Learnings: A "Heathen" Army?

A Christian hogback grave stone paired with a grave marker / 11th cent.

In order to trade goods with Christians or to climb ladders of political and social power, many heathen settlers had to become Christian themselves.

Conversion to Christianity was believed to shape both one's life and afterlife. As a person lay on their deathbed, they sometimes would turn to the Christian faith to secure their soul against eternal damnation. This was the choice made by this man, whose final resting place is marked by a hogback gravestone and a sculpted handheld cross.