Ship burial

Not to be confused with Burial at sea.

Ship burial of Igor the Old in 945, depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902)

Model of the Sutton Hoo ship's structure as it might have appeared, with chamber area outlined

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat 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 among the Germanic peoples, particularly by Viking Age Norsemen.

A unique eye-witness account of a 10th-century ship burial among the Volga Vikings is given by Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan.^{[citation needed]}

Viking Age ship burials

Scandinavia

• Ladby - from Kerteminde on the island of Funen, Denmark
• Gokstad - from Kongshaugen, Vestfold, Norway
• Oseberg - from Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway
• Tune - from Haugen farm on Rolvsøy in Tune, Østfold, Norway
• Valsgärde - from a farm on the Fyris River, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden
• Vendel - from Ottarshögen (the mound of Ohthere) in Uppland, Sweden
• Anundshög - the mound of Anund just outside Västerås in Västmanland, Sweden

British Isles

Viking/Norse burial

• Balladoole and Knock-e-Dooney - Viking ship burials on the Isle of Man
• Port an Eilean Mhòir - The only Viking burial yet discovered in mainland Britain, the mound was found in 2006 and excavated in 2011
• The Scar boat burial - a Viking burial found on Sanday, one the Orkney Islands

Anglo-Saxon

• Snape - from Snape Common in Suffolk, East Anglia, England
• Sutton Hoo - Anglo-Saxon burial site near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England

Eastern Europe

• Salme ships - from the island of Saaremaa, Estonia
• Rurikovo Gorodishche - situated on an island on the Volkhov River near Veliky Novgorod, Russia
• Sarskoye Gorodishche - from a medieval fortified settlement in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia
• Timerevo - from site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, Yaroslavl, Russia
• Black Grave - from the largest burial mound in Chernihiv, Ukraine

See also

• Norse funeral
• Ímar Ua Donnubáin, legendary Irish navigator of partial Norse descent
• Stone ship
• Chariot burial (Iron Age tradition)
• Solar barge (Bronze Age tradition)
• Khufu ship (Ancient Egypt)