ALES STENAR
WHEN? WHO? WHAT FOR?
Andrew M. Kobos
I. Introduction
In the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 I visited several times Ales Stenar
(Ale Stones), the mysterious "ship-setting" made of 59 large
boulders set in a layout of a ship, 67 metre in length, 19 metre
in breadth. This monumental stone formation is located just
outside a fishing village of Kåseberga, approximately
eighteen kilometres southeast of Ystad in Skåne, on an
astoundingly flat, grassy headland that overlooks the narrow,
pebbly beach of the Baltic Sea. The view from the Ales Stenar
offers an open 180o sea horizon and simultaneously an
open 180o land horizon.
Ales Stenar from the air. (Photo: Börge Gjöderum)
The Ales Stenar formation has since fascinated me as to what it might have been in the very distant past. This matter appears unexplained in the year 2001, when not too many ancient mysteries have still remained unsolved.
Ales Stenar from the sea - the south. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
According to some, the name Als (or Ale) meant a "sanctuary" in the ancient Nordic language, and according to others it meant a "ridge," what would correspond well to the topographic location of Ales Stenar on a 37 metre-high ridge of the Baltic shore [i]. "Ale" was once understood to be the name of a Viking chieftain, some time between 700 and 1000 CE. There is, however, no known historical record of such a Viking name. These were the so-called Dark Ages, and very scarce written records are known about this period in history. Almost all we know about those times come from archaeology.
Another legend had it that about the year 1000 a Viking chieftain, Olav Tryggvasson, was buried on this ridge together with his ship. Oskar Montelius (1843-1921), the famous scholar in Swedish prehistoric "heathen" times, when discussing in 1917 the shape of the Ale "ship", suggested that it was a collective monument for the Vikings who had perished in their voyages and conquers. [15]
In the very ambiguous interpretation of the Ale name alone the whole controversy surrounding the Ales Stenar is poignantly reflected.
The first written record of the Ales Stenar is found in a traveller's (Niels
Ipsens) description of 1624. There are well-known
drawings of these boulders executed by C.G.G. Hilfeling in 1777,
as well as a description of 1853 by Nils Gustaf Bruzelius.
Sketch of the Ales Stenar by C.G.G. Hilfeling, 1777.
The six stones drawn outside the ship-setting no longer exist.
(Hilfelings Skaanske Tegniger, Copenhagen, 1977.)
Sketch of the Ales Stenar by Nils G. Bruzelius, 1853.
The small ship-setting drawn in front of the main one no longer exists.
It is quite surprising that until the late 1980s there was in Sweden a lack of a broader scientific interest in Ales Stenar. Perhaps it was so because of the abundance of prehistoric stone monuments almost all across Sweden.
A number of scientific publications on the Ales Stenar in Swedish, authored or co-authored mainly by the archaeologist Professor Märta Strömberg of the University of Lund, and Dr. Curt Roslund, an astronomer of the Chalmers Technical University in Göteborg, are not easily available to the public, even in Sweden. It is quite a disappointing state of the affair. It seems to me that some detailed and scientifically sound monographs on the Ales Stenar formation should be available.
The results of the exploration and research that has been carried out at the Ales Stenar site since 1989 by a multidisciplinary team led by Professor Märta Strömberg have so far not been published in a systematic and complete manner, not to mention a detailed interpretation of the archaeological finds.
The dates I came across for the erecting of the Ales Stenar vary in the range of over 4000 years, from 3600 BCE to 600 CE [1,2,12]. It is not surprising that if it has not been established when the Ales Stenar were erected (as opposed for example to Stonehenge), no one knows to a reasonable certainty who did erect these boulders and for what purpose.
In November 2000, I wrote to Professor Märta Strömberg
requesting her answers to several questions and asking her about
the results of the 14C datings of the archaeological
artifacts found within the Ales Stenar formation. I was
particularly interested in 14C datings of any samples from
under the boulders that apparently had not been perturbed
earlier. Professor Strömberg replied to me with a kind
letter [2] and enclosed a reprint of a paper of hers [1] in
Swedish, entitled "A big ship on the ridge", she had published in
1997 in Amico Amici, a multi-theme "Festschricht" book
for Gad Rausing, a Swedish inventor and philanthropist. In her
paper, Professor Strömberg described the motivation, the
extent, the goals and the initial results of her archaeological
excavation at the Ales Stenar site and also the formal and
financial difficulties she had encountered while carrying this
project out.
