We hear a lot about sea travel in the Viking Age, but land transportation was also an important part of Scandinavian life. Indeed, during the winter, when wet ground was frozen, land transportation was especially convenient.¹  This wooden wheel fragment, found in Astrup Banke in southern Jutland and dating to the early Viking period,² is evidence of the fact that carriages, while not necessarily what leaps to mind when thinking about the Norse, were used as a means of transportation.

Indeed, carriages must have been of great importance to medieval Scandinavians, as is evidenced by the fact that carriages were often used as coffins in burials, especially for Scandinavian women.³  While we may consider a ship burial to be a sign of the prestige of the interred, perhaps being buried in a carriage was a similar sign of status.

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