User:AJ-Tinkess/Oseberg tapestry fragments
| Oseberg Tapestry Fragments | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year | 834AD |
| Medium | Silk, Flax |
| Location | Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway |
The Oseberg tapestry is a fragmentary tapestry, discovered within the Viking Oseberg ship burial in Norway.
The tapestry (dated to about 834AD)[1] is 16 to 23 centimeters in width, but the length is unknown. Despite its small proportions, the tapestry is filled with a large assortment of human and animal figures
The tapestry was one of a number of textile remains found in the Oseberg ship burial mound in 1904. Other finds included rolled-up rugs, tapestries, and curtains. Most are embroidered with mythological and battle scenes. There was no representation of the ship's owner.[2]
Two women were also found buried here in this grave.
Discovery and Excavation[edit]
The Oseberg find was excavated in the summer of 1904 on the Oseberg farm at Slagen, not far from Tønsberg.[3] The burial mound was excavated by Professor Gabriel Gustafson and his team from the University of Oslo.[1]
Due to the amount of clay, soil, and peat packed together so tightly, it allowed for an unbelievable quality of preservation of all the wooden objects and also all other organic materials contained in the ship, including the ship itself. It is thought to be the best-preserved grave from the Viking Age.[1]
Unfortunately, the ship and all of the contents inside were not left undisturbed until its 1904 excavation. Presumably around the Middle Ages, robbers had broken into the grave through a hole in the bow of the ship and into the burial chamber of the ship.[3] The entirety of the ship itself was also in poor shape, as the large amount of stones contained within the ship had caused considerable sinkage, and in turn, caused the ship to be broken up into thousands of pieces which then had to be painstakingly put back together.[3]
Most of the textiles that were found within the ship were found in the burial chamber. They had also been pressed together in hard "cakes" due to the clay and soil that filled the inside of the ship, which had also been a very difficult job to disintegrate. Some of these textiles were also stuck to large clumps of feathers, which originally were in the beds of the burial chamber.[3]
Remains[edit]
At the entrance of the ship that the robbers had created, the skeletal remains of two people were found lying on the beds of the burial chamber.
These remains that were found within the burial mound were assumed to be female, even prior to analysis of the physical remains themselves. Gustafson was able to come to the conclusion that this was a grave for a pair of women due to the textile remnants they were found with, along with tools for making textiles.[4][5] The women were assumed to be some kind of royalty due to the elaborate nature of the burial mound and its contents. They have been labeled as queens, queen-consorts, widowed queens, or kings mothers.[4]
The skeletal remains of horses, oxen, and dogs were also found in and around the burial mound.[1][5]
Other Grave Goods[edit]
Most of the artifacts that were buried within the ship alongside the women were found in the forepart of the ship.[5] Many of the ship’s tools such as the oars, a gangway, a bailing vessel, tubs, pails, etc. were found here. There was also an ornamented cart, decorated sleighs, and a word sled found within these artifacts.[1] Skeletons of animals were also found in and around the ship.[5][1]
Some personal effects that were found with these women were chests, buckets, and carved posts in the shape of animal heads. There was no jewelry found on or around the remains, which led archaeologists to come to the conclusion that any had been stolen by the robbers, as personal jewelry is an important factor in a Viking woman’s burial. [5]
Description[edit]
The tapestry is in poor condition and is assumed to be a part of the funeral offering of the ship burial. Due to its state of decay several years were required for its extraction, and today its extraction is still yet to be completed.[3]
The tapestries consist of an assortment of both people and animals, as well as ships, wagons, and houses. It is unknown what these tapestries are supposed to represent despite their narrative images, but these events made sense to those who lived during this time.[2] The tapestry is an example of both Viking Age narrative art, and decorated textiles from Scandinavia in this period, both of which being extremely rare survivors.[6]
The two largest, which are also the most well-preserved fragments, depict figures of armed people and animals moving to the left as if they are part of a funeral procession or religious ceremony.[2][6]The fragments also feature a scene featuring two black birds hovering over a horse, possibly originally pulling a wagon as a part of the procession.[7] The most central and prominent figures in this scene are two covered, horse-drawn carriages.[2] Between them, there is an assortment of male and female figures walking and riding together, some carrying objects such as spears, which were seen as Odin's special weapon.[2][6] Some figures depicted in this procession appear to wear ritual costumes, as one figure is depicted in a horned helmet while another wears an animal-head mask.[6] The precession is headed towards a great tree with corpses hanging from it.[6]
Due to the loss of most of its original coloring, the material of these fragments consists mostly of shades of brown and grey.[2]
Interpretations[edit]
There have been many differentiating interpretations of the fragments, such as that this tapestry depicts an actual funeral procession or even the funeral ceremony in Oseberg itself.[2] Anne Stine Ingstad interprets the birds as Huginn and Muninn flying over a covered cart containing an image of Odin with a horned helmet, drawing a comparison with the images of Nerthus attested by Tacitus in 1AD.[7]
The tapestry is stylistically similar to the Bayeux tapestry, because of its narrative art style, colors, and overall movement of the forms. Although there isn’t a clear story, the figures in the Oseberg tapestry move horizontally such as those in the Bayeux tapestry. Both are also referred to as “tapestries” while they are both embroideries since the design is not woven into the cloth.
Materials[edit]
The fragments are all made from wool and silk, as well as other plant-based materials such as flax, which have since disintegrated prior to their discovery.[3] There is no trace of linen in the tapestry due to the condition that it was found in, but flax was cultivated into linen during this time period, and tools used for linen work were also found within the ship. It is assumed that the silk was imported, while the woolen contents were native work, with the exception of Fresian cloth which is a part of a few fragments.[3]
Historical Context[edit]
Ship Burials[edit]
Viking Women[edit]
Textiles[edit]
~Graves have shown that the Vikings loved the expensive fabrics, which were acquired through trade. Their clothes were decorated with delicate embroidery, sometimes in gold thread.~
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Vedeler, Marianne (2014). Silk for the Vikings. Vol. 15. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78297-215-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g Vedeler, Marianne (2019-01-01). "The Oseberg Tapestries". The Oseberg Tapestries.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sjøvold, Thorleif (1966). The Oseberg find: and the other Viking ship finds. Oslo: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.
- ^ a b Pedersen, Unn (2023-10-18). "The power of beauty: The Oseberg ship burial and its finurlighet". Primitive Tider (Spesialutgave): 173–182. doi:10.5617/pt.10695. ISSN 2535-6194.
- ^ a b c d e Sjøvold, Thorleif (1958). "A Royal Viking Burial". Archaeology. 11 (3): 190–199. ISSN 0003-8113.
- ^ a b c d e Graham-Campbell, James (2013). Viking art. World of art (1. publ ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-20419-1.
- ^ a b Ingstad, Anne Stine (1995). "The Interpretation of the Oseberg-find" as published in Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole and Thye, Birgitte Munch (Editors). The Ship as Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia: Papers from an International Research Seminar at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, 5–7 May 1994. Page 141-142, Nationalmuseet. ISBN 87-89384-01-6
