Valsgärde or Vallsgärde is a farm on the

Fyris Fyrisån (, "the Fyris river") is a river in the Swedish province of Uppland, which passes through the city of Uppsala and ends in Lake Mälaren. The "Sala" river in Uppland was changed in the 17th century in memory of the Fyrisvellir battle, ...

river, about three kilometres north of

Gamla Uppsala Gamla, alt. sp. Gamala ( he, גַּמְלָא, The Camel) was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. It is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars which was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 B ...

, the ancient centre of the Swedish kings and of the pagan faith in Sweden. The present farm dates from the 16th century. The farm's notability derives from the presence of a burial site from the Swedish

Vendel Age In Swedish prehistory, the Vendel Period ( sv, Vendeltiden; 540–790 AD) appears between the Migration Period and the Viking Age. The name is taken from the rich boat inhumation cemetery at Vendel parish church, Uppland. This is a period wi ...

(part of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

(c. 550–793) and the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

); it was used for more than 300 years. The first

ship burial A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was p ...

is from the 6th century and the last

graves A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

are from the 11th century.

Excavation

The Vikings Begin 55 - warrior sword, 7th century

The site was found and excavated by archaeologists in the 1920s, and before this similar graves had only been found at

Vendel Vendel is a village at Tierp Municipality in Uppland, Sweden. The village overlooks Vendelsjön, a long inland stretch of water near the Vendel river which has its confluence with the river Fyris. Vendel was the site of an ancient royal estate, ...

, which gave its name to this period of the Scandinavian Iron Age. The graves are princely, and are almost identical to ones found in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia dated probably to 610-635. There are several theories about the identities of those buried, ranging from the

Yngling The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem ''Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings (Old Norse ''Skilfingar'') in '' Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' ...

s (Scylfings) to powerful warriors within the

Leidang The institution known as ''leiðangr'' (Old Norse), ''leidang'' ( Norwegian), ''leding'' ( Danish), ''ledung'' ( Swedish), ''expeditio'' (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a form of conscription ( mass levy) to organize coastal fleets for s ...

system, or local strongmen who had enriched themselves through trade due to the area's strategic position between the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...

of Mälaren and the important region of

Tiundaland Tiundaland is a historic region, '' Folkland'', and since 1296 part of the modern province of Uppland. It originally meant the ''land of the ten hundreds'' and referred to its duty of providing 1000 men and 40 ships for the Swedish king's leidang. ...

. There are so many rich graves that it is likely that most of them were royalty.

References

* Arwidsson, Greta (1942) ''Valsgärde 6'' (Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.B. Uppsala) *Arwidsson, Greta (1977) ''Valsgärde 7'' (Berlingska Boktryckeriet. Uppsala) *Arwidsson, Greta (1954) ''Valsgärde 8'' (Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.B. Uppsala) *Fridell, Allan (1930) ''First Ship burial at Valsgärde in Gamla Uppsala parish'' (Fornvännen

*Schönbäck, Bengt: (2002) ''De vikingatida båtgravarna vid Valsgärde - relativ kronologi'' (Fornvännen)

External links

Gamla Uppsala
— Archæological information from the Swedish National Heritage Board.
Ljungqvist 2008
— General article on the Valsgärde site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Valsgarde Archaeological sites in Sweden Viking Age populated places Farms in Sweden Viking ship burials Vendel Period