II. The Archaeology of Ales
Stenar
In what follows, based upon the sources available to me, I
attempt to summarize the archaeological information on the Ales
Stenar. This summary is certainly incomplete but it covers the
information with which Professor Märta Strömberg and Dr. Curt
Roslund have provided me. The quotations are either the
translations from the Swedish text of Märta
Strömberg's article [1] or short excerpts from her letter to
me [2]. In both cases, the quotations are included here with
Professor Strömberg's permission.
Symbols denoting the boulders (e.g. M1, N24, etc.) used herein
correspond to the diagram below and reproduced from Märta
Strömberg's paper [1] with her permission. The abbreviations
such as NW, SE, etc., are the standard ones used to denote
compass directions, North-West, South-East, etc.
The diagram of the Ales Stenar. [1]
* * *
Ales Stenar before the renovation.
A picture from the 1914 book by Mat Horlen: Gamla seder och bruk frän södra delen av Ingelstads härad
("The Old Customs from the Southern Part of the Ingelstad District").
In 1916, seven fallen starboard stones were raised again at somewhat shifted locations. The bow boulder (M1, NW) was moved by 1.7 metres outward along the long axis, and six boulders next to it to the north (N1-N6) were moved by 1-1.5 metres inward the formation. One (the sixtieth) boulder, between those now denoted S15 and S16, is missing and its fate is unknown. One of the southern port board boulders is much less eroded on its sea-face than its neighbours are. This implies that it was rotated along the vertical axis by 180o from its original alignment [1].
The small flat stone (M2) inside the ship-setting may originally have been positioned where the bow stone (M1) has been re- erected. It may have been a pendant to the small rudder stone's (M4), outside the stern stone (M3), still being the extension of the keel line.
By careful analysis of the available records (photographs,
drawings, map by Brogren, etc.), site inspection, and precise
measurements it has been established that only 16 of the Ale
boulders still remain in an unperturbed state. These are
(clockwise): N7, N12, N16, N18, N20, N22, N24, N28, M1, S27, S22,
S21, S20 (?), S19, S14, S4. [3,2]
A bird-eye view of the Ales Stenar from the northwest. (Photo: Jörgen Lundberg)
In 1956, the soil inside and around the Ales Stenar formation was excavated, a layer at least 20 cm in depth. This soil and the centuries-old deposits of sand were removed from the boulders proper and from around them. However, the eight stones (M1, N1- N6, M2), moved in 1916, were not repositioned back to their original locations, which are still identifiable. For one of these boulders, its original position has been pin-pointed by excavating the original supporting stones [4].
It is quite incomprehensive that in 1956 no archaeological
exploration was performed and that while removing the soil and
the sand many potentially existing artifacts (crucial for the
14C dating) were destroyed and irreversibly lost. Professor
Strömberg writes that "in the fifties what was the most
important was to remove the remnants of the intensive past
cultivation of these grounds. We could hardly expect that we
would be able to find much if anything in an undisturbed state."
[1].
High-speed "excavations" at the Ales Stenar site, 1956. (Photo: Scandia Photopress)
In the late summer of 1989, as a result of - as Professor Strömberg stresses [1] - the press campaign led by a journalist åke Sunström ("with an excellent and very sharp pen"), the first archaeological excavations were begun which aimed at the scientific investigation and dating of the Ales Stenar formation. A broader goal, however, was to explore the ridge on both sides of the Ale ship-setting and the Kåseberga village area in order to correlate the remnants of the prehistoric settlements that had been found earlier during the archaeological excavations at several sites in other villages in the large area north of the ridge.
Apart from facts irrelevant to the history of the Ales Stenar, the following can be learned from the article [1] and the letters [2] of Professor Märta Strömberg.
- Aerial images of the ground taken with an infrared camera
revealed no traces of ancient underground structures that might
have been constructed inside or in the immediate vicinity of the
Ales Stenar ship-setting.
