How Did Vikings Bury Their Dead? 

Never trust a historian who doesn't say things like, "Well, it depends," and "we really don't know."

My partner heard your voice and glanced over. He said, and I quote, "how does that man get more attractive every time you watch a video of his?" So there ya go Jimmy, you've turned a straight man's head and I hope that compliment brightens your day. 😊

Rodeo riders earn large fancy belt buckles for accomplishments in Rodeo. I attended the funeral of a 17 year old cowgirl who was a very successful and accomplished rodeo rider. At the funeral her pallbearers wore, as a mark of respect, buckles that she had won. Before the casket was sealed (done graveside. very unusual in USA.) several people with whom she had worked placed "grave goods" inside with her. I saw a few buckles, a set of antique "lady leg" spurs, a handwoven rawhide rope and about a dozen silver dollars. I've been to a lot of funerals and seen a lot of different things left, but that day I wept because of the love expressed. After most of the mourners had left, her competition saddle was placed on her coffin and the pallbearers, using a single shovel, took turns filling the grave. It was a bone cold day in west Texas and the sky was full of mares tail clouds. Funerals are interesting.

This came at a very opportune time for me. I've been busy planning my own funeral and it's been raising a few family eyebrows as I'm not going for the standard cremation or burial. I was laughing and said, "They must think I'm a heathen." I'll just call myself a Viking then! For those with a burning curiosity, it's going to be a natural woodland burial and they're going to stick an oak sapling on me after 😊

When my mother died she was cremated and buried in the same grave as my father, who died 40+ years prior. She was a foster mother for many years, keeping infants, and had taken pictures of every baby. She said for years that she wanted her "baby book" buried with her when she died, so I slipped it into the vault before it was interred. When my sister was died and her ashes placed in a vault at the cemetery, I placed a few of her favorite bits of Disney jewelry in the vault. In both cases, the objects interred were of far more value to the person we had lost than they were to any of the survivors, so it seemed fitting.

We're going to need some kind of flowchart for how RU-vidrs are socially connected to each other! For after watching this video, it seems that you know . . . a) Bernadette Banner b) Tasting History, with Max Miller, and now . . . c) Ask a Mortician? This is going to make one hell of a round-table discussion or shared video, along the lines of "What to Wear to a Viking Funeral and Bring to the Potluck Afterwards."

A collab with Ask a Mortician would be awesome! I'm looking forward to the rest of the burial videos

Can confirm the presence of grave goods in clerical burials. Under the cathedral of Magdeburg there were a couple of stone sacopharguses of bishops from the 13. to 15. century (roughly) and they had jewelry, textiles and insignia of their position with them.

Came for the graveyard, stayed for the nuance baybeeee 🪦

I'm sure Caitlin would be thrilled :) - both of you are fascinating to listen to - thank you again

One important thing to remember is that the funeral rites are done by others, not the person being buried. The funeral is for the survivors. My parents didn't want funerals, they were cremated. After my father died we organized a service. A celebration of life of both of them. That was for us. It gave us a chance to mourn. Oh and dad's urn sat in my bedroom closet until the pandemic was over and his ashes could be scattered in the mountains wher mom's were. I still have empty urns in the closet and don't know what to do with them.

Gonna bury myself with a bunch of grave goods in all my reenactment kit just to fuck with future archeologists, who are gonna have to figure out why a guy is buried in Norse fashion in Mid Michigan, with 21st century tech, while wearing chainmail and buried with swords and shit

My husband's ashes have been in my front room for 10 years. Not weird at all. And perhaps cremation vs inhumation was a matter of convenience, seasonality--frozen ground--or various local customs. As you say, it varies. PS. crouched burial means a smaller hole. digging is hard before shovels!

Incredibly glad I found this channel. The balanced perspective, constant reference to archaeological finds, and academic integrity are fantastically refreshing. Never stop. Cheers Jimmy

8:00 I placed a bookmark in my grandpa's casket, because at age 8 I couldn't imagine a heaven without a library. So that'll confuse a future archaeologist

I would love to see a collaboration between you and Caitlin!

