The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nationsDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
History
The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations
The cromlechs consist of from three to five large stones standing
upright, and so placed as to form a ring, with a large block or boulder
on the top. These were intended for a single body, buried in a sitting
position, with flint implements and weapons. The walls of the chamber
were made by large stones, smooth inside, and the floor consisted of
sand or gravel. Certain marks on the tops of stones seem to indicate
that sacrifices to the dead were prevalent; holes about 2 inches in
width are found on the roofs of some cromlechs and passage graves. These
cromlechs always occur near the sea, seldom more than seven miles from
the coast. The other graves of the stone age are often found far inland,
but they are almost always near a lake or river having connection with
the sea.
[Illustration:
Fig. 2.—Cromlech near Haga, Bohuslän.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 3.—Cromlech (stendös) with concave recesses on the roof-stone,
near Fasmorup, in Skåne.
]
The cromlechs which appear to be the latest graves of this age have a
much wider distribution than the other forms; they are found in nearly
all the provinces where the older forms of graves occur. Most of them
were in or on the top of a mound, which almost always had the roof, and
in most cases part of the wall, uncovered. The mound, which is generally
round, sometimes oblong, is surrounded at its base by stones often very
large; when this was oblong, the grave was nearer the one end than the
other.
[Illustration:
Fig. 4.—One of three oblong cromlechs, distance between each about 120
feet, length 52 feet, and width 20 feet, position north and south,
Lille Rorbœk, Zeeland. The central one had two stone-built chambers,
both with the entrance from the east. The southern burial chamber is
now destroyed, while the northern is completely preserved. It is 5½
feet long, and 3 feet wide, and has four walls of stone, three of
which support a stone roof.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 5.—Sepulchral chamber covered with a mound, Kallundborg, Zeeland;
height about 16 feet. In levelling the mound the earth was found to
contain articles which tend to show the existence of a
“kjókkenmödding.”
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 6.—Passage grave on Axvalla heath, near Lake Venern,
Vestergötland, Sweden, situated on a hill overlooking a flat
country. Numerous graves belonging to that period are found in the
neighbourhood.
The walls are made by large slabs, those in the passage being lower
than the slabs of the quadrangle. The roof is of flat slabs of
granite, 5 to 6 feet above the floor, a similar one serving as a
door, closing the outer end of the passage, which is 20 feet long,
and 2½ to 3 feet broad, and 3 feet high. The mortuary itself (the
quadrangle) is 32 feet long by 9 feet broad.
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