- The archaeologists sought objects that might have been used
during staking off, aligning, and raising the Ales Stenar. In
1989, they followed Professor Curt Roslund's suggestion as to the
orientation and the focus location of the ship-setting's south-
eastern parabola. Indeed, at the spot indicated by his
measurements and model calculations, at the depth of 75
centimetres, one small solid piece (sample Ua 1581) of charcoal
from the stem of a young oak and simultaneously a tiny stone chip
were found. Subsequently, this charcoal was 14C dated at
650 +/-105 CE [4, 5; cf. Section V below]. It is plausible that
at this spot an oak peg once stood, some time between 545 and 755
CE, i.e. in the Vendel Period [ii], before the generally accepted
lower bound of the Viking Period (770-790 CE). If the Ales Stenar
were actually being aligned just this way as two parabolas, this
14C dating would tell us the date of raising them.
The peg charcoal find (bottom; sample Ua 1581), maximum length 20 mm, mass approximately 100 grams, and a rock chip found with it (top; 9 mm in length).
The wood fibre dried out before it decayed and thus it was possible to determine it to be from a young oak. The rock chip doubtless is of the same sandstone as the rudder stone M4. [5] (Photo: Göran Olofsson)
- In the southeast section inside the ship-setting, very close
to the boulders, walnut charcoal was found, and later 14C
dated at 640-980 CE.
- In 1991, at the ship-setting's center, several pieces of
beech charcoal were found, and later 14C dated at 820-980
CE, i.e. in the Viking Period.
- Beneath one of the boulders in the northern section (N24) a
birch charcoal was found and later 14C dated at 540-650 CE.
It is a very important dating, because it not only agrees with
the datings 2 and 3 above that can be related to the construction
date of the Ales Stenar, but first of all because this birch
charcoal was found right beneath a boulder (N24) never moved
before. It is just dating of the samples from under undisturbed
boulders that will determine the age of Ales Stenar formation
beyond reasonable doubts.
The archaeological excavation at the N24 boulder site. (Photo: Märta Strömberg)
The N24 boulder. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
The northeast section of the Ales Stenar formation.
The N24 boulder is the second from the left. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
- In the south-eastern sector of the Ale ship-setting a
decorated clay pot was found at a depth bordering the layer of
soil later cultivated and replaced in 1956 by freshly brought
soil.
Professor Strömberg writes [1]:
"It was the first artifact we found inside the Ale stone ship-setting. The pot was damaged and the ornaments did not appear to be easy to recognize and date. At the first glance into the dark pit, I dared to classify it as being from the Early Migration Period [Vendel]. Inside the pot there was some soil with a small amount of crumbled burned bones and charcoal soot. When this bowl was emptied at the Conservation Department of the Lund Historical Museum, a crust of hardened food was found. The latter may be interpreted as a left-over from an unscrupulous cleaning of this pot at some earlier time.
"This charred food crust was 14C dated as being from the same period of the Late Iron Age as the birch charcoal from beneath the N24 boulder [i.e. 540-650 CE].
"It is surprising that the 14C dating of the charcoal from the bottom of this pot gave a result of 330-540 CE, an earlier date being at boundary between the Migration Period and the Late Iron Period.
"One should be careful with drawing definite conclusions from 14C dating results and realize that the 'real moment' might have occurred, with some probability, at the beginning, middle or at the end of the dated time range [68% within this error, i.e. one standard deviation, or 95% within two standard deviations; in addition there are small calibration uncertainties - (AMK)].
"In order to explain this somewhat diverged dating I could imagine that for some reason it was decided to collect soil, soot, charcoal and bones from a pyre or a cult site in the neighbourhood, not necessarily on the ridge, and put those into this clay pot that was later deposited at the spot we have found it at. If the pyre site was being used for some time, it is natural that both earlier and later the material was left to accumulate there. We are even not sure if the charcoal from the outside of the pot and that from the layer in between the crust and the bone remnants inside the pot give the same dating as we have obtained for the bottom layer.
"The burned bones were but a small part of the content of the pot. According to Docent Ebba During of the Archaeological Laboratory of the Stockholm University, these are human bones in all the cases they could determine. The bones surfaces have been eroded what clearly indicates that the bones were laying for some time on a pyre. The other burned bones we found near the charcoal under the N24 boulder are of a better 'quality.'
