Introduction
In first-millennium Europe, some of the dead were buried on beds. This piece of household furniture was found in around sixty graves (listed in the online Supplementary Material) ranging from southern Germany to southern Scandinavia and England (Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022) (Figure 1), and dating from the sixth to the early tenth century ad (Figure 2). Despite its rarity in the archaeological record, its presence in the funerary ritual provides a valuable opportunity to explore the decisions made by the living when burying their dead. Why choose a bed instead of a traditional coffin? Was the decision necessarily based on the social status of the deceased? How do dismantled and incomplete beds fit into the ritual process? And importantly, were bed burials a homogenous phenomenon across early medieval Europe?
Figure 1. Distribution of bed burials. 1. Högom; 2. Rolvsøy; 3. Oseberg; 4. Gokstad; 5. Rödingen; 6. Cologne cathedral; 7. Leihgestern; 8. Eltville; 9. Wenigumstadt; 10. Tauberbischofsheim-Dittigheim; 11. Pfahlheim-Rennweg; 12. Lauchheim-Mittelhofen; 13. Weißenburg St Martin Pfarrkirche; 14. Pförring; 15. Mengen; 16. Trossingen; 17. Oberflacht; 18. Neudingen; 19. Biengen im Breisgau; 20. Streethouse, Loftus; 21. Lapwing Hill, Brushfield; 22. Harpole; 23. Edix Hill; 24. Trumpington; 25. War Ditches, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge; 26. Shudy Camps; 27. Ixworth; 28. Coddenham; 29. Collingbourne Ducis; 30. Roundway Down; 31. Winklebury Hill; 32. Swallowcliffe Down; 33. Woodyates, Pentridge.
Figure 2. Chronological distribution of bed burials.
The significance of such a funerary ritual is profound, and yet most research tends to approach it from a rather distant angle. It is not unusual to see the beds overshadowed by other grave goods and discussions of the identity and status of the individuals (Norr & Sundkvist, Reference Norr and Sundkvist1995: 407), and only the most spectacular cases are thoroughly discussed (Evans et al., Reference Evans, Lucy and Patten2018: 327–29, 389). An important issue not addressed in most studies is whether it is a single practice expressed with some variations, or whether it reflects several practices sharing common points. The nuance here is important if we are to understand the significance of beds in the funerary rites of the period. Studies usually approach bed burials according to the geographic location of their discovery, focusing on their technical features and style (e.g. Malim & Hines, Reference Malim and Hines1998: 261–68; Brendle, Reference Brendle2014: 144–50). Early medieval graves were an arena for confronting social, strategic and emotional processes of loss and change, resulting in a variety of ways of burying the dead (Effros, Reference Effros2003: 195; Ljungkvist, Reference Ljungkvist2006).
It is the diversity in mortuary gestures and decisions among bed burials that this article aims to discuss, more specifically the way in which they relate to their occupants, their contents, and their surroundings. By investigating all aspects of the practice and its variations, I hope to go beyond the traditional identification of the type of bed and show the complexity behind what is usually described as a simple support for the dead body. My observations lead me to advocate that we should address the bed burial practice in the plural. The research presented here builds on a new study of bed graves that considers all their components, from the location of the tombs, the biological and social identity of the deceased, the choice of depositing (or not) objects within the grave, and whether the beds were complete or incomplete. The taphonomic analysis of these burials was used to reconstruct the natural processes that produced and later affected the funerary deposit, which includes not only the analysis of the human remains, but also the grave goods and the elements used in making the grave. The results were combined with the archaeological context to produce as complete a picture as possible of bed burial practices.
After some consideration of the definition of a bed grave, I shall focus on the various scales of the practices—at the level of the landscape, the dead, the grave goods—intended to encourage a new approach to the study of bed burial practices in first-millennium Europe.
What Is a Bed Burial?
