Death and Burial

Ensuring the dead are buried appropriately and provided with objects needed for their afterlife is a feature of most pre-modern cultures—and the source for much of our information about them. The elite were usually buried in stone or wooden chambers with high-status items, and in some places and periods with their servants and animals, such as horses [ see our Horses story ] and even with their ships [ also see our Ships and Navigation story ]. Graves were usually marked by mounds and stones, those of the elite being the largest and thus dominant in the landscape.    

Christianity and Buddhism both introduced new mortuary practices which were adopted to various degrees by different societies, although old practices often persisted. Most radically, Buddhism introduced cremation to societies that had traditionally buried the bodies of their dead. By contrast, although elites were often buried, cremation was not uncommon in pre-Christian Roman Britain, as shown by the site of Spong Hill [ EXH110 ]. Christianity changed this; inhumation became commonplace, and the faithful were buried in or near the church.

This story looks at the changing practices of burial, revealed in the landscapes, the use of grave goods, and what they tell us about the life of the elites and their Silk Roads networks. 

In all the regions under discussion here, as in most across the world, elite human burials contained rich burial goods and were marked above ground with mounds and/or stones.

In Japan, from the 4th century many rulers and the elite started to be interred below a mound of different shapes: keyhole, octaganol, square or round, and some surrounded by one or more moats. Over 20,000 such tumuli are known hence the name given to the period when they are prominent, the Kofun (mound) period (古墳時代, c.300–538). Numerous earthenware models including people, horses [ EXH111 ] and boats [ EXH112 ] were found placed on top of the mounds. They are thought to define the perimeter of the sacred area of the tomb, possibly used for rituals, and perhaps for the deceased to use in the afterlife. Ships and horses are also both associated with passage to the afterlife in the Viking world, exemplified by the Tjängvide memorial stone [ EXH113 ] and in Japan as shown by a wooden  ship with painted symbols from Suyama kofun [ EXH114 ] [and see our  Horses  and  Ships stories ]. 

The practice of Buddhist cremation is first recorded in Japan for Dōshō (道昭629–700), a Buddhist priest. Soon after, Empress Jitō (持統天皇陵645–703, r.686–697), 持統天皇陵) was the first Japanese ruler to be cremated following Buddhist precepts. She had supported Buddhism in Japan. On her abdication from the throne in 701 she became a Buddhist nun. As cremation became more widespread among the elite, burial mounds were no longer so widely used.  

However, despite the growth of Buddhism in the kingdoms of Korea from the 5th century, full interment inside mounds continued for the clergy and elite. This tradition can be seen before and after Buddhism in the tomb site of the Gaya Confederacy dating to the 1st to 6th centuries, and of Silla in its capital Gyeongju, dating to the 5th to 10th centuries, as in seen in the Cheonma tomb [  EXH115  ]. These tombs and their contents, which include horse tack [ EXH116 ] and gold crowns [ EXH117 ], show the influence of their steppe neighbours [see  Horses  and  Burial Bling ]. Cremation probably did not become common among the elite until the 11th century. 

At the other end of the Silk Roads, large mounds were also commonly used to mark the graves of the Viking elite, seen at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. They often contained whole ships, like that at Oseberg [ EXH118 ] in Norway. But Christianity introduced new practices, with this transition shown by the burial mounds in Jelling in Denmark ( EXH119 ). Here, two mounds were probably originally constructed by the ruler Gorm the Old (d.c.958) for himself and Thyra, his wife. One was built over an existing Bronze Age mound: the reuse of sacred spots such as this is found across the world. The site also includes a stone ship setting [ see our Ships story ].

Their son, Harald Bluetooth (r.c.958–c.986), succeeded King Gorm and converted to Christianity, as recorded on a rune-stone he had erected between the mounds [ EXH8 ]. Harald built a church (see image at top of page) and possibly moved his father's bones and burial goods there as the burial chamber of the north mound was emptied in this period. Curiously, the south mound never contained a burial. The probable movement of the burial goods from the north mound highlights the transition in burial practices brought on by the introduction of Christianity to the region.    

The Viking funerary influence is also seen in England, notably with the ship burials at Sutton Hoo [ EXH124 ,  EXH125 , and see our  Ships  and  Burial Bling stories ]. But the 6th–7th century chamber burial at Prittlewell [ EXH120 ], also in east England, hints at the transition to Christianity. The very partial remains of the elite occupant was found with gold foil crosses probably placed on his eyelids [ EXH121 ]. The grave goods included a copper-alloy flagon from the Christian pilgrimage site of Saint Sergius [ EXH105 ] and see  Pilgrimage story ], glass vessels [  EXH122  and see  Glass Story ] and a sword.  

