Deconstructing the Deviant Burials

Deconstructing the deviant Burials - Kopparsvik and the Rite of Prone Burials in Viking Age Scandinavia Matthias Toplak The cross-cultural phenomenon of prone burials, which can be found on several cemeteries in Viking Age Scandinavia, is often regarded as a sign for so-called ‘deviant burials’, indicating a pejorative and post-mortem humiliation, an exclusion of the dead, or an apotropaic rite to avert supernatural threats, based on some famous but single cases of decapitations in prone burials from Viking Age Scandinavia. The case study of the late Viking Age cemetery of Kopparsvik on the Island of Got- land, Sweden, offers a rather different perspective. Due to their disproportionately high number and the often carefully arranged interment of the deceased, the prone burials at Kopparsvik should not to be regarded as ‘deviant’, but as a variation of the norm which in most cases seems to indicate a purposefully intended burial-rite with a presumably religious significance and conferring a special identity. According to archaeological as well as historical sources, a burial in prone position seems to indicate a special gesture of humi- lity towards God. Based on these results, it seems necessary to reconsider the traditional interpretation of prone burials in Christian societies as well as our general understanding and utilization of the concept of ‘deviant burials’. The late Viking Age cemetery of Kop- of the area did not take place until parsvik lay on the western shore of the 1960s when more than 300 gra- Gotland some two hundred meters ves were excavated (Pettersson 1966; south of the medieval city wall of Vis- Mälarstedt 1979). by (Fig. 1). First findings of skeletal Around 330 burials in simple gra- parts and Viking Age jewelry, which ve-pits or beneath stone settings, ly- indicated the existence of a large grave ing in what appear to be two separate field, were made at the end of the 19th areas, were excavated, most of them century, when the site was redevelo- dating from ca. 900 to 1050 AD. ped in the course of the then ongo- Based on stray finds of skeletal ma- ing industrialization. Nevertheless, a terial and Viking Age dress accesso- complete archaeological investigation ries a quantity of originally 400–450 79 Downloaded by 170.106.40.40 2021-09-27 00:00:30 META 2018 Figure 1. Map of southern Scandinavia with the important trading places in the late Viking Age [Drawing by the author] graves can be calculated, some of In contrast to the southern area which might have been destroyed of the cemetery, which shows a ba- in modern times through industrial lanced distribution of female and utilization of the area which is now male burials, there is a remarkable part of the harbour of Visby. Still, dominance of around 90% male even with around 330 burials, Kop- burials in the northern part along- parsvik is largest excavated ceme- side the former shoreline. The ce- tery from Viking Age Gotland and metery comprises almost exclusively it is to assume that Kopparsvik did adult burials: burials of young child- not only serve as the cemetery for ren are completely missing. Either a handful of farms, but belonged to women and children were buried a larger community settled around on a separate grave field which is the area of present-day Visby with still unknown, or the population the medieval harbour of Almedalen around Kopparsvik consisted main- as its centre (Toplak 2015; 2016a; ly of male adults, pointing to com- 2016b). prehensive trading activities. 80 Downloaded by 170.106.40.40 2021-09-27 00:00:30 MATTHIAS TOPLAK The burials of Kopparsvik were this cemetery from any other Viking astonishingly poor. In most cases Age burial place, is the unusual large the dead were buried only in their number of prone burials (Toplak clothes, and only some metal dress 2016a, s. 93–101). Around 50 de- accessories such as fibulae, belts or ceased – mostly men – were buried jewellery were found, comparable to in a prone position, the majority the late Viking Age churchyard bu- of them in the northern area of the rials on Gotland (Thunmark-Nylén cemetery alongside the former sho- 1995). Grave goods were absent reline (Fig. 2). By this, the burials in nearly a third of all burials and at Kopparsvik offer a unique access true grave goods that are normally for a detailed analysis and a better expected to be present in a Viking understanding of a little considered Age cemetery such as weapons, but frequently appearing feature in tools or food were extremely rare. burial rites.1 In the few cases (2% of all burials) Prone burials as a form of special in which weapons – mainly weapon treatment of the dead are known knives, some axes and lances – were from many cultural groups and ages deposited, it can be assumed