"In summary, we now have obtained six independent 14C datings for samples from inside the ship-setting or its nearest surrounding and they all belong to the Iron Age, predominantly the Vendel Period. The Bronze Age, so far, has not been represented at all in the datings we have.
"As a continuation of this work we hope to date more samples. We plan to investigate every boulder separately."
- Professor J. Bergström, a geologist working with
Märta Strömberg, determined that four boulders are
of white sandstone, including the bow (M1) and the stern (M3)
boulders, while all the remaining ones are various sorts of
granite, gneiss, porphyry, and amphibolites.
The stern boulder M3 and the smaller rudder stone M4 (to the left). (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
- The geologists were able to determine the origin of some
of the Ale boulders The four sandstone boulders had to be
freighted by sea about 40 kilometres along the shore from the
Baltic coast between Gilslövhammar and Simrishamn, while
the other boulders could have been collected at different
spots in Skåne, although most probably not in the nearby
area since they are of much varied shapes.
- Professor Strömberg also comments on the circular, cup-
like hollows appearing on a number of the Ale boulders:
"At the very beginning of this research project, we noticed, and so did the geologists, that one of the boulders [M1] had a hollowed cavity, a form of a rock- carving, that would indicate the Bronze Age (rock-hollows are found on the tombs from before the Iron Age as well as in the Stone Age) [iii].
"We wondered if this hollow could help us date Ales Stenar in the Bronze Age and whether or not more boulders had such cavities or other marks carved onto them.
The bow boulder (M1, NW).
The circular "cup-like" hollow is seen in its upper part. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
"In the starting days of our work we discovered a group of hollows that was placed strangely, i.e. at the bottom of one of the boulders, close to the ground surface. When we cleaned another face of this boulder we found more such carved cavities. During further work at the site, we found more single cavities, often at unexpected places. Again, groups of carved cavities were located near the ground surface or just under it."It would, of course, be tempting to explain the origin of these cavities as a sign of some cult activities related to the construction [of the Ale ship-setting]. The dating in the Bronze Age would then follow naturally. However, the clusters of the hollows, by being so much different in their locations, do not lend themselves such an interpretation.
"It seems more valid to believe that these cavities had already existed on the boulders when they were raised in this formation. This would also explain why in the neighbourhood of Ales Stenar many boulders are missing from ancient tombs or there are no such monuments at all." [1]
"We have found 'cup' marks near the base of the boulders or below the ground surface where they absolutely could not have been seen. I am convinced it means that several stones were taken from much older Bonze Age monuments and hauled to Kåseberga in the Late Iron Age. Otherwise, it could not have been easy to find about sixty large stones not so far away without taking them from old monuments. (I presume it was a taboo to remove them from newly built structures)." [2]
"In the Bronze Age monuments were built smaller and in a different manner [iv] than in the Late Iron Age, in the Viking period. In the Bronze Age the landscape of the ridge and its surroundings covered with trees and bushes looked quite differently than now, but it perhaps did look more like today in the Late Iron Age, when large-scale agricultural cultivation was developed." [1,2]
* * *
* * *
In October 1995, on Bob Lind's request, Märta Strömberg's archaeological team made an excavation at a site indicated by Lind, 1-2 metres from the bow stone (M1, NW). Among the modern waste left by the WWII-time Swedish Coast Guard, remnants of a hearth were found (five soot covered stones). This soot was subsequently 14C dated at 3300-3600 BCE, i.e. in the Early Stone Age. On this very find, one of the dates quoted for the raising of the Ales Stenar, i.e. cca. 5500 BP (before the present), is based.
Professor Märta Strömberg has not mentioned this find either in her paper [1] or in the web page of the Archaeological Institute of the Lund University. In my letter, I asked Professor Strömberg about this omission for it seemed to me quite unusual; after all it is not every day that the archaeologists find objects 5500 year old.
Professor Strömberg replied to it:
"For us, archaeologists, this early dating of the sample is quite impossible to believe to be one belonging to the stone ship. At that time megalithic tombs were built in Sweden [v], and not ships. However, in the Neolithic times, people from the habitation sites north of the ridge used this area for their cattle and for the 'transportation' from their settlements to the coast, for fishing, and so on. During our research we have found on the ridge hundreds of implements of different kinds, also inside and outside the stone ship. Why should those people not have had a hearth at a place where much later the inhabitants of the villages in the neighbourhood have constructed a ship- setting? It is not so dramatic as you could believe." [2]Professor Strömberg concludes:
"My opinion today is that the Ales Stenar monument was raised in the Viking Period, or perhaps a little earlier. The datings from the Migration and Vendel Periods inform us about earlier activities, perhaps a cult place and some burials in this area, before the erecting of the Ales Stenar."
