Death Rituals Around Time and the World

Viking: If you were revered enough, your body was put on a ship and, after the ship had moved far enough away from shore, a flaming arrow would set the boat on fire and incinerate the deceased… unless the archer missed; then, you’d just have a dead guy on a boat. Ancient Egypt: Mummies! In […]

Things that are Okay to Bury

Beatrix Kiddo. Something previously dead but now shambling about with a strange sense of purpose. A time capsule. For those who don’t know what that is, a time capsule is essentially a garbage can that doesn’t get emptied for a hundred years. It’s okay to bury your resentment generated by your family and friends just […]

Reflections on Dead Viking Women

Archaeologists recently exhumed the bodies of two Viking women in Vestfold County, Norway. They had been buried with a sixty-five foot Viking longboat in the year 834 A.D. It is assumed that the older of the two was some sort of royalty; either that or she just happened to be sleeping on deck while the […]