Definition: The Oseberg Burial is a Viking ship burial, located on the banks of the Oslo Fjord in Norway. Oseberg is one of several ship burials in the Slagen district, but it is the richest of such burials. Excavated by Gabriel Gustafson [1853-1915] in 1904 and eventually written up by A.W. Brogger and Haakon Shetelig, the burial was covered by a large mound of peat and clay that had been robbed in antiquity.
The Oseberg ship was a karvi, a clinker-constructed ship built almost entirely of oak, and measuring 70.5 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 4.9 feet deep, with room for 30 oars. Dendrochronological dating of the grave chamber timbers gave a precise date of the construction as 834 AD. Two women were found buried in the ship, one aged 60-70 and the other 25-30; based on this, and the name of the nearby town, some have suggested the elderly woman was Queen Aasa, mentioned in the Viking poem Ynglingatal. No archaeological evidence has been found to support this.
Radiocarbon dating of the skeletons returned a date of 1220-1230 BP, consistent with the tree ring dates. DNA could only be retrieved from the younger woman, and it suggests she may have originated from the Black Sea region. Stable isotope analysis suggests the two had a primarily terrestrial diet, with small smaller amounts of fish.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the Guide to the Viking Age and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bonde, Niels and Arne Emil Christensen. 1993. Dendrochronological dating of the Viking Age ship burials at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, Norway. Antiquity 67(256):575-583.
Bruun, Per 1997 The Viking Ship. Journal of Coastal Research 13(4):1282-1289.
Holck, Per 2006 The Oseberg ship burial, Norway: New thoughts on the skeletons from the grave mound. European Journal of Archaeology 9(2-3):185-210.
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