III. Other ship-settings in Scandinavia
More than a thousand ship-settings have survived in Southern
Scandinavia in various states of preservation. They vary in size.
Their length ranges from several metres to over 60 metres; there
are over 100 ship-settings longer than 25 metres, out of which 18
are longer than 40 metres The ship-settings appear standing alone
or in groups (cemeteries) of up to ten or more. Some have the
stones standing upright, some consist of flat delineating stones
on the ground, in some the stones are arranged tightly, touching
each other, in some the stones are set sparsely. It has been
proved with precise measurements, that the great majority of
ship-settings have been set on geometrical outlines of two
intersecting circular curves of equal radii. The deviations from
such regular shapes, occurring for several large ship-settings
can be attributed to either possible construction difficulties in
rough terrain or subsequent changes during some restorations. [6]
In recent years sockets of two large ship-settings near
Kristianstad (inland Skåne) have been excavated, one of
which (close to Förlöv) was 80 metre-long, i.e. it was larger than Ales Stenar, and
dated in the Viking Period. Several stones of another large ship-
setting have been found in Kabusa (near Kåseberga,
Skåne), and a complete though much smaller ship-setting is
in Stenhed (Skåne). All across Sweden, there are many Viking
cemeteries from the Late Iron Age consisting of stone ship-
settings, although usually smaller, e.g. in Vätteryd
(Skåne), Vedeby (Blekinge), Badelunda and Haaslösa
(Västmanland), Rannarve and Gannarve in the island of
Gotland, or near Blomsholm in Bohuslän on the north
Kattegat/east Skagerrak shores. In Halland there are a few large
boulders apparently remaining from a Stonehenge-like ring, dated
also in the Viking Period.
Four stone ship-settings "sail" one behind another in the forest in Rannarve on Gotland. (Photo: Curt Roslund)
The ship-setting in Blomsholm, near Strömstad, Bohuslän;
52 boulders, length 42 m. [14].
(The photo comes from a web page on Blomsholm.)
In Linholm Hoje, in northern Jutland, beside the Limfjord, Denmark, a huge Viking cemetery has been excavated together with part of a settlement and even a ploughed field. Above the shore, on a ridge too, there are over 200 such ship-settings, each of approximately 20 stones. [9]
The Viking cemetery in Lindholm Hoje, northern Denmark.
(The vertical strap resulted from the book spine.) [9]
The stone ship-settings symbolized Vikings' belief that death was a voyage into the unknown. Cremation of the dead was a widespread practice among the Vikings, although the chieftains were usually buried in richly carved wagons sometime together with their ships. [9,10]
The ship-settings are unique to southern Scandinavia, although
there is at least one similar, though nearly circular, stone
formation in Castlerigg in England's Lake District.
IV. The alignment of the Ales Stenar
With neither a theory nor any sophisticated evidence one thing is
striking: the Ales Stenar ship-setting has been aligned according
to the winter and the summer Solstices. On the Winter Solstice
day, an observer standing in the middle of this ship-setting will
see the Sun rise over the 3.5 metre-high stern (M3, SE) boulder,
and set behind the port board amidships S15 boulder. On the
Summer Solstice day such an observer will see the Sun rise over
the 1.5 metre-high starboard amidships N14 boulder, and set
behind the 2.2 metre-high bow (M1, NW) boulder.
