Morning tour
Autumn greeted us with a sunny (and Swedish warm) beautiful morning. Joakim, our favourite tour guide, took us on one more adventure through the Bronze Age of Tjust.
The cairns and barrows by the road were like leading us to one of the largest pre-historic concentrations in the region, Källsåker (Västervik). The only rock art site known in the area is currently hidden by some high bushes but our will was stronger. Two long ships (one is actually more than 2 meters long), deeply carved on the rock got most of our attention, but it wasn’t all. This rich panel is covered with something like 30 ships and one intriguing bird man, the only human being in the whole scene.
The second stop, a rock art panel that once was underneath a cairn – Hjortekrog. This cairn, built on top of a rock, had an cremation burial dated from 1100-900 BC, and by the end of the excavation, under a thin layer with charcoal, the archaeologists saw this craved ships, organized like in a circle, coming out and going in a 8 cm deep fire damaged. This close connection between burial sites, cremation and rock art make this site, one of the most important rock art sites in Sweden.
The last stop on the trip, in Almvik, let some of us speechless. A cairn burial ground, in direct connection with rock art. The cairn we visited was built on top of an immense rock. On the base we have an “altar” covered with cup marks and on top, nothing but foot souls coming out from (and under) the cairn! Even more amazing were the little feet, standing in pairs of four together with cup marks coming from underneath the stone pile…
Understanding and placing these sites in the landscape will help us to understand a bit more the people (and their practices) that choose this region to live, during the distant Bronze Age.
We couldn’t have had a better start!
Eight days in the ship
The field work is going in a good paste. We are getting a new perspective in the ship, as we remove the first layer of packing stones. Every day we get more visitors, and we are very happy about it. Not to mention the media attention :-). Today, it was our second appearance in the newspaper!
The reporter Hans Brandin from Västerviks-Tidningen setting up his equipment.
We are all very tired (some going to bed around 9pm!) but very excited about what the following days will bring.
Rita Peyroteo Stjerna
Master’s Student in Archaeology
University of Lisbon, Portugal
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