A common feature of studies on bed burials is the absence of a clear definition of what constitutes a bed in a mortuary context, and this is challenging in many ways. What constitutes a bed burial or not in published studies is mostly based on material considerations, or more simply on what the soil has left for the archaeologist to examine. Preservation varies geographically and chronologically, and inevitably leads to contradictory identification criteria among scholars. In south-western Germany, for instance, the exceptional organic preservation of wooden bed frames has shaped the definition of funerary beds. The inhumation of the deceased on a bed is almost exclusively acknowledged if there is archaeological evidence of actual furniture. The sixth-century beds from Oberflacht (Baden-Württemberg; Schiek, Reference Schiek1992), Cologne cathedral (North Rhine-Westphalia; Doppelfeld & Weyres, Reference Doppelfeld and Weyres1980), and Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg; Theune-Grosskopf & Nedoma, Reference Theune-Großkopf and Nedoma2008) are among the most famous cases. In German studies, bed burials are largely approached as a variant of the classic wooden coffin, converted to a funerary receptacle and used for the same purpose. Tobias Brendle (Reference Brendle2014: 144) classifies the beds from the cemetery of Neudingen (Baden-Württemberg) as burial containers (Totenbehältnisse), while Gerhard Fingerlin (Reference Fingerlin2000: 151) refers to them as biers (Totenbahre). These objects are movable items that shift from the sphere of the living to that of the dead with relative ease.
In English studies, it is the identification of elements belonging to the fittings (e.g. at the site of War Ditches in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge; Figure 3) that determines whether a grave is a bed burial or not. No parallels are drawn in publications between the furniture and the coffin because the seventh-century beds found in England display a different mise-en-scène: a significant number were dismantled before burial, not to adapt to the dimensions of the grave cut, but perhaps rather for ritual purposes. This issue, which has received little attention to date, will be addressed later here. The extent of the alterations varies from site to site, ranging from a completely dismantled bed at Coddenham (Suffolk) and Collingbourne Ducis (Wiltshire) (Watson, Reference Watson and Penn2011, Reference Watson2006) to possibly a few elements being removed at Shudy Camps and Trumpington (both in Cambridgeshire; Lethbridge, Reference Lethbridge1936: 10; Evans et al., Reference Evans, Lucy and Patten2018: 311–17, 322–27). The taphonomic analysis of the skeletal remains at Trumpington, for example, argues against the hypothesis of a body resting on a bed base (see Evans et al., Reference Evans, Lucy and Patten2018 for the complete study of this grave). At Shudy Camps, Lethbridge’s (Reference Lethbridge1936: 10–11) description and illustration of the grave hint at an incomplete bed.
Figure 3. Iron headboard stay (A) and detail of one of the ends; iron cleat (B); iron eyelet (C) from the bed excavated in 1949 at War Ditches in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge (MAA 1953.120 A.1, 1953.120 B.8, 1953.120 D.8). Reproduced by permission of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
While the preservation of beds and their components have largely shaped the definition of bed burials in Germany and England, the situation is rather different in northern Europe. There is no consensus in Scandinavian studies on what archaeological evidence the identification of a bed should be based. In the case of the monumental Gokstad and Oseberg ship burials in Vestfold (Norway), the remarkable preservation of the beds left no doubt as to their identification (Brøgger & Schetelig, Reference Brøgger and Schetelig1928; Bill, Reference Bill, Brather and Krausse2013). At Valsgärde (Uppsala) in Sweden, on the other hand, beds have been identified by the presence of organic remains of mattresses, but no evidence of wooden frames is mentioned (Arwidsson, Reference Arwidsson1942, Reference Arwidsson1954, Reference Arwidsson1977). In a recent article, the analysis of feather fragments from two graves at Valsgärde highlights the lack of clear definitions, with the authors referring alternately to mattresses, beds, and bedclothes (Malmius, Reference Malmius2020: 83–115; Berglund & Rosvold, Reference Berglund and Rosvold2021).
Bed burials are distributed across a wide geographic area (see Figure 1) and belong to different timespans (Figure 2). In other words, the rite was present in different regions, at different times, and within different cultures. The relative rarity of their occurrence in archaeological contexts and the fact that the practice is generally neglected by research have led to limited discussion of the phenomenon, in part due to the plasticity of the definition. This raises a number of issues that affect current research on bed burials. Burying the dead in a significant and solid piece of furniture is not quite the same thing as placing a body on a mattress, in terms of material requirements, cost and loss, scene setting, or even narrative. The sleeping imagery provided by these resting supports could be an argument in favour of research combining bed burials that include furniture and bed burials that involve a mattress, but this implies that these supports were approached as one. Previous discussions on bed graves (e.g. Speake, Reference Speake1989: 98–115; Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022) have not provided a satisfactory resolution on this aspect of the ritual, and it seems hazardous to validate this interpretation without solid argumentation or debate.