Two photographs of the sunrise over the Ales Stenar on the Winter and Summer Solstice days taken by Mr. Bob G. Lind, which, with his permission, were inserted here for several months, have now been removed on his demand after he found the text of this article "scientifically inferior". (Andrew Kobos)
The sunrise over the Ales Stenar on the Winter Solstice day. (Photo: Curt Roslund)
However, the alignment of the Ales Stenar could be accidental. The orientations of the ship-settings in Scandinavia vary in all directions, although the ones along the South-North line is most common. (Perhaps the Viking mariner chieftains were supposed to navigate straight North to the realm of the dead.) It seems that the ship-settings were set based on an aligned sequence of squares, or rhombs, or triangles (rosettes). These layouts "support the idea that the builders of ship-settings understood the basic laws of geometry and knew how to use them in order to arrive at an aesthetically pleasing composition." [6]
It is noteworthy that the Solstice driven alignments of several
great megalithic monuments are acknowledged by some astronomers
(e.g. Sir Fred Hoyle [11]) to have been purposeful. Several
examples of such alignments include: the megalithic ring at
Stonehenge (cca. 2800 BCE) and the megalithic Hagar Qim temple in
Malta (cca. 2700 BCE), both according to the summer Solstice
sunrise, as well as a chamber of the Great Amun Temple in Karnak,
Egypt, the megalithic Newgrange passage tomb in eastern Ireland, and
horseshoe at Sarmizegetuza, Rumania, all three according to the
winter Solstice sunrise.
V. The Archaeoastronomical
Theories
Curt Roslund defines archaeoastronomy as:
"An interdisciplinary research field investigating how people of past cultures have perceived and responded to celestial phenomena. Archaeoastronomy has been most widely known for its search for astronomically orientated alignments [of past structures]. . The orientation of an architectural structure in no longer the object itself but what it can tell us about the culture that incorporated it into its activities." [7]Mostly, phenomena involving Sun and/or Moon are considered. Archaeologists view archaeoastronomy with strong reservations, and often claim that it is an unfounded "pseudoscience" trying to prove myths and past religious notions.
* * *
A bird-eye view of the Ales Stenar from the northwest. (Photo: Curt Roslund)
Curt Roslund maintained that given their geometry the Ales Stenar had from the onset some mathematical and astronomical applications.
By means of measurements with the precise EDM (Electronic Distance Measurement) equipment that uses infrared beams, and model fitting Curt Roslund established [4] that the Ale stones had originally been set on the peripheries of two opposing, intersecting parabolas (south-eastern, SE, and north-western, NW). He calculated the characteristics of these parabolas (latus rectum equals 2.29 m for the SE parabola, and 2.17 m for the NW one), and pointed their foci with a 10 cm accuracy. It appears that the rudder stone M4 (small above the ground but very large in its buried part) was set only 25 cm (or 10 cm for its estimated centre-of-mass) from the focus of the SE parabola. For the SE parabola, the coordinates (in metres) of the boulders' centres-of-mass fall within 23 cm to the ones prescribed by the equations yi = p (i + 1.25) and xi2 = p2 (i + 1.25), where p is latus rectum (i.e. 2.29 m) and i an integer (i = 1,2,3,...14) representing stone numbers counted from the top of the parabola.
It was precisely at the NE end of the SE parabola's latus rectum
where the oak peg charcoal was excavated and subsequently
14C dated at 545-755 CE (cf. Section II). A peg at this
spot could once have been used to stake off the SE parabola on
the ground. According to Roslund's geometrical rule for setting
the stones on the SE and NW parabolas, there should have been
four more stones at the top of each of the two parabolas.
However, the search for their remnants at the less distorted SE
top failed. No traces of the original staking off the NW parabola
were sought and found.
Ales Stenar from the southeast.
The top of the SE parabola, as calculated by Roslund, is drawn in white.
The small circle marks the spot at which a piece of a charcoaled oak peg was found 75 cm below the ground. (Sample Ua 1581). (Photo: Curt Roslund)
The x-axis of the SE parabola is oriented at the 45o32' azimuth angle. 12.9 km away, in Borrby, there is a 20 metre-high hill (visible in sharp profile), the only one over the otherwise totally flat horizon. At the 43o20' azimuth (very close to that of the hill), at approximately 300 CE, an observer from the rudder stone M4 could have seen the Sun rise on the summer Solstice over this hill if it was bare of vegetation, or at about 300 BCE, if it was covered with 15 metre- high trees.
Based on the orientation of the Ales Stenar SE parabola, Curt Roslund suggested [4] that the Ales Stenar constituted a parabola used to interpolate the precise time of the summer Solstice. The date 300 CE could be considered in reasonable agreement with the dating of the peg, however both the dates (300 CE and 300 BCE) are much later than the dates involved in the archeoastronomical theories for the megalithic formations (e.g. Stonehenge) in the British Isles.
