Elgesem burial ground
The Elgesem burial ground is a burial ground in Haukerød northwest of Sandefjord in the Vestfold og Telemark province in Norway that dates back almost 1500 years, from the Iron Age around 500 BC. Until the end of the Viking Age in 1050 AD. Elgesem is located on a hill on Oldtidsveien ("Altertümerstraße").
The approximately 40 m long and 7 m wide ship setting ( skipssetning in Norwegian ) consists of 21 stones (originally there were 38 stones). The stones at the bow and stern are 1.85 and 2.5 m high. The ship was set with eight remaining burial mounds on a burial ground that once had almost 30 mounds.
As early as 1870, the archaeologist Nicolay Nicolaysen undertook the first excavations in Elgesem. A stone 1.7 m high, 0.9 m wide and about 0.18 m thick was found in a burial mound on the burial ground, which is a kind of rune stone because of an inscription . The inscription Alu , which can mean beer, is completely atypical. It is possibly an early inscribed building stone , which based on the hill is dated to 400 AD. The Elgesem stone is now in the Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The ancient scientist J. Zeidler tried to prove the missing link (between 100 BC and 100 AD) for the formation of the runes in the La Tène culture . In his opinion, the puzzling formula word “alu” can be combined with the Etruscan al (i) - “give, consecrate”; equate. Alu can therefore be translated as “consecrated” or “(consecration) offering”, which seems more appropriate.
- ↑ Vilhelm Møller: Gravfeltet og på steinkretsen Elgesem. (pdf) In: Kulturminner. Sandar Historielag, 1980, accessed July 20, 2020 (Norwegian).
Web links
- Elgesem stones in the Norske Leksikon store (Norwegian)
Coordinates: 59 ° 8 '14 " N , 10 ° 9' 49.1" E