This Animal Head Post is one of four distinct posts that were recovered from the Oseberg Ship burial mound excavation. In Viking Age Scandinavia, boats were vital to the way of life and were often included at burial sites. The Oseberg Ship is thought to be the personal vessel of its royal owner, being filled with many treasures and offerings. The distinctive stylistic rendering of this post, when considered in the context of its discovery and with its counterparts, can be attributed to the continuous exchange and development of artistic ideas and methods in this era.

Excavated from a mound in the Oslo fjord, Norway, the ship had been very well preserved due to fortuitous clay soil conditions that were impermeable to oxygen. Dendrochronological testing has placed the burial date in the year 834 and original construction around 815-820, thus giving ample time for it to potentially have sailed across the North Sea to the British or Irish isles before being buried.

The post is made of wood and carved in an older, more traditional “academic” manner with grid-and-dot design on the bottom, smooth middle section and a head detailed with an interlacing pattern and geometrical grid. That it does not have intricate interlacing from top to bottom may suggest that it was made earlier than the others as they are more closely detailed and look as if they might have been influenced by contact with other cultures. Additionally, the posts might have served a symbolic or spiritual role in the journey of deceased into the afterlife.

Thus, with its stylistic deviation from the three others found at the site this Animal Head Post speaks the advancement of Norse artistry, the roll of skillful art as a status symbol, and also the importance of funerary arrangements.1

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