Some graves are so rich that they still take our breath away. The Oseberg grave near Tønsberg in Norway is one such: a ship more than twenty metres long, carved from top to bottom, with two women inside and a wealth of grave goods rarely found. A look into the most splendid woman's grave of the Viking Age – and at its many open questions.
The Oseberg ship is a karve, clinker-built, almost entirely of oak, a good 21 metres long. Bow and stern are covered all over with interlocking animals – so artful that a whole art style was named after the find: the Oseberg style. In 1904 and 1905 the archaeologists Gabriel Gustafson and Haakon Shetelig excavated the ship from a large burial mound. It remains among the finest things preserved from the Viking Age.
In the ship lay two women, together in one bed. One was old, about eighty, marked by severe arthritis; the other was at first thought young, but newer analysis suggests an age of about fifty to fifty-five. Which of the two was the mistress and which the companion is unclear to this day – as is whether one of them was sacrificed to follow the other in death.
Two women, together in one bed, in a carved ship full of gifts: the most splendid woman's grave the Viking Age has left. Description of the Oseberg grave (excavation 1904/05)
Although the grave had already been opened by robbers in ancient times and relieved of gold and silver, a treasure of everyday life and art remained: four richly carved sleighs, a four-wheeled ceremonial cart (the only complete one of the Viking Age), beds, chests, weaving gear, textiles and silk, along with the famous “Buddha bucket.” And in the grave lay the bones of fourteen horses, an ox and three dogs – an expense that shows the high standing of those buried.
Who the noble woman was, no one knows. One interpretation sees in her Queen Åsa of the Yngling clan, grandmother of Harald Fairhair; another holds her to be a seeress, a völva. Neither can be proven. The grave is dated – the timbers of the burial chamber point exactly to the autumn of 834 – but the woman's name remains a secret.
The Oseberg style with its gripping beasts still resonates today: fine, interwoven, alive. Such Norse art is the heart of our work – motifs with roots, cleanly engraved in natural slate. Whoever wants to know the ships of the Vikings more closely will find them in our piece on the Skuldelev ships.
The Oseberg ship (near Tønsberg, Vestfold) is a clinker-built oak karve, a good 21 m long, with richly carved bow and stern (Oseberg style). Excavated in 1904/05 by Gabriel Gustafson and Haakon Shetelig. Dendrochronology dates the burial to the autumn of 834. In the grave: two women (one ~80, one ~50–55), 14 horses, an ox, three dogs, along with sleighs, the only complete Viking-age cart, textiles and the “Buddha bucket.” The grave had been robbed in ancient times. Today in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.
Much is interpretation: whether the woman was Queen Åsa or a völva is unproven. The broken collarbone of the younger woman was at first taken as proof of sacrifice, but it had already healed for weeks. And the much-quoted claim that she had, via DNA, roots near the Black Sea/in Iran (haplogroup U7) could NOT be confirmed by three later studies – the samples are probably contaminated. Certain are the ship, the dating and the splendour of the grave.
The Skuldelev ships · Stone ships – ships of stone · Boat burial – the burning ship · Viking jewellery · The Ulfberht sword.