I have been pondering for a while about the influence, not just of local customs, but also of specific political and climatic circumstances--i.e., if you are going through scarcity, you are less likely to drop usable items, that in a pinch could be traded for food or safety, in a grave, no matter how much loved or well regarded the deceased, than if you are going through a period of abundance where you have lots of different things to spare. Edited to add: loving the sunshine for you, on many levels. Re: keeping cremation urns at home: until quite recently, one of my siblings had three that we were trying to get a crypt for (maternal grandmother, mother, stepfather).

Ohh, I finally caught you right after an upload! I'm so excited for this video. I did a paper on viking burials for one of my mortuary classes.

This seems like a good time to suggest a colab with Caitlin over at Ask A Mortician.

i am fairly sure Caitlyn is very ok with you co-opting that hashtag 💜 the level of "there is Nuance" is super important in all aspects of archaeology. and i really appreciate that you talk about it.

Aaaaaahahahhahhhhaaa -you saluted a Magpie!!!! I thought that was just me :)

It's frustrating at how few, if any, reliable contemporary texts exist on the matter, but it's also comforting to know that then, just as now, people approached the rituals surrounding death with care and nuance.

Thinking I should have a drinking game sip of mead for any time Jimmy says "we don't really know", "nobody really knows" and "nuance"

What a dapper bloke!

I was raised Macedonian Orthodox so cremation is a no no. But since I'm now a poor atheist it'll be a yes yes for me, just don't tell my mum (she'll get a burial of course). We sent my dad to the afterlife with $50, a deck of cards, a pack of cigarettes, and a hat I knit for him that he wore everyday, year round, to keep his bald head warm. A bottle of rum and a lighter were vetoed by funeral home staff. His headstone has a cross and roses. A Christian with burial goods! What will future scholars make of him, I wonder?

You asked for grave choices. My specialty is Heathen graves in Iceland and my favorite one and one I just recreated is the woman in the Ketilsstaðir dig.

you know, the thing you said about that it doesn't matter that much what the old norse did with a dead body but how they remember and honor the spirit...it really bring me peace

OMG I KNEW YOU WERE A DEATHLING!!! :D Awesome!

The perfect answer... It depends. Also the only answer when people are being discussed. Enjoyed learning more about this as well as seeing your bright sunny day. You have to enjoy the sunshine when you get it!

I didn't know how interesting Viking burials would be. Excited for the rest of the burial series. Thanks!

Not too crazy to have your dad’s ashes in a main room. My mum’s ashes in a nice box is accompanied by the ashes of the Cairn terrier who traveled with her in a pretty small box on the built-in sideboard in the dining room.

Maybe some of it was depending upon the weather? Crouched: weather was getting bad/wasn’t great at the time = crouched for smaller holes? Winter = air burial so as to preserve wood for heating those still living? STRICTLY conjecture on my part. I absolutely LOVE “Nuance baby!” Thank you for this video! ❤❤❤

We just talked about syncretism and Mithras in my Roman Civ class. So nice to see it in this video and know the context! Love the extra reading and sources!

I fan-kidded so hard over the mention of AskAMortition! THAT would be a gorgeous colab! My favorit RU-vidrs geeking out over gravestones 🤩

There is also the graves at Vang in Oppdal Norway, the largest iron age gravesite in norway. It has over 900 graves, and while some has mounds and markers, some did not, and the earliest ones were cremations i believe. Shows that nuance baby!

Nuance, nuance baby. Yes, this is how I like my history.

Great video, thanks Jimmy, glad you could enjoy the sun and the setting fantastic

Absolutely loving that one of my favorite youtubers does a video about burials and mentions one of my other favorite youtubers. A Jimmy/Caitlin collaboration video would be entertaining.

Really interesting video. I'm personally fond of (bronze age) mounds. Especially since people kept using them afterwards, so you get cremation urns put in at a later age. And more recently people often had folk tales about them, that's where the fae and the goblins etc lived. They're just very beautiful to me.

