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Scandinavia's
Greatest Archaeological Treasure
by Bob
Brooke
 Covered
for a millennium by a ton of stone and turf, the Oseberg ship is one of
Scandinavia's greatest archaeological treasures. The ship, excavated at
the Oseberg farm near Oslo, Norway, in 1904, had been a royal burial
place. The items found found within it have made it a valuable source of
information about the arts, crafts and culture of the early Viking Age. |
| Historians
believe the Oseberg ship may have been the tomb of Queen Asa, who Gudrod
the Magnificent, a Norwegian ruler, had abducted and forced to marry
him. According to legend, she hated Gudrod and had him murdered as he
lay in a drunken stupor. She assumed his throne until her death in about
850, when her subjects placed her body in a ship brought ashore from
Oslo fjord.
The
Oseberg ship was clearly the burial place of an important personage.
Archaeologists found two female skeletons, one of them possibly a maid
servant who had been sacrificed as part of the funeral ritual. Personal
possessions–beds, looms, and kitchen utensils–which might comfort or
serve a queen in the afterlife, surrounded the remains. Should her ghost
wish to travel, the burial ship had sailing gear, including a mast and a
full set of 30 oars, as well as four sleighs and an ornately decorated
cart.
Decorations
on the wooden cart found in the ship suggest that the vehicle, some five
meters long, belonged to a wealthy or royal Viking rather than a humble
farmer. Carvings on the front depict a man fighting with snakes,
possibly a scene from the life of Gunnar, a hero of Norse mythology.
Fully
restored, the Oseberg burial ship stands in the Viking Ship Museum in
Oslo, Norway. Made of oak planking held together with iron rivets, the
ship is 21.5 meters long, with an elaborately covered prow and a stern
soaring 5 meters above the deck.
To read more articles by
Bob Brooke, please visit his Web
site. |
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A
refreshing survey of Scandinavian architecture and interior design that
takes readers from rugged Icelandic coasts to rural locales to snowy
Norwegian forests to Danish farmland and on to cities like Copenhagen
and Oslo. The author blends traditional and contemporary styles with
emphasis on the rural culture from which they evolved.