Who Was Buried at Viking Scar Burial Mound?

In the burial of Scar, the archaeologists discovered remains of three individuals. The ship was discovered next to the seashore and the total ship inside the burial mound was completely gone. What's left were the signs of rivets marking the appearance of the ship. 

The man inside the burial was about 5 feet 11 inches and he was probably around his 30s when he died. 

The woman lying at his feet was an old woman. The archaeologists concluded that she was in her seventies which was a considerable age to reach in the Viking time. 

Next to the old woman was a child with unknown sex. The child aged between ten or eleven years old. Both the old woman and the child were placed flat on their back. 

The remains of the Scar ship

Because of having remains of three individuals inside, Scar had three!

But we can do nothing but speculate the relationship between the three only. 

The fact that the woman was so old sorts out the possibility that she was the wife of the man buried, at least in the conventional sense. This easily made us come to believe that they were mother - son - daughter. 

Some put forward the idea that the man was a servant to the old woman. But the problem was that the burial was too luxurious for a slave to have. He was buried with such wealth of grave goods ruling out that he was a slave. 

And how they died forever remains a puzzle. The archaeologists would conclude that the three were buried at the same time so they probably died within a fairly short time together. 

Sketch of the Scar burial mound

It has been suggested that the three perished at sea. They might have been travelling from one of the neighboring islands but sadly ending up with death. Another theory was that the man and the child were buried to accompany the old woman in her afterlife but the wealth for the man was too luxurious for a slave to have. 

Bone analysis showed that the man had spent most of his life at sea. He could have been a rower suggested by the condition of his hands. But with the bone analysis, the man could also be a trained swordsman or horseman. 

Because of this and the quality of his possessions, the man was more likely to be in high social rank in his clan. And so was the old woman with her old age and wealth.