66 (160)

126 The Viking Age in Denmark

have becn fouhd (Figs 32-3).⁷ They stem from thc same province as thc chambers, and sometimes lic in such.

As to the burial goods, weapons occur rarely, except for a group of cavalry intermcnts and othcr warrior interments dating from tenth-century west Denmark (Fig. 31).⁸ Jewellcry is morę common, probably bccause it belongs to the dress. This means that womerfs graves are easier to determine than men’s, which lack trinkets, and generally weapons too. In addition, rules of inheritance may vary. Weapons have usually been passed on to the younger generation, who assume the obligations, and though the jewellery may belong to the personal garments there are indications that ornaments are inherited* too. On Bornholm, for instancc, the ninth-century graves are quite often furnished with jewellery, while it seems to be missing in the tenth century. Moreover silver ornaments, found in treasure hoards, are practically never recorded from graves, and must have constituted the family fortunę of wealthy groups. In generał, the lack of furnishings from prominent burials correlates negatively with the degree of social development. West Danish tenth-century burials, for instance, are found with costly garments but with only a few grave goods. The rich ninth-century Bornholm burials cluster round a traditional chiefly centre of four to five hundred years on the north coast.⁹The tenth century, however, witnesses a transformation of this society and a concomitant spreading out of prominent personages on farms all over the island; as a result the graves are poor. On the othcr hand, the new social positions emerging in the society may still be marked by lavish furnishings and burials, in the same way that the runestones, supposedly, mark the transition of newly won rights. The return of wcapon graves to west Denmark in the tenth century, after having been rare for seven or nine hundred years, must be scen in this liglit.

In sum, the burials can only be used for social studies if we take a wide number of aspects into consideration, such as the character ot the traditional rites, patterns of inheritance and the political and ideological development. A serious error, for instance, is to rank the burials according to wealth if it cannot be demonstrated that they hołd the same positions with respect to these other factors.

B. Warriors of the tenth century

As noted, Danish małe burials of the first millennium A.D. rarely contain weapons cxccpt during the tenth century, while by contrast Norwegian and Swedish graves are fairly well cquipped throughout the period. We attributc this to a firmer and a less firm rulc of succession respectively. Graves with tools are also rare in Denmark, though a few contain iron-smiths’ equipment (cf. also PI. XIV).¹⁰

There are no indications that the lack of grave goods is a certain sign of poverty. The centuries around 500, for instance, see rich hoards of gold, and the ‘empty’ phase before the Viking Age proper is a period of agricultural expansion as well as the foundation of thc ports of Ribe and Hedeby.

In the ninth century the few weapon graves are poorly furnished, while thc tenth-century cavalry graves, not infrequently in chambers, contain swords, lanccs and riding equipment, such as powerful bits and stirrups designed for cavalry combat in formations - pieces that are unknown in the previous periods. They often contain a horse too (Appcndix VIII, PI. II-IV, Figs 31 Sc 34). In addition, bronze-plates and wooden buckets are also a feature of these graves.ⁿ The tenth century also has gravcs with rich riding cquipment, but as a rule with no weapon, or just one humblc weapon, such as an axe; it also has burials on a lower level with poor riding gcar: just spurs and a modest spear or an axe. Simple weapon graves occur also, having no trappings or the like, and usually just a single weapon. Sonie of these burials, however, do bclong to the highest social echelons, as the Bjerringh^j chamber grave in north-east Jylland shows,¹² containing exquisite garments and an axc, lavishly decorated with silver-inlaid work (PI. XI). Practically all these burials are inhumations. The distributions, es-pecially of the cavalry graves, must be considercd reliable, sińce such burials are difficult to overlook in field work.

Most of the weapon graves, and especially the heavy cavalry interments with stirrups, etc., are found in a belt around thejelling province, corresponding to the fortresses of Trelleborg type and the Danevirke walls, and thus marking the borderlands of the State (Fig. 34).¹³ It is natural to see this novel group of graves as representing persons with military obligations, perhaps in return for land; a parallel might be drawn with the runestones of jelling type, reflecting the establishment of new rights of property. A closer look at the distributions, however, reveals differences between the spread of runestones and cavalry graves in north Jylland. The Stones of the Jelling type - and, for that matter, the ‘After Jelling’ type too - cluster in the eastern part of north Jylland, while most of the heavy cavalry graves are found exactly to the west of this group, and also to the west and south of the fortresses at Fyrkat and Aggcrsborg.

The simple weapon graves of north Jylland (without riding equipment) apparently lie in marginal areas compared with the heavy cavalry graves. They also appear on cemetcries, for instance at Fyrkat,¹⁴ while the cavalry interments are solitary, and often in earlier barrows, perhaps to give the burials a local status. In Southern Denmark, however, thc heavy cavalry graves are found in cemeteries and not infrequently together with burials accompanied by poorer riding outfits and less conspicuous weapons. Herc the simple weapon graves without trappings, etc., also lic in cemeteries, for instance at