Here, the definition of a bed burial will be limited to cases where there is archaeological evidence that an individual was buried on a real bed, i.e. a piece of furniture. The physical and emotional engagement that underlies the introduction of an impressive piece of domestic furniture into the grave is hardly comparable to a body resting on a simple mattress. Burials that involve a bed or mattress evoke questions about beliefs, customs, and emotions in the societies of the time, but in different manners, which is important to acknowledge to fully perceive the meaning of these practices, and recognize the richness of early medieval burial practices.
Bed Graves in Their Setting: Burial Places and the Landscape
Several studies have demonstrated the close relationship between the location of funerary sites and the landscape context; for example, some scholars have shown how some early medieval burial places were actively linked with routeways and coastlines (Brookes, Reference Brookes2007), while others have considered the manipulation of the past through the re-investment of prehistoric monuments (Williams, Reference Williams1998; Leclercq & Pion, Reference Leclercq and Pion2010; Semple, Reference Semple2014). Where to bury the dead in the early Middle Ages rested on a series of decisions and choices, ranging from social and cultural concepts to family strategies (Williams, Reference Williams1998; Brookes, Reference Brookes2007). The diversity of mortuary responses to the environmental setting has largely been overlooked in studies of bed burials. As with any funerary monument, the location and surface expression of these graves are significant in terms of memory, ritual, and power, as well as individual and community identity (e.g. Carver, Reference Carver, Hamerow and MacGregor2001; Verslype, Reference Verslype, Guillaume and Peytremann2008).
Although most bed burials have been found in rural cemeteries of various sizes, the way these burials were included within the funerary landscape is quite varied. In Germany and England, the furniture is usually the only element that differentiates these graves from the others in the cemetery. The bed burials were fully integrated in the cemetery space, and their distribution does not show any grouping or association with any other specific type of grave. Inside the burial pit, the beds did not occupy a particular place and were usually positioned in a way that is similar to any other kind of burial container. In England, a few cases of bed burials covered by a mound or re-using Bronze Age barrows are mentioned (Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 21), but these are generally old discoveries, mainly of the second half of the nineteenth century (Speake, Reference Speake1989: 101–02, 105). The re-use of ancient monuments as early medieval graves is a well-known phenomenon (Semple, Reference Semple2014) and, in this respect, Anglo-Saxon bed burials are part of this tradition. However, this shows diversity in terms of their interplay with the landscape: some bed graves were designed to be visible, others not.
This diversity of burials is also present in Scandinavia, but with the major difference that bed graves in the region were all meant to be seen. The Oseberg and Gokstad ship burials in Norway were designed to be prominent in the landscape over a great distance. The Oseberg mound was about 6 m high and had a diameter of 40 m, while the Gokstad mound had a diameter of almost 45 m and a height of about 5 m (Bonde & Christensen, Reference Bonde and Christensen1993). The bed chamber graves of Högom (Sweden), (Ramqvist, Reference Ramqvist1992), and Rolvsøy (Norway; Maixner, Reference Maixner, Hoffman, Kamp and Wemhoff2014: 105–07) are similarly monumental, with high mounds standing out in the landscape (Figure 4). The scene setting of these graves is reinforced by their close proximity to waterways. The location of the Högom cemetery close to a major waterway for the transport of iron, is an eloquent example of the display of power for passing travellers (Ramqvist, Reference Ramqvist1992: 25). The discourse embodied by these burials was primarily directed at the non-local community, its objective being to make a lasting statement in the landscape. This is a fundamental difference from the German examples. In these graves, the expression of the status and wealth of the deceased was displayed through the materiality of the grave and its contents; its components were intended to be hidden from the world of the living after the funeral. The situation is more nuanced in English bed burials since, as at Högom in Sweden, they were often located close to waterways (see Brookes, Reference Brookes2007), and some were under small mounds. But most Anglo-Saxon bed burials lack the monumentality that characterizes the Högom bed grave, and though there are similarities in the location of the sites, the conception of the graves differs between the two regions.
