287 Suionumhinccivitates,ipsoinOceano,praeter virosarmaqueclassibusvalent,formanavium eodiffert,quodutrimqueproraparatamsemper appulsui frontem agit.Nec velis ministrantur nec remos in ordinem lateribus adiungunt: solutum,utinquibusdamfluminum,etmuta- bile,utresposcit,hincvelillincremigium. Tacitus, Germania,44 1 Boat burials from the Roman Iron Age Thecustomofburyingthedeadinaboat hasbeenevokingcuriosityandfascinationin archaeologyeversincethefirstdiscoveriesof thefamousNorwegianVikingshipburialsin the19 th c.Inmorerecenttimesanumberof spectacularboatandshipburialshavebeendis- coveredinScandinaviaaswellasinotherparts of northern Europe, ranging from elaborate ship burials from the Viking Period to more modest burials occurring through most of prehistory. Geographicallytheburialcustomstretches fromtheboat-graveonÎledeGroixinBretagne inthewesttotheGniezdovoboat-gravesinthe east(Cassard1996;Avdusin&Puškina1988). Chronologicallythecustomisfoundfromthe StoneAge 2 totheEarlyMedievalPeriod 3 .There arestilllargegapsinthetimespanandgreat differencesintheappearanceandcontentsof thedifferentboatandshipgraves.Althoughthe customexistedintheStoneAgeaswellasin medievaltimes,itisnotnecessarilyacontinu- ous,unbrokentradition. Boat-graves are often associated with an aristocraticwarriorelite,asisthecaseofthe shipburialfromSuttonHooinEnglandorthe Vendel andValsgärde graves in Sweden (e.g. Ambrosiani1983,26f.;Carvered.1992).The boat burial custom has long been thought to haveoriginatedintheenvironmentofthe6 th c. Scandinavianwarriorelitewhereasboat-graves ofanearlierdatehaveoftenbeendismissedas Magdalena Natuniewicz-Sekula & Christina Rein Seehusen Baltic connections. Some remarks about studies of boat-graves from the Roman Iron Age. Finds from the Slusegård and Weklice cemeteries 2 The Korsør Nor boat-grave on south-western Zealand,Denmark(Skaarup1995,51ff.). 3 Theboat-gravesfromSebbersundinDenmarkand LundinSwedendatedtothe11 th c.AD(Birkedahl& Johansen1995,160ff.). 1 ThestatesoftheSuionesthatfollowalongtheshoreof Oceanarestrongnotonlyinarmsandmenbutalsoin their fleets. The shape of their ships differs from the normalinhavingaprowatbothends,whichisalways ready to be put in to shore. They do not rig sails or fasten their oars in banks at the sides. Their oarage is loose,asonefindsitonsomerivers,andcanbeshifted, asneedrequires,fromsidetoside.(TacitusonBritain andGermany. A New Translation of the ‘Agricola’ and the ‘Germania’ by H. Mattingly,PenguinBooks,West Drayton-Middlesex, without year [first published 1948],page137).