Iron Age Boat Burials

The funerary practice of burying a body in or under a ship, found around the North Sea and Scandinavia from the late Iron Age into the Viking Age. The Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk (early 7th century AD, excavated 1939) held a 27-meter rowing ship and a high-status East Anglian assemblage. The Norwegian Oseberg (AD 834) and Gokstad (about AD 890) burials preserved whole oak ships in clay. The ship survived as a soil stain at Sutton Hoo; the Norwegian examples survived as physical timber.