After more 14C datings for other finds excavated by Märta Strömberg's team have become available, Curt Roslund has withdrawn his suggestion for an astronomical application of the Ales Stenar ship-setting, however he continues to maintain that its ground plan was composed with two opposing parabolas. [8]
* * *
Bob Lind has publicized [12] his speculations based only on the circumstantial evidence, i.e. the Nordic mythology and the relation between the Ales Stenar alignment and the yearly astronomical phenomena involving the Sun.
In brief, based on the pattern of the carved cupules on one stone
(N1) that resembles the pattern of the Cygnus (Swan) star
constellation, as well as on the Greek and Nordic mythologies,
Lind deduced the date of raising the Ales Stenar formation at 700
- 400 BCE. He calls the Ales Stenar the "Sun's ship" or the "Sun
god ship". According to Lind, the hollow prominent in the upper part of the bow M1 boulder's front face represents the Sun, while the four circular hollows at the top of the S7 stone symbolize the alignment of the Ale "ship" in respect to the sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter
Solstice days (four events together). Lind assigns the symbolism of
the Nordic gods to the four main boulders: (M1) - Heimdall, time
god and the guardian of sanctuaries; (M3) - Ing-Frö,
fertility god; (N14) - Balder, summer god; (S15) - Ull, winter
god. [vi]
Cup-like hollows in the starboard side of the N1 boulder.
The hollows are highlighted in yellow. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
* * *
The situation of the archeoastronomical theories for the Ales Stenar ship-setting is quite unlike that of the archeoastronomical theories for Stonehenge. The latter, although dismissed by the archaeologists, have become subject of serious considerations by a number of reputable astronomers and cosmologists; it suffices to mention Professor Sir Fred Hoyle [11]. No doubt, Stonehenge did exist in times (cca. 2000 BCE) these theories refer to. In contrary, there is no sound indication whatsoever that the Ales Stenar formation did exist in the Bronze Age, which Lind's archeoastronomical theory refers to.
No well-known astronomer has lent his/her support to Lind's
archeoastronomical theory of Ales Stenar. I mention here Bob
Lind's theory only for completeness of this review article.
Lind's theory is talked about in the heated polemics in Swedish
press and is quite "visible" near the Ales Stenar. Almost
everybody visiting this monument will encounter rather
spectacular Lind's photographs of sunrise and sunset over this
stone "ship".
VI. At crowds'
mercy
In 2000 CE, Ales Stenar - a prehistoric, unique monument of the
universal meaning and value - seemed to have been abandoned and
left to the mercy of the visitor crowd. I say so because the
apparent goal of almost every child from among the visitors is to
climb almost every stone there, while the ambition of almost
every parent is to take the picture of his/her child on this
almost every stone. To my dismay, I did watch it to for many
hours. (Such pictures can be found on a number of personal web
pages of these tourists). No sign prohibiting to climb the
boulders is displayed. Very nearby, the livestock is grazing, and
when no one is around it surely does so among the boulders. Well.
the Vikings are no more.
* * *
VII. Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Professor Märta Strömberg of the Lund
University for her letters and the reprint of her paper. These
two have explained to me many details of her archaeological work
at the Ales Stenar and cleared several my misconceptions. My
special "Thank you" is extended to Professor Strömberg for
reading the manuscript of this article and commenting upon it as
well as for her permission to quote here excerpts from her
letters and paper, and to include her diagram of the Ales Stenar
and a picture of the excavations.
I am grateful to Dr. Curt Roslund of the Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, for the correspondence, phone conversations, reading and commenting upon the manuscript of this article, his photographs of the Ales Stenar, and the reprints of a number of his papers on the Ales Stenar and the Viking navigational practices.
Last but not least I thank Ms. Barbara Kaminska of Lund for
introducing me to the Ales Stenar problem and above all for her
cooperation in the rigorous collecting the materials and making
translations from Swedish. Without her help this review article
would never have been written.
January-February 2001
- The previously quoted height of the ridge above the sea
level, 42 metres, has been revised to 37 metres by Curt
Roslund's precise EDM measurements. [8]
- The Vendel Period spanned over cca. 550-800 CE; the name
is derived from the famous archaeological finds at Vendel
(Uppland), a village north of Uppsala in northern Sweden.