My favorite Viking burial was in the trailer for History of the World, Part 2. I didn't used to care how my body was disposed. Then I died... but they brought me back. Now I feel more thoughtful about it and wonder if we should leave something behind for future archeologists to dig up.

Firstly: double thumbs up for the death positivity, what ever form that takes! (Love Caitlin!) Secondly: still drinking everytime you say "nuance" so very happily tipsy right now! and... Thirdly: as some one who has looked into past, present and geographical difference in burial practices with a view to coming up with meaningful, acceptible, "green" options. I particularly liked your inclusion of use of ressources in the choice of "body disposal" practice and would like to add that there would possibly have been an aspect of "what was on offer".. right now where I live it's either burial in a cemetry that caters predominantly and historically for christians,, therefore the practices even for pagans, agnostics and aetheists still follows "normal" christian influenced protocol or cremation with no protocol... Thanks for this great, aesthetic and informative video!

Wonderful Production and Information. Looking forward to future updates in this series of funeral practices. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you for a very informative and positive video. You are a professor in the making. I would love to attend your class! Cheers

So informative- I needed to hear this to have a better understanding of all that was going on in different places- lovely graveyard ☠️ thanks Jimmy🥰

It's worth considering the fact that before Christianity, the Norse followed a polytheistic religion, i.e. one defined by plurality, and one that doesn't seem to have had a unified religious text. The idea that there's one 'correct' form of corpse disposal is partly one inherited from monotheistic religions that have holy books that attempt to set out a single, correct way for everyone to live and die. Historical and current pagan religions that are better documented than the Norse one sometimes have relatively consistent funerary practices, but not always. They often tolerate a variety of spiritual traditions or cults and sects devoted to different divinities, and the rituals practiced by the different factions can vary considerably. The Romans favoured cremation, but we also have plenty of Roman burials, and even mummification in places like Egypt, where they adopted local customs. It might be (pure baseless speculation follows) that if you wanted to honour Odin, it might be best to be cremated, but if, e.g. you'd previously prayed to Freya to sort out your marriage problems and your spouse took you back, you might opt for burial as a way of paying tribute.

Looking forward to the series of death rites! I know nothing of Welsh death rites generally, let alone in this time period, so especially curious for that one. Beautiful filming spot, too!

For those wondering: "inhumate" has nothing to do with "inhumaNe" ^^ If my Latin is still somewhat sharp, it's a construction of "in" (one of the various ways to say 'to' in Latin) and 'humus' (earth, as Jimmy said), so moving somebody in humo (or humum, without in) basically means consigning them to the earth.

You are one of the reasons I'm learning Welsh. Also: What a pretty graveyard! My favourite burial... Not Viking by any means but, however romanticized, the Red Burial of Pafiland will always have a place in my heart.

I have my Mum's ashes and everytime I put a new shrub or tree in my garden I add a pinch or two of them to the planting hole so she is covering my garden with beautiful plants we can all enjoy.

Hey Jimmy, could you do a video on the Vendel Period? It's goes overshadowed very often and I personally love the period because of the beautiful pieces of archaeology we get from it that plays a role in what we know about said period.

Great video! Cuthbert didn't just have his gospel book with him - he also had the famous St Cuthbert gold and garnet pectoral cross, as well as stunning silk and goldwork-embroidered vestments that are still now in Durham Cathedral. Mans was blinged up for Judgement Day!

Your videos are always such a great and informative overview over scientific discourse! Although my own BA thesis where I looked at Alamannic early medieval burials and grave goods happened some time ago, the results are the same. The absence of grave goods doesn't mean Christian, and the existance of grave goods doesn't mean Pagan. There is so much nuance and I am so grateful you put such a big emphasis on nuance. I keep sending your videos to my friends who are interested in History but don't know where to start (I tend to overexplain ^^) Don't know if you've ever looked into Early Medieval Southern German discourse, but there seems to be a far bigger correlation between age and whether or not there are goods in the grave or not. Especially between 20-40 year old individuals have the most goods, everyone else as significantly less. I've talked long enough, thank you for your work and all the best!

