Oseberg Burial

Oseberg Burial 

a Viking burial mound in southern Norway, at the village of Oseberg, near the city of T0nsberg. Dating from the mid-ninth century, it was excavated in 1904. The principal find was a 21.5-m-long ship with a mast and 15 pairs of oars; a burial chamber was located in the ship’s stern. Besides various types of ordinary ship artifacts, archaeologists found a wooden cart, three wooden sledges, three wooden beds, and other objects, all richly decorated with carvings. Other finds included various household items, clothing, and footwear. Also discovered were the skeletons of two women, four dogs, and 10–15 horses. Presumably, the Oseberg burial, like the mound with a ship that was excavated nearby in Gokstad, was a family graveyard of the Norwegian konungr of what is now Vestfold County.

REFERENCES

Osebergfundet: Utgit av den Norske stat, vols. 1–3 and 5. Kristiania (Oslo), 1917–28.
Brøgger, A. W., and H. Shetelig. The Viking Ships. Oslo, 1953.