Grave Monuments and Landscape in South-Eastern Sweden

Abstract

During the last decade several scholars have analysed the meaning and importance of agriculture for the development of Late Bronze Age sociery. The present article has a starting point in pollen analyses performed at two sites in the province of Småland. The interpretation has a focus on one of the sites—the Bronze Age grave cemeteries of Snäckedal, Misterhult parish—which stands out as an extremely monumental site, yet totally without traces of agriculture, pasture or orher kinds of human impact in prehistoric time. These results are compared to recent research on similar features in the Baltic region.

The article concludes with an interpretation of differences in the perception of monumentality berween modern and prehistoric societies. Special attention is given to the symbolism of the grave constructions, above all the meaning of ships and houses in the Bronze Age grave ritual of northern Europe.

The fieldwork and pollen analysis have been made possible by grants from Birgit and Gad Rausing's Foundation for Humanistic Research.