Järvsta burial ground

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The Järvsta burial ground facing south

The Järvsta burial ground is a Viking Age burial ground near Gävle in the Swedish Gästrikland . The occupancy period covers the years 800 to 1050 AD. The burial ground is a listed building and, with the surrounding dry grassland, is of imperial interest for nature conservation .

Burial ground

Runestone from Järvsta (Gä 11)

The first mappings and investigations were carried out in 1927 by A. Enqvist (1886–1973). Some of the graves examined during the excavation in 1957 could be dated from the finds. Since funeral customs had been changing since the 8th century, pre-Christian cremation graves are located here right next to Christian skeleton graves . The older graves are typical of the time before Sweden was Christianized , while the neighboring 11th-century runestone bears a Christian inscription. The grave goods reveal differences between pre-Christian and Christian burial customs. Weapons, jewelry, cloth (probably from Syria), silver coins and a comb were found.

Originally the burial ground was on both sides of a small provincial road from Gävle in the direction of Furuvik, about 2.5 km behind Gävle. When the road was built, the northern part was leveled. The remaining southern one consists of about 30 stone settings and five loops , i.e. cairn tombs that are held together by a stone ring.

Runestone

In the south of the grave field there is a rune stone (Gs11 - Gävle 345: 1) from Gävlesandstein , which is sober from the pictorial composition and can be assigned to the late phase of the grave field (11th century) in its original place. It bears the inscription:

“Tjudger, Gudleif and Karl. All these brothers had this stone built after Tjudmund their father. God help his soul and the mother of God. Åsmund Kåresson carved the runes. When Emund was sitting. "

The meaning of the last sentence of the inscription is unclear. The Swedish linguist Otto von Friesen (1870–1942) interprets it as a reference to the reign of King Emund the Elder , which means that the stone could be dated before his death, 1060. According to another opinion, the stone was erected in memory of Emund.

literature

  • Evert Baudou: Gävletrakten under vikingatiden. Undersökningar på gravfaltet vid Järvsta , in: Från Gestrikland 1964-1965 , Gävle 1965, pp. 5–64, ISSN  0429-2820
  • Sven BF Jansson: Gästriklands runinskrifter (= Sveriges runinskrifter , Volume 15.1), Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1981, ISBN 91-7402-124-9 , pp. 89-107. ( online )

Web links

Commons : Järvsta burial ground  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Runstensängen. (No longer available online.) Gävle Municipality , archived from the original on April 10, 2015 ; Retrieved January 4, 2011 .
  2. ↑ : Evert Baudou vikingatiden Gavle wings under. Undersökningar på gravfaltet vid Järvsta , in: Från Gästrikland , 1965, pp. 5-64, ISSN  0429-2820 .

Coordinates: 60 ° 38 ′ 59.2 ″  N , 17 ° 11 ′ 2.1 ″  E