Here’s everything you need to know about Viking funerals and how you can (sort of… maybe…) legally have your own Viking send-off. Did the Vikings really send their warriors out to sea on a flaming ship, an aquatic funeral pyre bound for Valhalla? The iconic ritual of a fiery sendoff is something that many people are interested in, and perhaps want to emulate for their own farewell.īut the stuff of legends may be just that.

A combination of different factors probably determined their selection for cremation purposes, such as their availability in the environs of the necropolis, differential access to wood resources, their heat potential, technical aspects related to their exploitation and even conceptual aspects, such as their symbolic meaning.The Vikings have not been active for a millennium, but Viking funerals still inspire a sense of awe and wonder. and Arbutus unedo, have also been identified in secondary burials. Other taxa, such as Salix/Populus, Prunus sp. In these primary contexts, the ubiquitous taxa were Quercus sp. Charcoal remains recovered inside the structures, of bustum type, are the remains of the fuel burned during the cremation of the corpses. The structures related to cremation rites include primary and secondary contexts. Archaeobotanical data from Roman cemeteries in this area are very scarce, but they provide valuable information on the funerary customs introduced by the Roman Empire to the provinces, and how this interaction could be reflected in the management of firewood. The case study of Reza Vella (Ourense, Spain) provides valuable information about the uses and the role of plants in a funerary context in northwest Iberia.

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the role of firewood in Roman burial rites of cremation.

Funeral pyres download free