medieval-atlas/events-to-about-850/71

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Viking graves The graves of the pagan Norsemen and women are a most important body of archaeological evidence from the early medieval period of Scottish history. They are evidence for the settlement of peoples of Norse culture with direct links with Western Norway and evidence for their adoption of some elements of local Celtic culture, and possibly for their intermingling with the local Celtic population. They are also rare evidence of early medieval society in a world where Christianised populations had long foregone the custom of burying goods with the dead, and the archaeological record is otherwise very meagre. Not only do the graves include ornaments and weapons, ,but also the tools of craftsmen and of farmers, as well as a variety of domestic implements. Several of them have traces of boats which had formed part ofthe grave furniture, as well as the skeletal material of domestic animals. There are difficulties in dating these graves precisely, but they support in general the dates for the Viking invasions known from historical sources, which span the ninth century (with a late eighth century beginning) and spread into the tenth century, at any rate in the Northern Isles. They fit into the place-name evidence which maps the area of Norse settlement so precisely, and confirm -StKilda • C? .... Male grave • Female grave ~ o Find where sex not indicated, or uncertain if the maritime nature of this settlement, in the Western Isles and Man, Orkney, Caithness and the Dornoch area of Sutherland. Strangely, very few graves have ever been found in Shetland. The eventual decline of the practice can be linked to conversion to Christianity which took place formally in Orkney in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. But influence from native practice probably also played a part in changing custom and perhaps accounts for the rather small number of graves found in total something like nearly one hundred individual graves, whereas over three hundred have been found in Iceland, which was moreover not settled until the late ninth century. ~;I ~~~ #-c!] • ~)J find comes from a grave ... * Pagan cemetery X X x Grave or find of Norse artefact in a Church yard ? Exact location uncertain BEe • Family boat burial in Sanday, Orkney Viking graves

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