"It's nuance, baby" should honestly be on a shirt.

"Nuance baby!" I love it! I wish we had wills stating reasons for being buried in certain ways, but since we don't, it's just fine to say that local customs varied.

A point of view from Sweden: looking at the late iron age graves we have from svealand, the vast majority is cremation graves under either a stonesetting or a stonesetting with a mound over it. Chamber graves do make a comeback during the viking age but they, along with boat graves (both types are usually inhumation graves), only make up a few % compared to the cremations. There are also stone settings that contain an inhumation graves but these Tend to mostly date to the mid iron age but are still used throughout the entire iron age. Things differ a bit if you go to öland and gotland where inhumation graves tend to make up about 1/3 of all graves throughout the entire iron age, likely because these areas saw more trade and contacts around and across the baltic which might have influenced these traditions, that compared to the svealand. Looking to västra götaland, we see an early introduction and influx of christianity in the late 800s meaning that inhumation graves became more common and make up about 1/3 of the graves as well. In dalarna and the north part of sweden, we instead have an influx of sami contacts with lake/fångstmarksgravar, commonly cremation graves but we dont know if the dead are sami with some norse gravegoods in them or norse with some sami gravegoods. Like you say; cultures and burial practices change over time with new ideas, contacts and trends and also differs depending on the availability of wood or peat for fires, material for the grave itself, wealth etc etc :) Graves are the most fun to excavate, they are always similar but totally different at the same time :) /Swedish archaeologist

i love hearing about funerary practices, thank you for this video!

It’s nuance! That needs to be a hashtag. I always had a feeling that then as now it was all a matter of personal preference and how much money your family could spend on the funeral. Although it does remind me of a particular bit in the Vikings TV show that really, really got under my skin. In the early days they show the Rus funeral with the ritual assault, and it’s very clear that it’s assault, cause they’re trying to be all edgy and “real” about it but then later they have Lagertha’s funeral in the same Rus style but they go out of their way to show that the ritual is consensual, they even show the deed as rather romantic with lit candles and such like. And it’s all because I’m sure they knew the main fans of the Lagertha character would not find ritual assault palatable while in the early season they were appealing to viewers looking for brutality. So not only just novelizing history but also an act of brutality too many people survive and it just makes my blood boil.

I enjoyed watching you talk in the dappled sunshine. 👍

Re: the idea that people buried without grave goods might have been because their heirs/family/whoever had already collected everything .... it would honestly be more surprising if there was a group of people in history where this NEVER happened. My guess would be that some people were buried without grave goods due to poverty, others due to personal/religious/family preference, and a few because their rapacious relatives had started squabbling over grandma's brooches before she was even cold.

Damn I wish sky burials were feasible here. Legitimately want to go to a body farm when I go because it's the closest it's going to get. (Also, related, would love a vid just talking about the different afterlives)

Love the knit vest. It lends a very professorial air.

i rather imagine caitlin would be delighted by u using her hashtag

I've talked about this before in another of your videos. In the culture of the Western Slavs, burial face down is an anti-vampire burial. Similarly, if buried with a knife or a sickle at the throat, hands tied, head pierced with an iron nail or cut off and placed in the feet.

Also, bishops buried with crosiers! Looking forward to the next videos!

Wonderful video and we all appreciate the nuance.

When the lawnmower kicked in, I was almost expecting some fighters to break out of Blood Creek. ;)

Thank you for the warning at the beginning. The brain squirrels are a bit rabid this week, and a heads up really helps. I appreciate that you consider these things just as deeply as the research you share.

Really interesting video, always love to see you film outside videos, makes such a nice background!

Very interesting, and indeed a beautiful cemetery! (I’m fond of those meself.) Much appreciate the emphasis on the sheer amount of resources cremation would require, and the role of location and the larger non-human ecosystem on funerary practices.

