'Imbued with the Essence of the Owner': Personhood and Possessions in the Reopening and Reworking of Viking-Age Burials. (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Klevnäs, Alison Margaret
• Is Part Of: European journal of archaeology. Volume 19:Number 3(2016)
• Page Start: 456
• Page End: 476
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: Viking-age -- Scandinavia -- mortuary archaeology -- grave disturbance -- monuments -- burial archaeology -- social memory -- heirlooms; époque viking -- Scandinavie -- archéothanatologie -- remaniement de sépultures -- monuments -- archéologie funéraire -- mémoire sociale -- patrimoine; Wikingerzeit -- Skandinavien -- Archäologie der Grabsitten -- Grabstörungen -- Denkmäler -- Gräber -- soziales Gedächtnis -- Erbstücke; Archaeology -- Europe -- Periodicals; Europe -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; 936.005
• DOI: 10.1080/14619571.2016.1190202
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-9571

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the wide range of grave disturbance practices seen in Viking-age burials across Scandinavia. It argues that the much-debated reopenings at high-profile sites, notably the Norwegian 'royal' mounds, should be seen against a background of widespread and varied evidence for burial reworking in Scandinavia throughout the first-millenniumad and into the Middle Ages. Interventions into Viking-age graves are interpreted as disruptive, intended to derail practices of memory-creation set in motion by funerary displays and monuments. However, the reopening and reworking of burials were also mnemonic citations in their own right, using a recurrent set of practices to make heroic, mythological, and genealogical allusions. The retrieval of portable artefacts was a key element in this repertoire, and in this article I use archaeological and written sources to explore the particular concepts of ownership which enabled certain possessions to work as material citations appropriating attributes of dead persons for living claimants.