Barshalder burial ground

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Coordinates: 57 ° 6 ′ 10 ″  N , 18 ° 18 ′ 56 ″  E

Barshalder burial ground
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location Gotland , Sweden
Location Gotland
Barshalder burial ground (Gotland)
Barshalder burial ground
When Iron Age ,
Vendel Age and Viking Age ,
(1st millennium AD to 1100 AD)
Where Gotland

Barshalder (also Barshaldar or Barsaldershed ) is the largest prehistoric burial ground on the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland . It lies between Grötlingbo and Fide . Since 1826 more than 500 graves, which appear as stone or wooden boxes, have been found here in 46 excavation periods . In the beginning they were improperly recovered or documented.

Rich finds from the 1st millennium AD were recovered. The material is important for the study of the Iron Age and the subsequent periods on Gotland. Most of the finds come from the late Iron Age, the Vendel and the Viking Age (375–1100 AD). The burial ground also includes a number of Stone Age sites.

funeral

A man had been buried here to rest in a box made of sandstone slabs, fully equipped with weapons. He was given a double-edged sword , a U-shaped bronze chape for the scabbard, an iron shield boss with a sloping edge and conical top, three spear points and several arrow points as well as a belt fitting and a buckle made of silver, probably from the Danube region . A bronze crossbow brooch, a gold finger ring, a small, gold C bracteate , a Westland-type kettle , a glass beaker, game stones and a handle comb made of bone complete the equipment.

Handle comb

Handle combs found in Sweden have a crescent-shaped or semicircular, sometimes rectangular handle on the back of the comb. Handle combs are known from several Gotland and Norrland finds. Several specimens were found in Skedemosse and in Eketorp Castle , both on Öland . The handle comb is a Central and Eastern European type of comb that was adopted in Scandinavia. Here it was often richly decorated; but the older comb shape with an arched top - cut from one piece or assembled from several parts - was also made. The handle combs were only made for a short time in the north; they disappeared again in the earlier Vendel period (550–800 AD).

Sword bead

In addition to the objects mentioned, a 2.5 cm large, flattened bead made of black glass flux with an inlaid wavy band of yellow glass flux was recovered. It is not certain where the pearl was in the grave, but it was probably attached to the sword, so it is a so-called sword pearl . From the turn of the times to AD 650, war graves have been found in a zone that stretches from the Volga plain in the southeast through Central Europe to France and England in the west and Scandinavia in the north, in which a single pearl (often of significant size ) belongs to the inventory. The origin of this custom can be found in the east within the Iranian- Sarmatian circle, where it was adopted by the Huns and conveyed by the Germanic peoples. The grave on Barshaldershed can be chronologically assigned to the Hun period in Central Europe. Sword beads are an example of shapes and ideas that the Nordic peoples adopted from eastern tribes in the middle of the 1st millennium. It is no coincidence that some suspected sword pearls were also excavated in Skedemosse on Öland - where a weapon victim was found.

Ship settlement

In the forest on the other side of the road lies a stone ship about 19.0 meters long and 4.5 meters wide, two stones missing on each side. The stones are between 1.0 and 1.35 meters high. Next to the setting of the ship are an almost round stone circle about 6 meters in diameter and two building stones . An excavation in 1928 only found burned and unburned human bones and individual fragments. Between the county road and the setting of the ship there is a 4 × 4 meter high boulder , 3 meters high , called Brödstajnen, with which a legend is connected.

See also

literature

  • Martin Rundkvist: Barshalder 1. A Cemetery In Grötlingbo and Fide Parishes, Gotland, Sweden, c. AD 1-100. Excavations and Finds 1826-1971. University of Stockholm, Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-631-3530-2 ( online ).
  • Martin Rundkvist: Studies of Late Iron Age Gotland. University of Stockholm, Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-631-3732-1 ( online ).
  • Martin Rundkvist, Christian Lindqvist, Karl Thorsberg: Rojrhage In Grötlingbo. A Multi-Component Neolithic Shore Site on Gotland. University of Stockholm, Stockholm 2004 ( online ; PDF; 545 kB).

Web links