Figure 4. View of the Högom burial mounds in 1964 (photograph by Reggae Ellefsson). Reproduced by permission of Sundsvalls Museum.
On the scale of the site, the bed burials in Scandinavia were not included in cemeteries but stood as single entities in the landscape. The one exception is the Högom grave, found in a small burial ground of originally sixteen mounds. The majority of bed graves in Germany and England, on the other hand, have been discovered in cemeteries. The two bed burials at Edix Hill (Cambridgeshire) are the only certain examples of multiple bed inhumations in a cemetery in England (Malim & Hines, Reference Malim and Hines1998), whereas most other cases are single finds. The situation is more complex in Germany, with a particularly high concentration of bed burials in the southern part of the country, likely to be due to the exceptional preservation conditions in this region (Brendle, Reference Brendle2014: 129: Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 5). At Oberflacht, no fewer than twenty-one beds were excavated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Paulsen, Reference Paulsen1992). There are also numerous occurrences at Neudingen (Brendle, Reference Brendle2014: 144–50), Leihgestern (Klenk, Reference Klenk1964: 39–43), and Mengen (Walter, Reference Walter2008: 45), although some of the identified beds should be re-assessed due to the ambiguity of the archaeological evidence.
In this mortuary landscape, the environmental setting of the Weißenburg and Cologne bed burials and the biological profile of their occupants is remarkable. These burials are the only examples known from inside churches, and they are also those of some of the youngest individuals found in association with beds. While the six-year-old individual from Cologne cathedral has been amply discussed by scholars (e.g. Doppelfeld & Weyres, Reference Doppelfeld and Weyres1980), there is no comprehensive study of the Weißenburg grave (Bavaria; Koch, Reference Koch1992). This burial was an unfurnished inhumation of a two- to four-year-old child discovered accidentally and dated to the middle of the seventh century (Koch, Reference Koch1992) (Figure 5). Archival research is currently underway to gain new insights, and notably to understand how the burial of children on beds and in a religious context fits in with the practice of funerary beds. This is an important point: the inhumation of very young individuals on beds represents the exception here. Keeping in mind that we are certainly missing more cases due to organic preservation issues, thirteen per cent of bed burials identified in Europe are those of children. While the vast majority of bed burials are located in cemeteries, the only two examples associated with churches are those of non-adult individuals.
Figure 5. The child grave with bed excavated by R. Koch at St Martin, Weißenburg during winter 1989–1990 (excavation no. M-2007-37509-1; photograph by Friedrich Leja). Reproduced by permission of Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Nürnberg.
The Beds and Their Occupants
The arrangement of a grave in the early Middle Ages was based on a series of decisions that were closely associated with the deceased (Effros, Reference Effros2003; Brather, Reference Brather, Brather, Geuenich and Huth2009). In this regard the bed burial practice cannot be dissociated from its ‘owner’. The Cologne cathedral bed burial is usually interpreted as a powerful display of the social class of the young boy and his family, but this neglects more personal and emotional considerations, such as the loss of a child and of a future (Crawford, Reference Crawford and Sofaer2000: 174, 177–78, Reference Crawford, Kamp-Whittaker, Devine and Spencer-Wood2024). The other graves discovered inside the cathedral showed a similar range of high social status, but none had a bed (Doppelfeld & Weyres, Reference Doppelfeld and Weyres1980); neither did the young individuals buried in the Frankfurt church of Saint Bartholomew (Hesse; Wamers, Reference Wamers2015). Here, a five-year-old girl was inhumed in a wooden coffin, while the cremated remains of a four- to five-year-old child were gathered in a bag and placed next to the little girl (Wamers, Reference Wamers2015: 219). The privileged status of the child was expressed through the funerary ritual, notably a lavish funerary deposit, but no bed or other type of furniture were associated with it (Wamers, Reference Wamers2015). In contrast, the Cologne bed grave does not follow the traditional pattern of early medieval burials that largely privileged coffins, even in wealthy situations as in Frankfurt; the Cologne example illustrates the close and intimate connection between the resting furniture, the deceased, and the child’s entourage.
