Domarring
A Domarring (also Dommerring, German " Richterring " ) is a stone circle ( Norwegian Steinsirkler ). Mårten Stenberger (1898–1973) counted this type of find among the ship settlements .
distribution
They are numerous in many southern Swedish provinces and particularly common in Västergötland . Most of them can be found in the Jönköpings län and Skaraborgs län regions . Slightly more than 50 are documented in Norway ( cemetery of Istrehågan , Stoplesteinan , Zwölfsteinring of Moelv ).
The term "Domarring" can be traced back to earlier times. The circles were associated with the jurisprudence and thought that a certain odd number of judges in the circles gave judgments.
description
They usually consist of five ( Stenungsund ), seven (Tjuvbackama), nine ( Himmelstorp ) or twelve medium-sized field stones or boulders , which are arranged in a circle with larger spaces and lie together individually or in smaller groups. The largest ring is on the Blomsholm burial ground . It is 33 m in diameter and consists of ten stones. There are circles with more than 30 stones (Nedre Ätradalen). The Munkakyrkan and Timmersjö districts are the largest in Halland, one with 29 stones and the other with 15 stones. In the northwest of the island of Tjörn lies Pilane, one of the largest burial grounds in Sweden with more than 100 hills, stone settings and judges' rings from the Middle Iron Age . The largest stone circle is on the Vetteberg. At the Björketorp runestone in Blekinge there is a single judge ring.
Iron age
Sometimes the blocks rest on a three-point support made of smaller stones. These are Iron Age dolmens . On the cemetery Vi alvar / Källa, Öland , there is a Treudd and several small domar rings that have such shapes. Studies have shown that these stone circles were erected from the pre-Roman Iron Age (500 BC) to the Viking Age (800–1100 AD). They mostly contain one or more simple cremation graves (or fire pits). Like the larger ship settlements, some of these systems may have had a function in connection with the legal system, to which the name refers.
See also
- Domarring from Åbrott
- Domarring from Himmelstorp
- Domarring from Hjortebakken
- Domarring from Skärholmen
- Domarring from Slaka
literature
- Heinrich Beck , Torsten Capelle , Horst Keiling : Domarring. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1984, ISBN 3-11-009635-8 , pp. 561-566.
- Karl Esaias Sahlström: Domarringarnas härkomst In: Fornvännen 1942 (37), pp. 115-136
