The Armour Archive

In the past I had wondered if the Valsgärde/Vendel graves were simple boat graves (ie a body in a boat with goods) or if they were similar to the Gokstad ship (ie a boat with the wooden 'tent' over the body and graves goods.

As much of what I am researching is not available in English, its a slow process in getting things translated but every once in a while I stumble onto a good piece of info in English.

Today while trying to decide which back issues of Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science (JONAS) (http://www.archaeology.su.se/arklab/jonas/) to buy, I ran across this:

http://www.archaeology.su.se/arklab/jonas/abs1011.html#malmius

The textile fragments in boat-grave 5, Valsgärde, Old Uppsala parish, Uppland
by Anita Malmius
"The present work deals with the textile finds from the Vendel Period boat-grave 5 at Valsgärde, Uppland. The excavation of boat-grave 5 between 1929 and 1930 resulted in the discovery of 120 textile fragments, most of them stuck to metal (shield mountings, helmet etc.) and covered with metal corrosion. A main result of the present work is that the deceased seems to have been laid to rest covered by a cloak, but not formally dressed. Instead, several types of fine textiles, suitable for garments, were placed on top of the shields that covered the cloaked body and above the mans head, where the textiles lay in several layers. The helmet and parts of the shields were covered with a fabric that might have been a "field" cloak/blanket. The central part of the boat was covered with a tent/superstructure of birch-bark with a fabric lining. A textile quiver and a buckle with a patterned fabric from the edging of a caftan were placed separately closer to the stem. "



Its the next to the last sentence that is interesting, seems to suggest yet another ship burial with tent remains. I have asked Thora (Sharptooth), if she has any info on the textile remains from this grave and if so does that info indicate anything about being tent remains.

Also, the way I read the abstract above, the 'tent' was assembled over the body, this is quite different than the tents found in other graves (Gokstad and Oseberg), as they are not assembled, just part of the grave goods.

Halvgrimr

ps, for those wondering, from what I have gathered the Valsgärde 5 grave is dated to the mid/late 7th century.




[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-27-2003).]

Interesting link, as well as the fabric-lined birch-bark tent. I'm having trouble picturing it.

Me too Bascot.

I did a little preliminary searching on the web and came up with these two pics of lavvus:

http://foto.ravna.no/detail.asp?product_id=020108

http://foto.ravna.no/detail.asp?product_id=021720

these are traditional Saami summer tents, I cant say if they are the same style though.

I also found this stateside business that sells them.

http://lavvu.com/index.html


If the connection is there, I may buy one of the small tents for a weekend event tent (the Wedge o Doom is ok for wars but its to much for a weekend IMO).

I know some folks doubt the entervention of the two cultures so I spoke with NB abou tit some more about documenting the intermingling of the cultures, this is what he had to say:


<I>>but I have often seen this very discussion (but normally with alter period
>"Vikings") end up with >someone saying that "The Vikings" didn't have
>contact with the Saami until much later (13th C +?), >when you get time,
>can you shoot me some references for interaction this early (the Vendel
>Period)? >I want some ammo for that discussion the next time it comes up
Well - most of the evidences are secondary - such as knot-work ornaments (on
antler spoons from Björkö for instance) or the dietary patterns I spoke of
earlier. Most of the south-Saami culture vanished as people cross-married
and/or settled down as farmers during the late medieval period. Their
language differed quite much from that of the northern Saami population -
like modern Swedish and modern German (some words in common, but you can't
understand much). Some of the south-Saamis are still left, even though they
are more to be considered as "mid-Saamis" since they came from that part of
Sweden/Norway. Many of their traditional patterns are outright "copies" of
ornaments on combs, birch bark objects and spoons – like the birch bark
coverings from Vendel/Valsgärde (very similar patterns have been found in
Saami graves in Norway). The troublesome part is that the Saami settlements
are so hard to find - a shallow depression in the ground with some obscure
stones in the middle - without a closer examination/excavation they can be
very hard to separate from later foundations for charcoal stacks (they are
all over the forested areas of Sweden - traces of the "Iron Era" ~1600-1900
AD).
That's the current situation - we are quite certain that they were there
(Special cemeteries like Krankmårtenhögen in Härjedalen are sure signs. They
are mostly located to peninsulas in lakes. These graves were often covered
with moose and reindeer antlers)- but we have yet to find a god method to
identify their settlements.
What we don't know is if the "Saami" of the Iron Age saw upon themselves as
Saami - it is dangerous to use more modern ethnic definitions on a
pre-historic culture. The "proto-Saamis" might well have transformed into
the current culture, but to say (like some researchers do) that the Saami
were the indigenous people of Scandinavia is to stretch the academic rubber
band beyond the limit.
In some parts of Scandinavia every living person have Saami ancestors - but
most often it's only the reindeer herders that are called Saamis - that has
caused and is still causing many a bitter conflict. I recon that's the
reason why so few archaeologists have tried to "dig deeper" in the Saami
pre-history - it's such a mess and whatever they'd find would be considered
as rubbish by the "other side" (-they even brought two archaeologists in as
court witnesses in a process some years ago - one on each side...)
Try too get a hold of "Möte i gränsland", the book I mentioned previously.
Even though it is in Swedish you have an English summary that might help -
it's actually the only book on the subject (and of course it's considered as
biased by some...).

No definite answer (yet) - hopefully there'll be one (or more likely -
several) in the future...</I>