At Opposite Ends?

Cairns and Bronzes as Disparate Displays of Power in Bronze Age Western Sweden

Abstract

This paper explores the Bronze Age in western Sweden and the fact that while bronzes were scarce, other signs of the south Scandinavian Bronze Age were abundant. The role and placement of rock carvings and burials, and their relation to bronze objects, is analysed, based on the unusual existence of a monumental barrow in an area where cairns are far more common. The concept of borderland is an important aspect when trying to explain changes in society but an analytical model based on cores and peripheries too often places a focus on changes in the "core" and sees events on the "peripheries" as reactions to these events, leaving little room for the influence of local traditions. It is proposed thar the use of rock carvings in western Sweden supplemented the use of bronzes in ritual contexts. Bronze was a secondary symbol of the status of an already established prestige, and in areas where the need to claim the rocks through rituals was essential, the use of carvings, as well as cairns, played a central part.