- Circular, cup-like rock hollows, several centimetres in
diameter, are found in Scandinavia on many early and late
stone monuments and, even still in the 20th century,
were used as placing for traditional, symbolic offerings,
mainly of food. Such hollows are dated not earlier than 3500
BP. In the mountainous region of inner fjords Sogn og Fjordane
in western Norway, 85% of rock-art sites consist of the
cupules.
Hollows in the rocks have been found literally all over the world; they were made at different times in different places for certainly different reasons. They were discovered at numerous sites in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and the Pacific islands. [13]
- For example the Bronze Age tomb in Kivik discovered in 1748
north of Simrishamn (Skåne). Its walls are made of piled rocks and eight
slabs with runic rock-carvings depicting everyday life scenes,
some including people, horses, chariots, sleighs, weapons, and a
troupe of eight seals dancing vertically.
The Bronze Age tomb in Kivik. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
The Bronze Age tomb in Kivik. (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
The Bronze Age tomb in Kivik (entrance). (Photo: Andrew Kobos)
The rock engravings in the slabs of the Kivik tomb. [14]
A dolmen tomb at Haga in the Orust island, Bohuslän. [14]
- Märta Strömberg: "Det stora skeppet på
åsen" [A Big Ship on the Ridge]. pp. 51-71 in Festschricht
AMICO AMICI - Gad Rausing, 19 Maj 1997. Ed. Jonas
Ellerström. Signum 1997, 410pp. ISBN 91-87896-30-3. (in
Swedish)
- Letters from Märta Strömberg to Andrew Kobos, dated
December 14, 2000, and January 25, 2001.
- Curt Roslund: "Vem vet vad minnesmärket menar? II.
Fortsättning på diskussionen om 'Ales Stenar' " [Who
Knows What the Monument Wants to Tell Us]. Ale 3/1987,
29-32. (in Swedish)
- Curt Roslund: "EDM Technique Applied to the Prehistoric
Monument "Ale's Stones". Archaeology and Natural Science
1 (1993) 111-116.
- Märta Strömberg and Curt Roslund: "Ales Stenar
datering" [Ales Sternar Dating]. Ale 2/1991, 1-6. (in
Swedish)
- Curt Roslund: "The geometry and orientation of Scandinavian
ship-settings". Fornavännen 90 (1995) 139-145.
- Curt Roslund, Jonathan Lindström and Pia Andersson:
"Alignments in Profusion and Confusion. The Growing Pains of
Archaeoastronomy". Lund Archaeological Review 5 (1999)
105-115.
- Curt Roslund: private communications, 2001.
- James Graham-Campbell: The Viking World. Ticknor
&Fields, New Haven-New York, 1980.
- James Graham-Campbell, Dafydd Kidd: The Vikings.
The British Museum London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, 1980.
- Fred Hoyle: On Stonehenge. W.H. Freeman and
Company, San Francisco, 1977.
- B. G. Lind: Solens skepp och Als stenar [The Sun
Ship and Als Stenar]. Stjärnljuset Förlag, Malmö
1996. (in Swedish);
B. G. Lind: Ales Stenar. 2000. (a leaflet in Swedish and English);
- Paul S.C. Taton, Richard Fullagar, Sven Ouzman, Ken Mulvaney:
"Cupule engravings from Jinmium-Granilpi (northern Australia) and
beyond: exploration of a widespread and enigmatic class of rock
markings," Antiquity 71 (1997) 962-965.
- Oscar Montelius: Civilisation of Sweden in Heathen
Times, Macmillan and Co., London and New York 1888.
Oskar Montelius: Sveriges Heddnatid samt Medeltid, Sveriges Historia, vol. 1. Svenka Amerikanska Postens Förlag, Minneapolis, Minn. 1900. (in Swedish)
- Oskar Montelius: "Stenskeppet vid Kaseberga" [A Stone-ship
near Kaseberga]. Minnesskrift 1907-1917 utgifen av Ystads
Fornminnesförening, 1917.
- Peter G. Foote, David M. Wilson: The Viking Achievement. Sidwick & Jackson, London, 1989.
