Viking Graves at "Altes Lager" in Menzlin
● Menzlin
South of Menzlin lie the historic Viking graves. This area was once home to a Slavic settlement and a Viking-era trading post. The Vikings, known primarily as a warlike people, were also skilled traders and seafarers; they traded along the entire Baltic Sea coast and had excellent boat builders and skilled craftsmen. This was revealed by archaeological investigations at the former lake trading center of Menzlin near Anklam.
The graves of Scandinavian origin discovered here, shaped symbolically like ships and circles, are the only ones of their kind found so far on the southern Baltic Sea coast. Extensive anthropological studies have shown that these are Scandinavian women’s graves containing a variety of grave goods, including Slavic pottery vessels and Scandinavian traditional jewelry. The shape and grave goods of these burial sites suggest that Vikings and Slavs lived peacefully together and were buried side by side in Slavic settlement areas.