The dead body is evidently a key part of bed burial practice. Who were these individuals who had the privilege to be buried on a bed? How is that choice related to their gender and social identity? These questions have received rather uneven attention. For instance, Jacqui Watson (Reference Watson2006, Reference Watson and Penn2011) has examined closely the beds found at Coddenham, Collingbourne Ducis (Dinwiddy & Stoodley, Reference Dinwiddy and Stoodley2016: 101–04), and Edix Hill (Malim & Hines, Reference Malim and Hines1998: 261–68), but her observations have never been compared with the human remains and the taphonomy of the graves. This is a recurrent pattern in bed burial studies: the dead are often secondary to the discussion.
Most bed burials contained the remains of adult individuals. The age at death shows no specific trend, with individuals ranging from young to old adults. As for the non-adults, the pattern differs from country to country, with children in the three- to seven-years-old age category in Germany, while the individuals found in England were aged between approximately thirteen and eighteen at the time of death. These two distinct subadult age categories have not been recognized in previous studies. And yet, in societies deeply dependent on the survival of children as a guarantee of the continuity of a community, their age at the time of death did not have the same implications. It has been established that the funerary treatment of children shows that their loss was keenly felt in most past societies (Mizoguchi, Reference Mizoguchi and Sofaer2000; Bérard, Reference Bérard, Lauwers and Zemour2016). Although children of all ages were certainly equally mourned in early medieval communities, the death of a child over the age of twelve would have had a different emotional and social significance compared with that of a child who died in the first few years of life (Crawford, Reference Crawford and Sofaer2000, Reference Crawford, Kamp-Whittaker, Devine and Spencer-Wood2024; Hadley, Reference Hadley, Crawford, Hadley and Shepherd2018).
In a Viking Age context, Dawn Hadley (Reference Hadley, Crawford, Hadley and Shepherd2018: 420) has pointed out that the deaths of children over twelve years old may have been keenly felt by their families, given that they were at a stage in their lives when it was expected that they would soon move into their adult social roles. Sally Crawford (Reference Crawford and Sofaer2000: 172, Reference Crawford, Kamp-Whittaker, Devine and Spencer-Wood2024: 37) makes a similar observation for fifth- to eleventh-century England, with the age of ten to twelve marking a social transition from childhood to adulthood. The child bed burials in England fell into that category of loss of ‘soon-to-be’ adults. The future they embodied, and particularly as representatives of a new (Christian; see below) elite in seventh-century England, was lost with their death. On the other hand, considering their very young age, the children in Germany were dependent on adult care and socially associated with their parents. It is with this significant difference in social and community roles in mind that the bed burials of children in England and Germany should be examined. This has not yet been attempted. The choice of a bed as a mortuary receptacle cannot be interpreted without considering the age of the children, and the emotional response of their loss by the community.
To return to the adult individuals, comparing their burials shows a great diversity in terms of gender, social status, and identity. This is particularly clear in Germany, where both men and women of varying status (see below) could be buried on beds. In England, it is well established that a significant number of bed burials were female, and connected with the Christian sphere (Speake, Reference Speake1989: 124; Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 22–23). At the same time, we should recognize that at least one individual buried on a bed was identified as a male (Lapwing Hill, Derbyshire; Bateman, Reference Bateman1861). Assuming that the Christian component is attached to elite women, what would be the driving force behind the inhumation of men on beds? The Lapwing Hill individual was buried with a sword, two spearheads, two knives, and possibly a shield, and nothing suggests that these objects had any connection with the Christian elite (Figure 6). It is therefore important to approach the gender and identity issues in Anglo-Saxon bed burials with subtlety: focusing on female bed burials tends to make uniform a practice that had no reason to be homogeneous.
Figure 6. Drawing of the Lapwing Hill bed grave (from Jewitt, Reference Jewitt1870: 209, fig. 325).
