How to Bury the Dead. A study on regional variations in the southern Baltic area during Late Pre-Roman and Early Roman Iron Age

Abstract

This article deals with the question of regional variation in funeral customs during a part of the Early Iron Age in the Baltic Sea area. The backbone of this study is a presentation of a comparison between a selection of investi-gated cemeteries in the south Baltic area, including parts of Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland. The starting point is the graves of southern Sweden in general and the Istaby cemetery in particular.The graves of the elite are very important and interesting from many differ-ent aspects, but for the purposes of this study the graves of the more ordinary people are considered to better highlight the main features of the regional vari-ations. The study of burials from Late Pre-Roman Iron Age and Early Roman Iron Age in the southern Baltic includes a world of a thousand details. Sev-eral interesting observations are made regarding similarities and differences in the chronology of the cemeteries, cemetery size and complexity, visible grave monuments, burial customs, artefact types and combinations. The different and partly overlapping regional expressions in the ritual systems, makes the contacts with other people, across the sea, especially clear. A correspondence analysis shows three themes of how the dead were equipped and displayed, following rather strict patterns, suggesting that these were widely distributed idealized metaphors.Despite many differences between the regions, the main feature is the great similarities. One main conclusion drawn from this study is that there were several regional traits in burial practices in the different areas and in many of the single details mentioned above. In contrast to obvious variations, the cem-eteries had several traits in common; these give an impression of the occurrence of governing ritual norms that were generally adopted throughout a large area around the southern and western parts of the Baltic Sea. This is a very strong indication of overlying and governing ritual norms and religious beliefs that were shared among the Germanic tribes.