01
PRIMARY SOURCE / Social status
The Oseberg ship burial
What it reveals & why it helps
Two women were buried with a ship, carved wooden objects, textiles, furniture and kitchen equipment. The costly funeral suggests that one or both held considerable status, while the objects reveal skilled craftwork and material aspects of daily life. Goods placed with the dead also help historians investigate burial customs and ideas about an afterlife. Its unusually good preservation makes Oseberg especially useful.
Limits & questions
However, this lavish burial cannot represent every household. The women's identities remain unknown, and later grave robbing disturbed the evidence. Calling either woman a named queen would go beyond what the find establishes.