In Scandinavia, beds are exclusively related to burials that are exceptional in terms of construction, contents, interplay with the surroundings, and, not least, the identity of the deceased. At Gokstad, for example, the re-investigation in 2006 of the human bones discovered in 1880 showed that the deceased was a robust middle-aged man, with evidence of perimortem blows (Holck, Reference Holck2009). There was no skeletal material preserved at Högom, but the composition of the grave goods suggests that the individual was probably a man of high status (chieftain?). The Oseberg burial stands out for containing the remains of two adult women associated with lavish objects. Although the original position of the bodies is uncertain due to the ancient disturbance of the grave, it has been suggested that one of the women was on a bed. Their identity has been the subject of much debate since their discovery (Arwill-Nordbladh, Reference Arwill-Nordbladh, Hamilakis, Pluciennik and Tarlow2002: 207–08; Holck, Reference Holck2006: 206). In the early 2000s, aDNA analysis could not establish whether these women were related due to modern contamination of the samples. However, it was possible to show that the younger person could have come from around the Black Sea area (Holck, Reference Holck2006: 205, 208).
One of the key issues with the bed burial practice is trying to understand how it originated and how it spread across regions that are distant from one another (Schach-Dörges, Reference Schach-Dörges2005). Some Anglo-Saxon bed graves have recently been part of extensive isotopic studies of women’s mobility in early medieval England (e.g. Leggett, Reference Leggett2020; Rose, Reference Rose2021; Leggett et al., Reference Leggett, Rose, Praet and Le Roux2021; Hamerow et al., Reference Hamerow, Leggett, Tinguely and Le Roux2024) and, at a larger scale, on the social, religious, and power changes that characterized England in the seventh century (Groves et al., Reference Groves, Roberts, Lucy, Pearson, Gröcke and Nowell2013). The individuals from Trumpington and Edix Hill have stable isotope signatures that suggest they did not grow up in Britain (Leggett, Reference Leggett2020). Grave 60 at Edix Hill shows oxygen and strontium values indicating that the woman is likely to have come from the Rhineland (Leggett et al., Reference Leggett, Le Roux, Tinguely, Baranowski and Sayle2024: 17). In Germany, the isotopic analyses of individuals buried in Trossingen (Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf2010: 44) and Weningumstadt (Vohberger, Reference Vohberger2011: 149–50, 196) point to a local origin. Might these results indicate that the bed burial practice was introduced to England by individuals from continental Europe, or even further afield, whereas a local origin in Germany is more likely? Although the number of bed burials analysed by biomolecular methods is limited, and it would thus be hazardous to draw any definitive conclusions, results are promising. They take the discussion beyond the traditional stylistic comparison of beds (Schach-Dörges, Reference Schach-Dörges2005), which is proving inadequate in such broad geographic and chronological contexts, not to mention the fact that beds had certainly more to do with local resources, craftsmanship, and trends than with strictly foreign influences. In this context, an article currently in preparation by Sam Leggett, Alice Rose, and Emma Brownlee, examining the origins of the individuals buried in beds, should shed new light on this issue (pers. comm. by E. Brownlee, August 2024).
Prestigious Burials? The Grave Goods and the Beds
What seems important about bed burials varies greatly according to the context in which they were found, their state of preservation, their contents, but also regional research traditions. In Scandinavia, it is not unusual for beds to be overshadowed by remarkably well-preserved boats or the accompanying grave goods, leaving limited space for their study (Norr & Sundkvist, Reference Norr and Sundkvist1995: 407; Price, Reference Price2015). In continental Europe, it is the rich funerary assemblage that has mostly drawn the attention of researchers at Trossingen. The finely decorated lyre, with sound-box, cover, bridge, and tuning peg gives a specific identity to this male grave, which is referred to in publications and the media as the ‘singer’s grave’ (Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf, Both, Eichmann, Hickmann and Koch2008; Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 21). The Trossingen grave is among the only three continental bed burials that have been subject to isotope analysis, and one of the few that has been osteologically assessed (Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf2010: 18–21; Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 24). However, it is the grave goods that are used as the main indicators of the identity of the individual, with the weaponry designating him as a warrior, and the saddle and rider’s lance as a horseman (Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf, Both, Eichmann, Hickmann and Koch2008: 219). There is no cross-referencing between the anthropological and the archaeological data. This situation is far from unusual: scientific and popular publications all appear to disconnect the dead from their final resting place, thus limiting the opportunity to answer questions regarding mortuary practices and rituals.
