Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
Turning now to the evidence derived from the grave-mounds themselves, we
find that it corroborates and supplements the literary evidence in a
remarkable manner. For instance, close above the strand at Möklebust, in
Norway, there is a semi-globular mound 12 feet high and 92 feet in
diameter; round its base there is a ditch 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep,
interrupted on the south and east by accesses on the natural level. The
whole base of the mound was covered by a layer of burnt ashes. In an
oval, about 28 feet long and 14 feet wide, lay a quantity of iron rivets
and nails as they had settled down among the ashes when the planks they
had fastened were consumed. Around the circumference of this oval, and
among these rivets, were found no fewer than forty-two shield-bosses,
mingled with pike-heads, axes, swords, knives, and other implements of
iron. Near the centre of the oval lay a large bronze pot or caldron,
one-third full of burnt human bones, over which were heaped the bosses
of thirteen shields, now firmly rusted to each other and to the sides of
the pot. The pot itself was splendidly enamelled round the rim; in fact,
an exquisite work of art. Among the bones within it was an iron
pike-head, which M. Lorange, who explored the mound, concluded to have
been the weapon by which the Viking met his death. Recounting the whole
phenomena and circumstances of the burial as observed during the process
of exploration, he says: "It seems that the sea-king’s men had drawn his
ship up on the strand, with all its fittings as it was on the day of his
death, laid the dead man in it clad in his best and with his arms and
horse; then they hung their shields round the gunwales as they used to
do when going on a cruise, hoisted the sail, piled wood under and
around, and fired the vessel as she stood. Then, when the fire had done
its work, they gathered the burnt bones into this splendid pot, covered
them with the bosses of the burnt shields, and placed them in the centre
of the heap of ashes over which the great mound was finally reared."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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