Darsgärde Fornborg

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Norrtälje

Darsgärde Fornborg is an Iron Age hill fort between Finsta and Riala in the municipality Norrtälje in the province of Stockholm County in Sweden . The Iron Age Fornborg burned down around 500 AD and was excavated by Björn Ambrosiani between 1957 and 1960 .

There are no known castles in Scandinavia from the Stone and Bronze Ages . Many of the 1000 or so known but scarcely investigated castles were used during the Iron Age or later, but only a few have been found from the earlier Iron Age. Others provided finds from the Vendel and Viking ages . The castles are usually built of stones and are mostly located on inaccessible heights, the highest part of which was cut off by a section wall, sometimes also by multiple walls.

description

Darsgärde Fornborg, whose wall remains can still be seen, lies on the ridge of a mountain. About 20 house foundations were found within the walls. The area was continuously inhabited. The complex was destroyed several times and abandoned around 500 AD. The castle walls of Darsgärde have collapsed today and rarely reach a height of 2.0 m. From the beginning they were not significantly higher, but the upper end was probably crowned by a palisade. However, such structures are never preserved. Many old castles in the Mälardalen region suffered the same fate at the same time and were permanently abandoned.

Bronze Age residence

During the investigation, the archaeologists found a settlement from the Late Bronze Age , when the mountain top was still unpaved. At that time the sea level was about 15 meters higher than it is today and the altitude was in a large bay surrounded by water on three sides. Three huts and lots of pottery shards show that the place was used by people who went fishing, hunting and keeping animals here.

Graves and remains of settlements on and around the castle hill show that people lived there from the late Bronze Age until the castle was devastated, only to finally move down to the site of today's village of Darsgärde .

literature

  • Björn Ambrosiani : Darsgärde complex. En preliminary report. In: Fornvännen 53 (1958), pp. 161-176. ( online )
  • Björn Ambrosiani: Keramikboplatsen på Hamnbrinken vid Drasgärde. In: TOR, Tidskrift för nordisk fornkunskap. Uppsala Universitet, 1959, pages 108-128.

Web links

Coordinates: 59 ° 43 ′ 4.3 ″  N , 18 ° 29 ′ 13.8 ″  E