Bed burials are frequently interpreted as belonging to individuals of high social status (Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 20–21). Most publications stress the great value of the objects found in bed burials, their rarity, and their symbolism (see e.g. the Swallowcliffe Down burials; Speake, Reference Speake1989). The bed may be considered the three-dimensional expression of the deceased’s high status in the lavish boat-graves in Scandinavia and, to some extent, in a number of bed burials in England. The situation is less clear in Germany, as we will see. We might indeed ask whether these graves were almost exclusively for high-ranking individuals and whether the presence of a bed is a sufficient criterion for categorizing their occupants as members of an elite.
Our new assessment of bed burials shows that the quantity and quality of objects varies greatly in continental Europe, thus expressing diversity in status and rituals. Taking the example of the bed graves at Oberflacht, the grave goods range from the simple deposit of a wooden bowl or a ring (Graves 91 and 217; Paulsen, Reference Paulsen1992; Schiek, Reference Schiek1992) to a set of weapons, a lyre, a candelabra, a bronze bowl, two wooden canteens, a pottery jug, and a double chair in Grave 84 (Schach-Dörges, Reference Schach-Dörges2005: 143–45). Most bed graves are in fact furnished with just a few objects, which corresponds to the average picture of sixth- and seventh-century burials in western Europe. Nothing suggests that all the bed burials at Oberflacht were those of individuals of particularly high social status, which also seems to be supported by the relative frequency of the beds on the site. On the other hand, the lack of sumptuous objects does not mean that the buried individuals did not belong to a certain social class, but simply that a different choice was made about what their last resting place should contain and express (see e.g. Brather, Reference Brather, Brather, Geuenich and Huth2009). The fine craftsmanship of some of the beds certainly played a role similar to that of other lavish grave goods. The introduction of an impressive piece of domestic furniture into the grave, and consequently its loss to the household, is also unquestionably a meaningful gesture (on a similar topic but with chairs in burials, see Theune-Großkopf & Nedoma, Reference Theune-Großkopf and Nedoma2008) and could have been enough by itself to express status, but also beliefs or an emotional response to death.
Variation in object deposition does not only concern the bed burials in Germany. This is also the case, to a certain extent, in England. Although research has mainly focused on the Christianity of the individuals, not all the bed graves have elements related to the religious sphere, nor are the funerary deposits homogeneous. The female individuals buried in Graves 18 and 61 at Edix Hill were accompanied by relatively rich but different objects (Malim & Hines, Reference Malim and Hines1998), while the female bed burial at Collingbourne Ducis was unfurnished (Dinwiddy & Stoodley, Reference Dinwiddy and Stoodley2016). This diversity in ritual has been noticed (e.g. Malim & Hines, Reference Malim and Hines1998), but only to a degree. What really makes the English bed burials so singular compared to other cases is the complete absence of furniture other than the bed.
The presence of additional pieces of furniture in continental European and Scandinavian bed burials is relatively common but, surprisingly, has never received much attention. And yet, almost half of the bed burials included several pieces of furniture, mostly chairs and stools. In the best preserved cases, such as at Oberflacht and Cologne, the design of the seats is similar to that of the beds (Doppelfeld & Weyres, Reference Doppelfeld and Weyres1980: 352–57; Paulsen, Reference Paulsen1992: 64–65). At Högom, it is the particular arrangement of the food and drink service in the south-eastern part of the grave that has led researchers to suggest that they were placed on a table (Ramqvist, Reference Ramqvist1992: 127). More impressive is the additional furniture from the Gokstad and Oseberg ship burials, consisting of several beds, sledges, a chair, and a tent (Brøgger & Schetelig, Reference Brøgger and Schetelig1928; Bill, Reference Bill, Brather and Krausse2013: 75). The absence of furniture other than a bed in England is therefore an interesting feature, but this observation requires a degree of caution. It is the particular conditions of preservation that have led to the identification of the household goods in Germany, Norway, and Sweden. In contrast, beds uncovered in England are attested only by the metal elements used in their assembly. Consequently, we cannot conclude that the absence of these elements in the manufacture of chairs, tables, or stools proves the absence of such furniture.
