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132 The Viking Age in Denmark

heavy cavalry burials, fincr wcapon graves of thc simple type, carriagc body gravcs (Figs 32-3) including thc Jclling chambcr in thc Northmound,³⁵ and other prominent female burials with, for instance, tortoisc buckles.

Another problem is the chronological diffcrcnces. At Hedeby we havc chambers that are apparently earlier than the horizon of carriage body graves, sińce they contain womcn still wcaring the tortoisc buckle-dress,³⁶ and rclativcly carly weapons, horse-bits, ctc.³⁷ The same may hołd true for other chambcr gravcs in thc south, like thc Ladby ship gravc (PI. II),³⁸ in many rcspects a parallel to thc ‘Boat chambcr gravc' at Hedeby.³⁹ The Boat chamber, however, hcld a person commanding only one-third of thc Ladby military unit, to judge from the accountable picces of horsc trappings. In addition, thc Ladby ship lics next to a wealthy woman’s grave with tortoise buckles (PI. V). The two ship graves reflcct a kind of ‘naturalisirf in the make-up of the grave which was later unknown. There is on Fyn a parallel in thc two, apparently female, burials with fuli waggons, also from relativcly carly in the tenth cen tury.⁴⁰

At thc city of Hedeby no chambcr graves or other types of burial with riding equipment havc occurrcd, apart from the ^kBoat chamber grave\ As noted, such graves are otherwise wcll-known in thc Southern Danish countryside, where cavalry interments with bits, stirrups and weapons occur in cemctcrics. Associated graves probably hcld thc family members and followcrs of the mounted lords, the womcn resting in, for instance, the carriagc body graves and thc other men in graves with less costly equipments.

Already in thc ninth century, corrcsponding to thc carly runestones marking ncw lines of succession to position and property, the Southern Danish area saw thc establishment of rights to land, apparently not inherent in thc traditional society. The same area is almost devoid of tenth-century Stones, although thc cavalry and carriage body graves rcflect royal vassals who might have bcen granted land. Apparently such transfer either took place earlier or local lords by the tenth century accepted thc military duties of this vassalage. In a sense this is the same thing. What is elear is that the ruling families set themselves apart from the rest of the society, in life and in death. For instance, at Stengade, on the island of Langcland, thc village cemetery is located a few hundred metres from a smaller cavalry graveyard.⁴¹

In north Jylland the Jelling-type runestones of the tenth century clearly avoid the cluster of cavalry gravcs with heavy weapons, lying in the area to the west of the Stones. Bccause of thc missing stones we might also in this case favour the idea of local leaders taking on the military duties, but the lack of a family context whereby these interments never lie in graveyards is strange. This could perhaps be explained by insufficient rcsearch, but only in regard to poorly equippcd graves which are easily overlooked. Significant too is the

practical absence of carriage body graves within thc cluster. A possible parallel to the north Jylland case is thc phcnomenon unvciled in connection with the western part of thc south SkSne cluster of runestones in 1000 of a transfer of rights to persons of the same age (Chapter 3 C). The underlying factor is a military duty, lasting for morę than one generation, but not giving the family as such a special status (cf. the absence of carriage body graves in the north Jylland group of heavy cavalry graves). One of the burials containsa thin golden neck ring, a most uncommon feature in the Viking Agc, which may havc symbolic significance.⁴² A runestonc from about 1000 mentions a high-ranking slave given gold and, probably, a ‘free neck’, i.e. his freedom.⁴³ Symbols denoting freed slaves are known from Europo, and we may have the same in the north Jylland case, suggesting, along with the mentioncd runestones, the employment of such personages for the royal machinery ofpow^rer. This has parallels, incidentally, in other carly States where the kings try to exempt themselves from as many traditional bonds as possible, using only ‘foreigners’ devoted to them.

The north Jylland runestones correspond, however, at least in part, to the spread of the carriage body graves and the simple małe graves with just an axe, represented, for instance, at the cemetery pertaining to the royal fortress of Fyrkat.⁴⁴ A single axe grave even comes from a chamber, at Bjerringh0j (PI. IX),⁴⁵ as do a few of thc north-eastern body-of-carriagc burials. Two heavy cavalry graves in chambers come, significantly enough, from the western fringes of the runestone belt, perhaps indicating the same sort of tenure as in the south, but in distribution relating to the poorer cavalry burials immediately to the west. Ali in all, the runestones and the axe burials are, with the fortresses, situated closer to the border of the west Danish Jclling State than the cavalry graves. We have a division of duties, perhaps between forces at the frontier and in the fortresses, and those which were ‘tactical’ units, probably the navy. It is also at the border that land would most casily becomc availablc for vassals, using the stones to mark their rights.

The axe graves are few in the south, but a couple come from the Trelleborg cemetery in western Sjaelland⁴⁶ and from Lolland;⁴⁷ Lolland also has a single carriagc body grave, a type perhaps occurring also on the island of Langeland.⁴⁸ The rarity of carriage body interments from the Trelleborg cemetery may reflect the status of the personages buried, but may equally be a chronological problem related to the late datę of the fortress.

E. Slaues

From the Danish Viking Age we have a few examples of slavcs being sacrificed at the burial of their master. For instance, in a tenth-century