Building stone
A building stone is a slender, high, erect stone, mostly unlabeled (without pictures or runic inscriptions ). In Denmark, building stone replaces the continental term menhir ("long, erect stone"). In Swedish, such a stone is called rest sten ("erect stone", related to English raised "raised") or building keys . In Norway the terms “Bautastein” and “Bauta” are common. The definition was made in 1886 by Emil Vedel (1824–1909). Building stones or Resta stenar were set up in some areas of Scandinavia and the adjacent regions in the Bronze and Iron Ages , some as early as the Neolithic . In Denmark they are most often associated with graves, but also with places of worship.
etymology
The term was coined by the bailiff Emil Vedel (1824–1909) in 1886. The word is derived by some researchers from the Old Norse * bautuðr = phallus . Others derive it from bautaðar , the genitive of buildaðr "pusher", "hunter" (= mighty warrior ). from. According to the first reading, it initially symbolized fertility, later it became a memorial stone for a deceased. In fact, some phallically worked stones have been found, e.g. B. Steinkjer's in Norway . Building stones are forerunners of the rune stones, usually with at least one flat side. During the Iron Age, around the 4th century AD, the memorial stones began to be inscribed with runes. According to popular belief, the building stone at Strangelshøj turns when it smells freshly baked bread. This popular belief is widespread in Denmark. For example , the same story is told about the “Spejdersten” boulder, the largest stone on the island of Falster , so that a connection with fertility is not absurd.
Around 1230 AD, the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson wrote in the Heimskringla (Norwegian royal sagas) about a famous person: "... and he was buried and a building stone was erected for him." From the 17th century onwards, several chroniclers and scholars report Building blocks. In his "Six Letter from some curiosities in the Holstein regions", Johann Friedrich Camerer goes into detail about the "pagan ancient stones", one of which he has seen and drawn on Sylt and several in the areas around Pöschendorf . He mentions that Johannes Schefferus translated the word “Bauta” with “blood”, “because these bloodstones are erected in honor of those who shed their blood in the war”. Johann Daniel Major claims in his work “Population Cimbria”, published in 1692, that the building stones used to be erected around all barrows and were probably brought to the Cimbrian Peninsula by “Norway on rafts tied together ”. However, this was already doubted 50 years later by Johann Friedrich Camerer. Troels Arnkiel , a pastor and early antiquarian from Aabenraa , also dealt with the importance of the building stones in his most famous work “Detailed Opening”. He writes: “In the case of these pagan burial mounds and mountains, the large stones were turned into pillars, which were made in memory of the dead. It is regrettable that these tombstones have been taken away in many places and converted into walls for churches, castles, farmhouses, stone fences and church walls. Therefore many grave mounds and mountains stand naked and bare in the field and are robbed of their corresponding stone circles and wreaths ”.
- Swedish building blocks
Boda stone
Vässjevattnet stones
Bautastenar in Bohuslän by Olof Hermelin
Öland stones from limestone slabs
Stones on the Särestad burial ground
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distribution
Building stones are in Denmark and Scandinavia both individually and in groups (Årbakka (7), Grinde (6), Norheim (5), all in Norway); at Bøgebjerg near Reerslev Denmark are the Skrædderens falske Vidner (false witnesses of the tailor) others can be found in burial fields.
- in Sweden , ( Resta stenar ) on the burial ground of Li (127). On Gotland and Öland from limestone .
- in Finland (especially in Åland and Laitila ).
- In Denmark , the largest concentration of preserved building stones can be found at Højstrup on Tømmerby Fjord (75 of 125 stones) in North Jutland . There are said to have been over 1,000 on Bornholm , today there are around 250, in Louisenlund (70 stones up to 2.5 meters high), in Gryet (forest) near Neksø (67 stones).
- in Norway there are 1176 registered building stones that are considered part of a burial site. There are over 100 in Rogaland (234), Østfold (140), More and Romsdal (134), Vest-Agder (107) and Nord-Trøndelag (102). But also in 13 other provinces there are between 3 (Finnmark) and 90 (Nordland) building blocks that are up to 8 m and therefore particularly high. Usually graves were marked with a stone, but there are cases where several blocks were used ( De fem dårlige jomfruer - German “the five foolish virgins” ).
They are also found sporadically in England and present-day Poland . In Poland, stones of this type are sometimes assigned to the early Goths . You can often find them on the south side of cremation graves . You can mark the center of a grave complex. They occur wherever Normans and Vikings got.
Appearance
In Denmark, boulders (rarely higher than 2 m) and otherwise stones were used, which may have been broken out of the rock. The latter are unprocessed and therefore more or less irregular in shape, some have an approximately triangular, square or rectangular cross-section. Their height varies between 30 cm and 7.2 m. The sewing needle of Mary at Olav's Church in Avaldsnes on Karmøy (Norway) and the Trollpila ( German "Troll Arrow" ) from Bolsøya with 5.1 m are the highest. The thicker the stone, the less thick it is, so some are called needles. Often almost half of it is buried in the ground or the top is pointed. On Gotland and Öland, limestone slabs were preferred, which today (due to damage or weathering) only protrude insignificantly from the ground.
Demarcation
Building blocks have neither inscriptions nor pictures. Later, in some cases before the Viking Age, memorial texts, mostly in runic script , can be found. However, such stones are called rune stones - e.g. B. The rune stones from Helland in Sola (Norway) : "Skard built this stone for Bjalv, his son, an excellent man". The Hávamál also refers to this memory function:
- sjaldan bautarsteinar
- standa bridal nær,
- nema reisi niðr at nið.
- Building blocks are seldom
- near the way
- if not a relative erects them after the relative.
With this, the stones should have changed their function. They lost their meaning, and the sober text suggests that they no longer had any (in our sense) religious meaning. It is assumed that the change goes back to Christian influences, where gravestones with inscriptions were already common.
literature
- E. Vedel: Bornholms oldtidsminder og Oldsager. 1886.
- Johann Friedrich Camerer: Six letters from some peculiarities of the Holstein regions. Leipzig 1756.
- Trogillus Arnkiel: detailed opening. Hamburg 1703.
- Johann Daniel Major: Populated Cimbria. Ploen 1692.
- Johannes Schefferus: Upsalia. Upsala 1666.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karsten Kjer Michaelsen: Politics bog om Danmarks oldtid . Copenhagen 2002 ISBN 87-567-6458-8 , pp. 288, 301
- ↑ denstoredanske.dk , Den Store Danske, Bautasten.
- ↑ Bornholm Atlas over byer, bygninger and miljøer. Kulturarvsstyrelsen, 2003, ISBN 87-91298-06-7 .