A Viking Boat Grave with Amber Gaming Pieces Excavated at Skamby, Östergötland, Sweden

Abstract

In the Summer of 2005 the authors directed the excavation of a flat stone setting with a boat-shaped central depression at Skamby, Kuddby parish, Östergötland, Sweden. The stone setting covered a small and poorly preserved boat inhumation, dated by the artefacts recovered to the early Viking period (9th century AD). This is the first excavation of a boat inhumation in the province of Östergötland. The paper reports on the excavations including the discovery of an exceptional collection of 23 amber gaming pieces, which provide a new perspective on Viking-period gaming. The data from this boat grave are considered in relation to the rest of the Skamby cemetery, which remains to be investigated. Judging from a topographical survey of the ridge surrounding the excavated area, and from metal-detector finds recovered from the surrounding fields, the Skamby cemetery appears to be a high-status burial ground divided into two zones, one comprised of boat inhumation graves, the other of circular stone settings likely to cover cremation graves. The results of the excavation lead to a revised picture of boat burial as an élite mortuary rite in southern Sweden during the late 1st millennium AD.

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