Vendel (Sweden)

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Church and cemetery
Ribbed vault of the church

Vendel (Swedish Vendels socken ) is a parish ( socks ) in the municipality of Tierp in the north of the historic Swedish province of Uppland .

It is known for its medieval church and for prehistoric and protohistoric traces.

Vendels Kyrka

The parish church of the parish is a Gothic brick church . The vaulted single-nave church was built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

Boat graves

Ottarshögen
Helmet from one of the graves of Vendel

Fifteen boat graves were found near the church, dug between 550 and 800 years. After them, this period is called the Vendelzeit in Swedish archeology . It corresponds in time to the Early Middle Ages in Central Europe, but since Scandinavia was not yet Christianized at the time , it is also assigned to the Iron Age .

The first boat grave of Vendel was discovered in 1881 and was the second boat grave of the Vendel period that became known after the discovery of Ultuna (shortly after 1850). Most of the graves were probably looted when the church was built around 1300. A total of 12 boat graves and two wooden box graves are known to date, which apparently follow one another in time and cover a period from 600 to 1000 AD. The wooden box graves and six of the boat graves are from the Viking Age , while the remaining boat graves are from the Vendel period. The richest graves come from the Vendel period.

Not far from the boat graves is the Ottarshögen ( Ottarshügel ), which contains a grave that is probably dated a little earlier.

literature

  • Mårten Stenberger: Nordic prehistory. Volume 4: Prehistory of Sweden. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1977, ISBN 3-529-01805-8 .

Web links

Coordinates: 60 ° 9 ′ 47 ″  N , 17 ° 36 ′ 6 ″  E