Samiske bjørnegraver : Deres utseende og plassering i landskapet ; Sami bear graves : Their characteristics and location in the landscape

For the Sami, as in many other hunter cultures, the bear has been considered as sacred. The hunt itself, and following feast, has therefore been associated with several rituals and ceremonies. One of them is the burial of the bear’s remains. This thesis attempts to point to similarities between the characteristics of different bear graves, and their placements in the landscape. Bear graves appear in both Northern Sami and South Sami areas in Scandinavia. The graves in the North Sami area are the oldest, essentially from the period 900–1300 AD. They often appear in caves or natural gorges in large rocks along the coast. In the South Sami area, the graves are mostly younger than the northern, and the excavated and dated graves points to a period of usage between AD 1700 and 1800. The graves in the South Sami area are mostly located in the inland, with an appearance of a scree of large stones, where the bear’s bones have been placed on the ground and hidden with stones. Sometimes also wood and peat has been used to hide the remains of the bears in this area. In both the Northern Sami and the South Sami areas, the bear graves occurs mainly close to water, either in fjords, by lakes, riverbanks or on islands. The graves closeness to mountain and hill terrain, settlements and places of sacrifice, has also been identified as a characteristic feature.