As at Prittlewell, many of the tombs of the elite across Eurasia contained weapons and armour such as the opulent Gyerim-ro dagger and sheath from Gyeongju [ EXH123 ] and the helmet from Sutton Hoo [ EXH124 ]. The latter has small pictorial designs, one showing the warrior on horseback trampling an enemy soldier underfoot. This is a trope found across the Silk Roads. Sacrificial horses and their tack are also commonly found in tombs, including Mound 17 at Sutton Hoo [ EXH125  and see  Horse Story ], and the Fujinoki tomb in Japan with its armour and multiple sets of horse tack [ EXH126 ]. Many also contained models of horses and riders, such as those from the Geumnyeong Tomb in Korea [ EXH127 ]. 

It was long assumed that the dead in such tombs must be male, but recent research has shown otherwise. The Birka grave of a warrior, excavated in 1878 [ EXH128 ], is a striking example. The weapons included a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows, a sax (fighting dagger), and two shields. Two horses were also buried: a mare and a stallion. Analysis in 2017 confirmed the corpse was that of a woman. Given that Viking sagas tell of woman warriors, this should have always been a possibility to consider.    

Women warriors are found in many other literary traditions and historical sources. These include both Japan—Empress Jito was recorded as commanding the troops at Ise—and Korea—historical sources tell of the Wonhwa, female warrior cadets in the Silla period. And other female graves with weapons are now being identified, such as that in Gyeongju of a woman with a sword and a possible male sacrifice., and another in the Scilly Isles, England, dating to the first century BC. 

These elite burials usually contained a rich array of burial goods. Intended for the afterlife, they also reveal the links of these elites in their actual life with Eurasia through the Silk Roads.  

The links between Korea and the steppe and continental China are evident in the murals adorning tombs of the Goguryeo elite (37 BC– AD 668), a horse-riding people.  A common motif is the hunting scene [ EXH129 ]: the Royal Hunt was a pastime of elites across Eurasia [ and see Horses Story ]. The motif of the animals of the four directions, found in China and here, also makes its way to Japan, as seen in the Kitora Tomb (キトラ古墳) [ EXH130 ] and the Takamatsuzuka Tomb (高松塚古墳) in Nara. Both tombs also contain a star chart on the apex [ see Ships and Navigation Story ]. 

Glass in the form of vessels and beads is found in graves in all four regions: imported, locally-made, and imitations of imported wares. These include the glass vessels in the Prittlewell and Cheonma burials [ EXH122  and  EXH131 ], glass vessels in Birka burials [ EXH132 ], and a dish and bowl from a Japanese burial [ EXH133  and  EXH134 ]. Scientific analysis has shown that the dish was made in the Mediterranean and the bowl in Sasanian Persia, possibly in its capital Ctesiphon. The glass ewer from a Korean burial [ EXH135 ]  is also a Roman import. Glass beads are commonly found—10,000 in the Kitora tomb, for example—and they were also  used to replicate semi-precious stones, as seen in the chestlace [ EXH136 ] from Korea and the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasp [ EXH137  and see our  Glass Story ]. 

These graves would also have contained many textiles—clothing, carpets, hangings and more—but only a few traces have survived their long incarceration underground. Nevertheless, the fragments in Oseberg [ EXH138 ] and in over 60 graves at Birka give an indication of how much silk reached the Viking world. Remains from Buddhist and Christian settings, such as from St Cuthbert’s tomb [ EXH67 ], show its use across all regions [ see our Silks Story ]. 

The steppe cultures also had their role alongside the great empire of the Silk Roads, most clearly shown in the adoption across all these regions of a steppe aesthetic and technique of gold filigree and cloisonné inlay with semi-precious stones, the stones often also imported. The Gyerim-ro dagger [ EXH123 ], mentioned above, and the accoutrements from Sutton Hoo, such as the shoulder clasps [ EXH137 ], are exemplars of this [ and see Burial Bling story ]. 

Elite graves from this period and regions show the changing religious beliefs of their occupants, their earthly pursuits and concerns, and also provide a microcosm of their links with the greater Silk Roads through their opulent grave goods.  

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