558 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



fired small *iold-plate boats laid within oacli other, as shown in the ac- 

 company in g ligiire. 



The railing and the ribs of these small boats are made of narrow and 

 thin bronze bands that are bent around one another; in the middle of 

 these lie sheets of thin plates of gold, wliose corners overlap each other 

 at the bottom of the boat and are bent around the bronze bands above, 

 covering it. In the same manner tlie outside covering is effected. 



The size of the boats and the number of ribs vary and some are orna- 

 mented with concentric circles. 



Boat-shaped Monuments. — While the first ap])earaiice of the A*forthmen 

 upon the western seas is shown to have taken place in the beginning of 

 the sixth century,^ there is strong and possibly conclusive evidence of 

 their having entertained an active and intimate intercourse with the 

 countries upon the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea; their traces are 

 found^in the Baltic provinces of Eussia — in Estonia, Estuish Livonia, 

 attaining a maximum in Livonia, and diminishing again in Courland — 

 and in northern Germany. 



The monuments that give us an account of such intercourse are the 

 burial places in the form of sliii)s; the stone ship of the land supplant- 

 ing the wooden ship of the sea, upon which, according to ancient cus- 

 tom,^ the dead were cremated and their ashes, together with their 

 personal property, buried. 



These stone, boat-shaped burial places are known by the names of 

 Skibssjietningar, Steuskeppar, Skepi)shogar, Skeppsformer, Steinschiffe, 

 Schiffsetzungen, Teufelsboote, Wella Laiwe. Their home is in Sweden,^ 



'Greg. Tiiron. in, c. 3. Baitliold: Geschichte der Deutscheii Seemacht, 1850, Bd. 

 1, p. 304. 



^Egils Saga, c. Ixi (Heimskriugia text). Gylfaginniug, c. xlix (Heimskiiugla 

 text). Hakon the Good Saga (Heimskriugla text), c. xxvii. Landnama, ii. Lax- 

 dyela, c. viii. Vatnsdtela Saga, c. xxii. Ynglinga Saga, c. viii, xxvii. 



"Blekixgen, Worsaoe, J. J. A.: Znr Alterthixniskimde des Nordens, 1847, p. 16, 

 and pi. III. Sjobovfi, Samlingar for Nordens Forniilskare, i, p. 116, pi. xiv, fig. 46, and 

 pi. XX, fig. 60. Grewingk, ('.: Zur Archiiologie des Balticnms (iu Arcliiv, f, An- 

 thropologie, x, i>. 83. Aarb^ger for Nordisk Oldkyndigbed og Hi.storie, 1881, p. 155, 

 Antiqiiarisk Annaler, iv, p. 297. Vrdcl, E.: Bornholms Oldtidsiniuder og Oldsager, 

 p. 27. Bohi'Slan: Bidrag til Kiiniiedom om Goteborgs ocb Bohnsliiiis Fornmimicn, 

 1874. Grewingk, C: Z. Arch. d. Bait. (Arch. f. Anth., x, p. 83). HoJmhvrg: 

 Bohusljins Historle och Beskrifning, ii, p. 192. Gotlaxd, Dr. Save: On Gothiuds 

 iildste Fornleiiiniiiger (I Ann. f. nord, Oldkynd, 18.52, p. 130-170. Vedel, E.: Bom- 

 holms Oldtidsminder og Oldsager, p, 27, Grewingk, C: Z, Arch. d. Bait, (in 

 Arch. f. Auth., x). Bidrag til Kiinncdoiu om Goteborgs och Bohnsliins Fornminnen, 

 I, Stockludni. 1874. 0elaxi>, .Hqvint: Oelands Historia, i, p, 31. Holmberg: Bohns- 

 liins llistovia och Beskrifning, ii, p. 192, Scaxia, Grewingk, C: Z. Arch, d. Bait, 

 (in Arch. f. Auth., x). Sodeumaxlaxd: Yellow Book, Den yugre Jcrnalder, p. 356, 

 rctcrsou's and Soderstrom's Samlnng. Worsaae, J. J. A.: Z, Alterthumsk, d. Nordens, 

 1874, p. 16, 32, and pi. iv, Sveakicke : K. Vitterhels, Historic och Antiq. Akad., 

 Stockholm (monthly). Hellier, Goxselin, Sec. R. Arch. Soc. of Gr, Britain, niann- 

 script letter. Brown, Manj A.: Manuscript letter. \JvhKiii>, Grewingk, C: Z. Arch, 

 d. Baltic. (Arch. f. Auth. x). 



