Ale's Stones

A Monument of Recycled Boulders?

Abstract

The largest still existing stone ship in Sweden is Ale's Stones in Kåseberga, south-east Scania. Since 1989 small investigations have been carried out in order to obtain information about chronology, function and relationship to the habitation in the surroundings. Today, we have a great many indications of a dating of the monument to the Late Iron Age–Viking Age.

After a presentation of the project, its organization and a brief account of the results this article will discuss problems concerning the construction of Ale's Stones. There are some complications as the ship-setting has been restored on two different occasions. In spite of this the excavations have provided positive aspects. On many stones we noticed cupmarks in quire different positions. Most remarkable and surprising, however, was the discovery of cupmarks quite near the bottom of several boulders, far below the surface. This means that these special cupmarks were not visible to people visiting or using the site. However, the boulders must have been transported from other places not too far from the Kåseberga ridge, and they may have been taken from ancient monuments such as Neolithic passage tombs, cemeteries or cult places presumably from the Bronze Age, at a time when it was no longer taboo to remove stones from the place. Furthermore, the origin of the stones will be discussed briefly.