<< Our Photo Pages >> Rakni's Mound - Round Barrow(s) in Norway in Akershus
Submitted by kenntha88 on Saturday, 11 August 2012 Page Views: 2284
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Rakni's MoundCountry: Norway
NOTE: This site is 1.982 km away from the location you searched for.
Fylke: Akershus Type: Round Barrow(s)
Nearest Town: Jessheim Nearest Village: Sand
Latitude: 60.146882N Longitude: 11.137218E
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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Rakni's Mound (Norwegian: Raknehaugen) in Ullensaker is the largest free-standing prehistoric monument in Norway and the largest barrow in Northern Europe! It dates to the Migration Age (around 500AC) and has been the subject of three archaeological investigations.
The mound (including the ditch around the edge) is 95 metres in diameter and over 15 metres in height, the largest in Scandinavia. Carbon-14 dating in 1956–57 (the first use of the technique in Norway) dated its construction to the Migration Age, between 440 and 625. Later research has refined this to the mid-6th century, probably between 533 and 551.
It is located next to a small lake or pond near where the old road from Lake Mjøsa to Oslo and the road to Nannestad meet, probably the centre of an ancient chiefdom. The farm, which is mentioned in records from the Middle Ages, is called Ljøgodt from Ljoðgata (Old Norse for "main track"); another nearby farm, also mentioned in medieval sources, is called Haug after the mound. The great mound was surrounded by smaller, later burials until the early twentieth century; aerial photographs show the outlines of more than 30 now effaced mounds, and archaeological digs have dated burials between the 7th century and the Viking Age. They were mostly simple cremations with few grave goods, and three are in the trench around the mound itself.
The mound was raised over three cone-shaped layers of approximately 75,000 stacked logs from 30,000 trees, on which were heaped some 80,000 cubic metres of sand taken from trenches around the mound, clay and soil. Dendrochronology and carbon-dating show 97% of the trees were felled in a single winter, in 533–551.
The construction has been estimated to have required the work of 40–50 people felling trees the winter before the mound was built, followed by 450–600 over the summer to build it; or 160–200 men working for 150 days. The trees were quite homogeneous, none over 60 years old, and had been grown in open woodland, providing the first evidence of large-scale forestry in Iron Age Scandinavia. Traces of ancient agriculture and cooking pits, which predate the mound, lie under it.
A layer of coal with animal bones and cremated human skull fragments from an individual between 20 and 35 years old were found at the base of the mound. No grave goods have been found, only a couple of wooden spades and a bar, presumably from the construction of the mound.
The mound is impossible to miss for visitors! Today its overgrown with large trees, and its hard to get a good picture of the whole outline of the mound!
It is certainly one of the most impressive ancient monument I have ever visited in Norway!
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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