"Sacred white stones"

On Traditions of Building White Stones into Graves

Abstract

This paper discusses the practice of white stones in Iron Age burial traditions. The point of departure is a recent excavation, undertaken by the present author, of a cairn with large amounts of quartz at Tiraholm in south-west Småland. The excavation results, together with a local case study, show several interesting citcumstances concerning the practice of building quartz into grave monuments. The tradition seems to occur more frequently during the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age periods. Apparently, the white colour was seen by contemporaries as sacred, showing the presence of divine and cosmological powers.