Note 215 — Chapter XIX · BURIALS.

Other ship-graves, such as that of Tune, Borre, &c., have been found with skeletons of horses.

Among other ships found is the Gunnarshaug ship, discovered in Bergen Stift in 1887. The large mound in which it was found had a diameter of over 125 feet, and stood about 500 feet from the shore.

The ship was only partly preserved owing to the action of the soil. Its planks were of oak, thicker and less broad than those of the Gökstad ship, fastened by clinch-nails. In the uppermost planks, considerably thinner than the rest, there are holes at distances of a little over 3 feet. Its keel is about the same length as that of the Gökstad ship.

It stood north to south, and has been supported by six stones, each about 6 feet high. Its inside has been clothed with a layer of moss, evidently to hinder decay by the soil, and on one side of it was a heap of shavings, chips and bark, left by the carpenters. There are reasons for thinking that a wooden roof had been erected over the ship, and afterwards broken down.

Of the Viking’s body no trace is left, but the remains found indicate his place in the middle of the ship; these are two swords, forging-tools, five long whetting-stones, a tinder-box and pieces of a wooden box. Farther north: several large beads of mosaic glass and fine chesspieces of amber and coloured glass, part of a waxen tablet, a bracelet of gold, &c.

Near the weapons lay an iron kettle and both the stones of a hand-mill, which shows that the Vikings ground their grain at sea. The stem was filled with rust.

Oars and carved tools were also found, and planks of an exceedingly well-built boat of oak, over which there lay a fir plank, several feet long, with steps cut in it, evidently a landing-board (cf. Gökstad ship).

This is the first burial-place found in Bergen Stift where the body was unburnt, but they are common further south.