310 



GKA VES. 



are marked, and even a stone placed in the position of the 

 mast. 



The longest ship-form grave which I think is known is one 

 near Kasberga, a fishing village in the southern part of 

 Sweden, with a length of 212 feet and a width of 60 feet. It 

 is made by thirty-eight stones, the two forming the prow 

 being 12 and 18 feet in height above the ground the latter 

 being the northern one. 



But the finest of all, though less in size, is the famous one 



Uo^o,o.-.,oC,-OO^ al 



,oc 



Fig. 726. Ship-form grave, Karums parish, Oland. 



of Blomsholm, near . Stromstad, the whole neighbourhood of 

 which is surrounded with mementoes of the past graves, 

 dorn-rings, mounds, bautastones, and rock-tracings. 1 



1 At Eds, Upland, there is a very fine 

 ship-form grave of twenty-eight stones, 

 182 feet long and 50 feet wide. The 

 largest stone at one end is 9 feet in 

 height, and is evidently a bautastone ; 

 the rest, although large, each measuring 

 several feet in circumference, are common 

 boulders. At the centre of the ship there 

 lies a similar stone, where, as well as at 

 the ends, there is a small mound-like 

 elevation. 



In the woods at Braidfloar, between 

 Levide and Sproge in Gotland, there is a 

 ship-form grave 144 feet long, but only 

 16 feet at its widest part; the stones, 

 however, are small, none being higher 

 than 3 feet. 



At Lungersas, Gotland, Nerike, there 

 is a ship-form grave in which stands a 

 stone with an inscription in later runes. 



There is also a bautastone with runes, 

 in one end of a ship-form at Lilla Lund- 

 ley in Lids, Sodermauland, upon which 

 are the words '' Spjute nd Hcdfdan raised 

 this stone after Skarde their brother. He 



went eastward with Roar. In Serklaivi 

 lies the son." (See p. 356 Yellow Book, 

 Den yngre jernalder.) 



A ship-form grave between the post- 

 stations of Ljungby and Hamneda pro- 

 vince of Kronobergs is 92 feet long and 

 32 feet broad ; the neighbourhood is full 

 of grave-mounds and bautastones. 



Another near the shore "of the Baltic, 

 in Eista parish, Gotland, is 50 feet by 

 13 feet. A third, on the island of Farti, 

 near Gotland, is 50 feet bv 8 feet. 



We see by this that their breadth 

 does not always bear the same proportion 

 to their length. 



In two ship forms at H jortehammar, in 

 Blekinge, there were found burned bones, 

 ashes, two of the bowl-shaped fibulae of 

 bronze so common during the later iron 

 age, a round fibula of silver, some glass 

 bends, &c. 



In one at Raftotaiigen, in Tanum 

 parish, was an urn rilled with ashes, oil 

 the top of which lay a finely ornamented 

 damascened sword of the later iron age. 