This was absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

We all like dynamic lighting!

Dynamic lighting for the win

Our church (Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas) has a columbarium chapel where my parents and my husband are buried. I slipped Walt's police badge into the niche before it was sealed. My dad has his WWII pilot wings. Mom told me not to put anything in her niche, so I obliged. I will let my son decide if anything goes in with my ashes. I find burial customs incredibly interesting. Looking forward to the other videos on burial rites and customs. Sharing your doctoral research would be interesting if it doesn't disrupt the academic process.

Excellent video, Jimmy. I like the light. You look very healthy and peaceful.

Yay for the ancient burial series to come

Love the information. One of my go-to guys for Norse information. Beared looks great, by the way.

He is sitting under a tree. Know I have the melody from "under an old tree" stuck in my head. (Soundtrack from Stronghold 1 ...) Thanks brain. Good video by the way.

Another fantastic video so well explained take care Katy from NZ 😊

Hi Jimmy. I know you spoke about your anxiety recently. I thought you would like to know that hearing your voice and watching this video helped me keep calm right before a job interview. Hope you are hale and hearty, with calm mind and soul :) Also- looking forward to those other burial videos. Was momento mori a thing in the viking age?

Thank you for the video! As always, your nuanced research makes me feel more certain about uncertainty 😊 Hope you are well.

What lovely surrounds, thanks for the video, your ring is beautiful

Love your channel always something new to discover:) Hello from Dyflinn..

Great stuff. Very interesting, you are a natural. Thank you for this, 🤓 🐶 🧔

You look lovely and smart :) and I love how informative this video was I look forward to the other funerary practice videos.

My favorite undergrad Anthropology course was one titled Death, Burial, and Culture. This was such a nice refresher!

Looks lush as full summer is here. So lovely! ❤

Cake or death? The cake was indeed a lie.

I think Caitlin would love the shoutout!

"So Nuanced," we cry!

Thank you for the video; thoughtful, as always. Take care, be well

I highly advise you do more outdoor , lapping up the good stuff with a nice spot of tea. Ill join you as i have a pot of lady gray brewing. Keeping it real . Im not here for the ring lights and filters. Im here as i enjoy your content of your work and passion. I must say your looking very well atm . Good to see.

Bring back the Nuanced Drinking game - I've got my cup of tea! (Black Jasmine today, yum)

Had no idea you were a doctor of death. As Americans, we bury -- or, rather, take care of our dead in so many different ways, as well. My in-laws didn't want to be embalmed, which was a new thing for me. I'd never thought it odd to find old graves with people on their side, or curled up, because, of course they are. I was so used to seeing it, I never thought about it. You've given me much to think about. Good Job. Can't wait to hear about other burial rituals. Good video.

Looking at the varied traditions and approaches in these comments reminds me that people have never all done the same thing with consistency - and likely never will.

My late friend, Gunnar Hansen, who was from Iceland, told me years ago about a Norse era burial there that was thought, even during his lifetime, to provide some sort of protection to the farm in which it was placed. I'm sure he went into more detail than that but it was so many years ago I don't remember.

Burials and death are one of my favourite topics to discuss in any points of time and place. Last week one of my courses about Islam finished after a guy lectured us three Tuesdays in a row about Muslim graves in german-speaking countries. Not at archeology, but still cool, wasn´t bored for a minute. I remember that some of archeological expeditions didn´t excavate Mayan books, but they degraded in such a way that a page was still visible in the ground. Fascinating stuff.

Fascinating! Looking forward to the rest of the series! 💜....🤔 that might be a chain saw in the distance...

My mother's had my dad's cremains prominently displayed in her home since 1998. Try explaining that to your friends in elementary school.

As a genealogy nerd I love burial stuff and death stuff. Love it.

There was a lot of forest on Iceland when the vikings arrived. They did not take care of it like they should, and might have used the wood for burning funerals, making ships to go out to fish. And most of all clearing large areas to live and grow food. Problem was that they needed the trees to hold the ground together and not be taken by the wind.