Apart from the absence of additional pieces of furniture, it is the inclusion of incomplete or dismantled beds that makes English burials unique. Based on the analysis of the bed-fittings, Watson demonstrated how the beds at Collingbourne Ducis (Dinwiddy & Stoodley, Reference Dinwiddy and Stoodley2016: 101–04) and Coddenham (Watson, Reference Watson2006) were deliberately taken apart. The skeletal remains were not included in Watson’s study, but the taphonomic analysis of these graves clearly shows that the individuals were never placed on an elevated support (i.e. a bed frame) but decomposed on or close to the base of the grave. The inclusion of the human remains in the reconstruction of the beds is crucial, not only because they confirm previous observations, but also because they can lead to new interpretations. At Shudy Camps, for instance, the position of the skeletal elements and the bed-fittings suggest decomposition in a void (Lethbridge, Reference Lethbridge1936: 10–11). However, the total absence of clear signs of disturbance of the bones, expected when the base of a bed collapses, challenges the proposed reconstruction of the bed, i.e. that it was a complete piece of furniture with a high wooden plank base. The possibility that the Shudy Camps bed was modified for the burial must therefore be considered.
The fact that it was not necessary to bring assembled furniture inside the grave raises a number of questions (on a similar topic, but with dismantled chairs, see Theune-Großkopf & Nedoma, Reference Theune-Großkopf and Nedoma2008; Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf2010: 79–81). Although the narrowness of the burial pit may have made it necessary to adapt the bed, burial practices in the early Middle Ages tend to show that digging large, deep pits was a rather common practice. Some beds were also constructed and designed to accommodate a single body (Theune-Großkopf, Reference Theune-Großkopf2010: 74–77; Brownlee, Reference Brownlee2022: 2–3), representing no technical difficulty in their introduction in the grave. How then do we explain the possible incompleteness of some beds in England? If we accept that keeping the integrity of the beds was not fundamental in the ritual process, our understanding of the practice in England needs to be reconsidered and, consequently, that the English graves fall into a category that differs from those in Germany and Scandinavia.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study shows the great diversity of early medieval bed burials at various scales of analysis. As we have seen, there is variation in the setting in which the bed burials are located, the architecture of the graves, their above-ground materiality, the objects buried (or their absence), and even the (in)completeness of the beds. All these features are connected to the deceased. This plurality is not limited to regions or time but can also be found within the cemeteries themselves. It therefore seems necessary to shift the focus of research on bed burials away from a single category and start talking about practices, in the plural.
Several aspects could be considered in future research, such as the adoption of bed burial practices in some regions and not in others, and during specific periods. We should also consider the contents of the burials beyond a strict social categorization and question why certain objects are more often present in these graves than in others. As an example, female bed graves in Germany frequently contained weaving equipment (e.g. spindle whorl, needle, weaving batten, wooden distaff) in such frequency that one wonders what link they might have with the beds (e.g. Klenk, Reference Klenk1964; Schiek, Reference Schiek1992; Brendle, Reference Brendle2014).
With the development of the ‘archaeology of affect’ over the last years, there is now ground for investigating the emotional impact of practices with visual and non-visual effects on the living. The work of Sian Mui (Reference Mui2018) on body positioning in fifth- to seventh-century burials in England is inspiring as regards the sleep-death metaphor in inhumation graves. Further relevant comparative research is that carried out by French et al. (Reference French, Smith and Stanbury2016) on beds in literature, illuminated manuscripts, and legal documents in late medieval England. This shows that beds were deeply embedded in the life cycles of people in the past, being present at every important stage of life (birth, marriage, illness, prayer, death, inheritance).
The textual sources, however, do not mention their ‘new life’ once placed in the grave. There are certainly several answers here, given the plurality of the rite and regional differences. However, some of the roles of beds seem clear, such as that of a means of communication perceptible to a specific group, like the English examples with Christian objects. Some beds, such as those in Norway, seem to have been used as a symbol of power to deliver a message to a wide audience over the long term. Another role would have been that of funerary accessory. Here, beds had the same importance as any other luxury object or coffin, as shown by German burials.
Supplementary Material
To view supplementary material for this article, please visit http://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2025.10009.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the Olle Engkvists Stiftelse under Grant 218-0050. My warmest thanks to Sebastian Brather and Hubert Fehr for sharing documentation and information on the Lauchheim and Weißenburg bed graves, and to all the archive services that responded to my requests and permitted the publication of some of the illustrations. I am grateful to Alison Klevnäs, Emma Brownlee, and Sophie Bergerbrant for their comments and suggestions, which greatly improved this article.
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