that – from Palaeolithic to modern ti- these artefacts of power and status mes –, ranging between an isolated as reminiscence of traditional ideas phenomenon and a frequent burial of a warrior ideology were used to rite on several burial grounds (Ar- legitimize or to maintain the claim cini 2009; Duma 2010; Gardeła to power of a conservative elite in 2011; Gardeła 2013a; Gardeła face of social and ideological trans- 2015a; Skóra 2014; Toplak 2017). formations (Jakobsson 1992; Härke One of the earliest examples comes 2003; Brather 2009; Staecker 2009, from the well-known triple burial s. 485–491). Swords, shields and of Dolní Věstonice with one of the armour or riding equipment were deceased buried in a prone posi- completely absent which shows an tion (Klíma 1987; Svoboda 2015), obvious shift away from a tradi- while modern prone burials are tional and archaic warrior ideal of to be found in the trenches of the Vendel and early Viking Age (Härke First World War (Silberman 2004), 1990; 1992). and the Hungarian politician and Furthermore, several finds point Chairman of the Council of Minis- to an external influence or the pre- ters of the Hungarian People's Re- sence of people of non-Gotlandic public Imre Nagy and some other origin (Toplak 2016a, s. 175–179), defendant were buried face down as do the first results of an extensive with their hands and feet tied with strontium isotope analysis (Arcini barbed wire after their execution for 2010, s. 18). treason in 1958 (Dornbach 1994). The most striking element at More than 100 cases of prone Kopparsvik, which distinguishes burials could be located so far in 81 Downloaded by 170.106.40.40 2021-09-27 00:00:30 META 2018 Figure 2. Distribution of prone burials at the cemetery of Kopparsvik. [Copyright by Lena Thunmark-Nylén, reworked by the author. Reproduced from Thunmark-Nylén, Lena 2006. Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands. III:1-2 - Text. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, s. 632] 82 Downloaded by 170.106.40.40 2021-09-27 00:00:30 MATTHIAS TOPLAK Scandinavia from the first centuries half a dozen individual cases are to AD until the 11th century, most of be found on smaller cemeteries on them dating to the Viking Age (Fig. Zealand, Bornholm and in Skåne, 3). Single prone burials occur in the while three bigger cemeteries – Ma- Mesolithic and Neolithic Period, f. sede Fort (cat. no. 8–12) on Zea- ex. in Skateholm, Skåne (Larsson land and Slusegård (cat. no. 15–18) 1984) or in Ajvide, Eksta parish, on Bornholm, and Hammarsnäs and Domarve, Hablingbo parish, on (cat. no. 42–47) in Skåne – compri- Gotland (C. Arcini, personal com- se each half a dozen prone burials. munication). There are no known In present-day Sweden, single prone cases from the Bronze Age as well as burials are known from Öland and from Migration Period – except for Gotland. one burial from Maglebjerghøj on The majority of the around 100 Zealand (cat. no. 7) –, probably due cases of prone burials in Viking Age to the prevailing funeral rite of cre- Scandinavia comes from Gotland mation burials. In the Roman Iron (Fig. 4) due to the high number Age, prone burials are much more at Kopparsvik (cat. no. 53–101), numerous, mainly between Kattegat while a dozen prone burials are and the southern Baltic Sea. Around known from mainland Sweden and Figure 3. Distribution of prone burials in southern Scandinavia from Roman Iron Age to Late Viking Age. Two burials in northern Scandinavia (cat. no. 21; Haug, Hadseløya, Vesterålen, and cat. no. 34; Björkå, Ångermanland) are not depicted. [Drawing by the author] 83 Downloaded by 170.106.40.40 2021-09-27 00:00:30 META 2018 lidity was – except for single criti- cism on this anachronistic approach (Brather 2001, s. 264; Brather 2007, s. 114–116; Biermann 2009) – oversimplified transferred onto prehistoric societies, and is often regarded as one parameter of a special treatment of the deceased, a so-called ‘deviant burial’ (Hirst 1985, s. 36–37; Wilson 1992, s. 82; Aspöck 2008, s. 28; Arcini 2009, s. 194– 195; Tsaliki 2008, s. 8; Reynolds 2009, s. 68–76; Gardeła 2013a; 2013b; 2015a; 2015b; Gardeła & Kajkowski 2013). Such a ‘deviant burial’ (which should better be called ‘atypical burial’ (Aspöck 2008, s. 19–21)), indicated by a prone Figure 4. Distribution of prone burials on position of the deceased, is seen as Gotland from Roman Iron Age to Late Viking Age. [Drawing by the author] a post-mortem humiliation and exclusion of the dead with a pejorative Denmark and only very few cases intent. On the one hand, this could from Norway. In some of the buri- be the case with executed criminals als from Kaupang (cat. no. 22–24) or people that violated some taboo the deceased are lying in a twisted – e.g.

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