Activating the Monuments - The Ritual Use of Cairns in Bronze Age Norrland

This article deals with cairns and stone-settings in Northern Sweden. The central questions are: what was the meaning of the cairns, who built them, and what were the intentions of the people in doing so? Cairns and stonesettings do not only represent a kind of permanent and completed graveconstruct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current Swedish Archaeology
Main Author: Hans Bolin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Svenska Arkeologiska Samfundet 1998
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.37718/CSA.1998.01
https://doaj.org/article/6051e9bd05a741da9540941def5fdb21
Description
Summary:This article deals with cairns and stone-settings in Northern Sweden. The central questions are: what was the meaning of the cairns, who built them, and what were the intentions of the people in doing so? Cairns and stonesettings do not only represent a kind of permanent and completed graveconstruction for individual burials. The ritual use of cairns and cairn-like stone-settings also involved a broad spectrum of ritual activities. It is here suggested that the cairns should be related to kinship groups and considered as long-term monuments, which were continually rebuilt and activated in the local ritual.