Grave ball

The modern grave ball is on the Inglinge Hög burial ground

A grave ball ( Swedish Gravklot , Grav orb or Stenklot ) is a mostly flattened stone ball used as a tomb . It is a peculiarity of the Nordic Iron and Viking Age . Some were painted, others carved in stone and a few have runic inscriptions .

Their occurrence is mainly concentrated in Gotland and mainland Sweden . Some were also found in Åland , in the Österbotten region in Finland and in Norway ( Istrehågan burial ground ). About 80 grave spheres come from the landscapes around the Mälaren , from southern Norrland (Härnösand near Sundsvall), from Närke and Småland . They lie on burial mounds , within round stone settings or on stone boxes ; today, however, mostly in churches (e.g. in the Tumbo Kirka).

The largest grave ball in Sweden is on the island of Gotland . At the edge of road 143, near the junction to Halla. It is a little over a meter in diameter and belongs to the Broa burial ground across the street. A grave ball is built into the wall of the Toresunds kyrka.

Grave balls
Grave ball in the State Historical Museum in Stockholm
Carved grave ball in the church of Ytterselö
Gravklot by Lilla Bjärs
Bro kyrka
Toresunds kyrka
Salls cemetery

In the middle of a 40 m large, round and well-built stone setting of the Iron Age burial ground near Folkeslunda / Länglöt on Öland, there is a 9-ton granite block that was completely ground in a glacier mill . This huge sphere is not a grave sphere in the strict sense of the word. Like the rest of the balls, however, it was laid over a woman's grave from the Iron Age .

A copy is the flattened ball that lies on the six meter high Inglinge Hög (hill), Småland's largest burial mound with a diameter of 37 m, on the outskirts of Ingelstad in the parish of Östra Torsäs.

interpretation

The majority of historians see the grave ball as a symbol of the female sex organ, in contrast to the upright stones on male graves, which are considered phallic symbols .

literature

Mårten Stenberger : Nordic prehistory. Volume 4: Prehistory of Sweden. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1977, ISBN 3-529-01805-8 , p. 346ff.
Marita Westerholm : Ornerade gravklot. A study of gravklotens ornamentik och fyndsammansättning. Institutions för arkeologi, Stockholm universitet. 1999

Individual evidence

↑ http://www.guteinfo.com/?id=2805

Web links

Largest grave sphere (last accessed on November 30, 2012)
history
Grave balls
Image of the grave ball from the Tumbo kyrka

[1] ttp://www.guteinfo.com/?id=2805