![]() Wealthy Greeks and Romans used down for their bedding a few hundred years earlier, but probably not until the Middle Ages was down was used more widely by wealthy people in Europe, says Birgitta Berglund.īerglund has been researching down harvesting in Helgeland coastal communities in southern Nordland county for many years, where people commercialized down production early on by building houses for the eider ducks. The down bedding in the graves at Valsgärde are the oldest known ones from Scandinavia and indicate that the two buried men belonged to the top strata of society.Īttached to the helmet in one of the boat graves was a metal plate etched with an illustration of warriors with birds of prey on the helmets. You might have thought of down bedding as a modern concept, which admittedly only became available for common folk in recent times. ![]() You might also like: Viking raiders stole this box - but the real surprise is what they did with it.Their contents probably had a greater function than simply serving as fillers. Under the two warriors were several layers of down bedding. “The buried warriors appear to have been equipped to row to the underworld, but also to be able to get ashore with the help of the horses,” says Berglund.īeauty sleep was also taken care of in death. Down bedding was found under the two warriors.” “Beauty sleep was also taken care of in death. Horses and other animals were arranged close to the boats. In one grave, a Eurasian eagle owl ( Bubo bubo) had been laid, with its head cut off. Together with curator Leena Aulikki Airola, Berglund was able to select and borrow feathers from Gustavianum, the Uppsala University Museum.
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