A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was used in the Vendel era and by the Anglo-Saxons, the Merovingians, the Vikings and occasionally the Ancient Egyptians. For the former three Germanic peoples, this burial was seen as a way for the dead to sail to Valhalla; ship burial was a high honour.
