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Hedeby and Trelleborg,¹⁵ and in thc same arcas as the other weapon graves. At Trelleborg, incidentally, a grave with a bronze piąte and an axe, decorated in silver, lies at the centre of the cemetery next to one of the wealthiest female interments of the site.¹⁶ In the south the weapon burials and cavalry burials altogether cover a bclt from south-east Jylland and the island of Ais across the island of Langeland and the shores of Storę Baelt to the island of Lolland. Apart from a few sperimens on the island of Lolland, and at Hedeby, this province too is dcvoid of contemporary runestones, which, as has been indicated above, show very little overlap with the heavy cavalry graves and other burials with riding equipment. It should be mentioned too that the heavy cavalry graves in generał are found fairly close to the coast, which might correspond to the military duties of the buried per-sonages. Furthermore, two of the burials are connected with ships: the rich Ladby burial on east Fyn (PI. II),¹⁷ with, among other things, eleven horses, and the wealthy so-called ⁴Ship-chamber grave’ at Hedeby.¹⁸ In the latter the chamber is covered by a ship, while in the former the dead man was laid in the warship itself. Otherwise chambers are found with a number of other heavy cavalry graves, especially from the Southern cluster.

To the east in Denmark almost no weapon graves occur, and the area has no heavy cavalry burials. The situation here is similar to the ninth-century circumstances in the whole country. To conclude, the interments already mentioned practically all relate to the early west Danish Jelling State. A number of social positions were created here, unknown to the earlier society, and not transferable in the usual way, sińce weapons were dcposited with the dead person.

C. Female gra v es

As mentioned, the women’s graves of the Viking period are generally recognised by their jewellery of bronze and beads; very rarely do silver trinkets or other costly artefacts occur, although the garments sometimes are excellent. In addition to the artefacts, and a possible female skeleton, some graves are recognised by a special type of coffin, the body of a carriage, or, in a few cases, a complete carriage.

The traditional and optimal female dress of the Viking Age consists of a slip extending to below the knees, like a long shirt without sleeves and with an opening at the neck, closed by a smali fibula.¹⁹ Over this is worn a shorter woollen ‘spencer’, the shoulder-straps of which are fastened by thc well-known, richly ornamented, pair of tortoise buckles. The dressing is finished by a long cloak, closed by a larger buckie. Even if all women may have been in possession of the fuli dress, though of differing quality, only a few were buried with the buckles (Fig. V). We therefore expect the burials with, for instance,