A Place To Rest Yer Bones

Posted by Martin R on February 27, 2007
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i-09009db9d67fee4881ef79eee8e4f43b-misterhultare.JPG

Lars Lundqvist promptly answered my call for archaeopix. Here’s a recently discovered 1st Millennium BC stone setting on wooded outland belonging to the hamlet of Åby, Misterhult parish, Småland, Sweden.

The stone pavement, which is not scheduled for any excavation, is a grave superstructure, most likely covering scanty pyre remains similar to those found in Gothenburg Nasties. Such structures are very much ho-hum-yawn to disillusioned cynics like Lars and myself, but the man to the left was really happy to see it. Said this merry Gothenburg biologist: De ä ju änna fantasstisskt att sånna hera ännu finns kvår! “Unbelievable that things like these are still around!”

Update 28 February: Regular Dear Reader Karen at Voyages of the H.M.S. Swiftsure has a nice photo spread from a lithics dig on a river bank in western Canada that she worked on in the 90s. You can tell there are many fond memories there!

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Comments

  1. #1 J-Dog
    February 27, 2007

    Absolutely Cool! And it looks like Viking raiders could come out of those woods at any time.

  2. #2 Martin R
    February 27, 2007

    The cultural trope that Scandinavians associate with the woods is actually that of trolls. But real troll woods are supposed to be far older spruce woods with long beards of lichen hanging from the boughs, as imagined by the painter John Bauer. In young fir woods like the one in Lars’s pic, you are more likely to encounter elks and mushroom pickers. I live only 5 minutes’ walk from woodland just like that.

  3. #3 Lars
    February 27, 2007

    Haven´t seen any trolls, just an occasional elk. And the area is definitely void of anything that could be associated with Vikings. It is more likely to pop up a few Bronze Age characters. This Misterhult area in SE Swden is a weired place. According to the grave types no person lived here for some 1000 years (0-1000 AD). Loads of people were hanging around before and after that period.

  4. #4 Martin R
    February 27, 2007

    What we must do is clearly to metal-detect Misterhult parish from one end to another and then de-turf it.

  5. #5 Lars
    February 27, 2007

    10% is arable land. The rest is rock, boulder morain, water and peat bogs… Happy hunting, Doc!

  6. #6 Martin R
    February 27, 2007

    I want you to give me all sacrificial deposits in those bogs, Lars.