Late Iron Age Graves With Sewn and Hybrid Lapstrake Boats in Northern Norway: Burials and Boat Technology From Multiethnic Contexts

Lapstrake-built boats in graves are a valuable source of insights into nautical technology and how it was used and developed during the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia. In this study, boat grave evidence documents the importance of sewing and the addition of rivets to sewn vessels to produce a hybridized lapstrake boat construction technology that is unique to northern Norway. It is argued that sewn and hybrid boats reflect a shared boat building tradition between coastal Sámi and Norse communities. Hybrid boats are found in the earliest boat burials from northern Norway dating to the seventh century and both sewn and hybrid boats were in use through the tenth century. This study views burial boats as essential utilitarian objects for the maritime communities who produced and depended on them. The collective evidence from northern Norway suggests that sewn and hybrid boats were restricted to small and medium seagoing rowed vessels circa (c.) 4–8 m (m) in length used for fishing and related activities. A detailed assessment of three boat grave sites with hybrid vessels excavated in the 60 s and 70 s is used to explore the contexts in which these watercrafts performed as well as the rituals surrounding their interment. Stable carbon (δ 13 C) isotope values reveal that both humans and the dogs that accompanied them at two of these sites had highly marine diets consistent with maritime islander communities.