of Indo-Europeans tribes who settled the area between lower Vistula and upper D...
 (especially the Curonians
Curonians

The Curonians were a people living on the Eastern shores of the Baltic who were eventually absorbed by the expansion of the Latvians and Lithuanians nations....
), and occasionally the Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ians. For the former three Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgThe Germanic peoples are a historical Ethnolinguistics group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European languages Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age....
, this burial was seen as a way for the dead to sail to Valhalla
Valhalla

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field F?lkvangr....
; ship burial was a high honour.








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A ship burial or boat grave is a burial
Burial

Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over....
 in which a ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
 or boat
Boat

A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane on water, and provide transport over it. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas....
 is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was used in the Vendel era
Vendel era

In Sweden prehistory, the Vendel era is the name given to a part of the Germanic Iron Age .The migrations and the upheaval in Central Europe had lessened somewhat, and two power regions had appeared in Europe: the Merovingian kingdom and the Slavic peoples princedoms in Eastern Europe and the Balkans....
 and by the Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
, the Merovingians, the Vikings, the Balts
Balts

For the similarly named ethnic group inhabiting northern Pakistani Kashmir, see Balti peopleThe Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European languages family, are descended from a group of Indo-Europeans tribes who settled the area between lower Vistula and upper D...
 (especially the Curonians
Curonians

The Curonians were a people living on the Eastern shores of the Baltic who were eventually absorbed by the expansion of the Latvians and Lithuanians nations....
), and occasionally the Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ians. For the former three Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgThe Germanic peoples are a historical Ethnolinguistics group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European languages Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age....
, this burial was seen as a way for the dead to sail to Valhalla
Valhalla

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field F?lkvangr....
; ship burial was a high honour.

Examples of ship burials

  • Khufu ship
    Khufu ship

    The Khufu ship is an intact full-size vessel from Ancient Egypt that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2,500 BC....
    , Giza pyramids complex (Fourth Dynasty
    Fourth dynasty of Egypt

    The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, also written Dynasty 4 and Dynasty IV, is characterized as a golden age of the Old Kingdom....
    )
  • Gokstad
    Gokstad ship

    The Gokstad ship is a late 9th century Viking ship found in a ship burial beneath a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway....
    , Norway
  • Ladby
    Ladby ship

    The Ladby ship is a major ship burial, of the type also represented by the boat chamber grave of Hedeby and the ship burials of Oseberg ship, Borre mound cemetery, Gokstad ship and Tune ship in South Norway, all of which date back to the 9th and 10th centuries....
    , Denmark
  • Oseberg
    Oseberg ship

    The Oseberg ship is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near T?nsberg in Vestfold county, Norway....
    , Norway
  • Snape
    Snape boat grave

    The Snape boat grave is a 6th century boat grave found at Snape, Suffolk, near Aldeburgh in Suffolk, East Anglia.This was the first boat grave of its kind discovered in England , and foreshadowed the discovery of the two large ship-burials, one of them plundered, at Sutton Hoo, Mounds 1 and 2....
    , East Anglia, England
  • Sutton Hoo
    Sutton Hoo

    Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, Suffolk, Suffolk, England, is the site of two Anglo-Saxons cemeteries of the 6th century and early 7th century, one of which contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of artifacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance....
    , East Anglia, England
  • Balladoole and Knock-e-Dooney Viking ship burials on the Isle of Man
    Isle of Man

    The Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical centre of the British Isles....
  • Tune
    Tune ship

    The Tune ship is a viking ship of the "karv" type found at Haugen farm on Rolvs?y in Tune, Norway, ?stfold, Norway. The ship was built around AD 900, and is made of clinker oak planks....
    , Norway
  • Valsgärde
    Valsgärde

    Valsg?rde or Vallsg?rde is a farm on the Fyris river, about three kilometres north of Gamla Uppsala, the ancient centre of the Swedish kings and of the pagan faith in Sweden....
    , Sweden
  • Vendel
    Vendel

    Vendel is a parish in the Swedish province of Uppland.The village overlooks a long inland stretch of water, Vendelsj?n, near which the Vendel river has its confluence with the river Fyris....
    , Sweden
  • Rurikovo gorodishche near Novgorod
  • Sarskoye Gorodishche
    Sarskoye Gorodishche

    Sarskoye Gorodishche or Sarskii fort was a medieval fortified settlement in the Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia. It was situated on the bank of the Sara River, a short distance from Lake Nero, to the south of modern Rostov, of which it seems to have been the early medieval predecessor....
     near Rostov
    Rostov

    Rostov is one of the oldest types of inhabited localities in Russia in Russia and an important tourist centre of the so called Golden ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero in Yaroslavl Oblast....
  • Timerevo
    Timerevo

    Timerevo is an archaeological site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, seven kilometers southwest of Yaroslavl, Russia, which yielded the largest deposits of early medieval Arabic coins in Northern Europe....
     near Yaroslavl
    Yaroslavl

    Yaroslavl is a types of inhabited localities in Russia in Russia, the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, located north-east of Moscow....
  • Black Grave
    Black Grave

    The Black Grave is the largest burial mound in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Comparable to the barrows of Gnyozdovo near Smolensk, the Black Grave has a height of 11 meters and a circumference of 125 meters....
     near Chernigov
  • Ibn Fadlan gives an eye-witness account of a 10th century ship burial
    Viking funeral

    The Norsemen often Cremation their dead in ship burials, known from archaeology, sagas, Old Norse poetry, and notably from #Ibn Fadlan's account. The Norse funerals that took place on land have permitted archaeologists to study the varying funeral traditions of Viking age Scandinavians....
     near what is now Balymer.


See also

  • Stone ship
    Stone ship

    The Stone ship was a Germanic burial custom, typical of Scandinavia, built from tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones. Sometimes they are of monumental proportions....
  • Solar barge
  • Chariot burial
    Chariot burial

    Chariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his chariot, usually including his horses and other possessions.The earliest chariots known are from chariot burials of the Andronovo culture sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in modern Russia, clustering along the upper Tobol river, southeast of Magnitogorsk,...