Underwater Burial Cairn In Huskvarna Bay

Archaeological sites in Lake Vättern off Huskvarna

The latest inland ice was 3 km thick and its weight left a big dent in Scandinavia. Since deglaciation (which is, on the geological time scale, a current event) the dent has been straightening out. This causes land uplift. But just outside the edge of the dent, it causes the land to sink. Southernmost Scandinavia is losing land to the sea, not gaining it.

The fulcrum of this see-saw crosses Lake Vättern right at its southernmost point. The lake is receding at one end and encroaching at the other. This is why there is an Early Bronze Age burial cairn (Raä 140:3) and sacrificial bog (Raä 140:4) on the lake bottom off the town of Huskvarna . The cairn was originally built about 1400 cal BC on a hilltop above the lakeshore, in a location where it would be widely visible from boats. It didn't turn out that way.

Later the cairn was joined on the lake bottom by Sanda parish's Medieval church.

I've written before about Huskvarna on the subject of the substance abuse epidemic that decimated two generations of the town's industrial workers in the 20th century.

Update following day: my knowledgeable colleagues Staffan von Arbin and Claes Pettersson point out that only one cairn is actually known at present, not several as I implied in the original wording.

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A t least those cairns have been safe from modern looters.

It is a pity there is no underwater burial cairn that is older than 4004 BC. I would love to see how the creationists would try to rationalise that. Pre-adamite water breathing nephilim?

By birgerjohansson (not verified) on 18 May 2017 #permalink

It is a pity there is no underwater burial cairn that is older than 4004 BC.

There almost certainly are underwater burial sites more than 6000 years old; they just haven't been found yet. They are hard enough to find on land.

Of course, give it a few decades, and there will be some such burial sites underwater.

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 18 May 2017 #permalink

Oh yes, we have way older burial sites without cairns (from the Late Mesolithic) in the waterways between the Danish isles.