36 Eyvind de Lange. [Nr. 4 



tioned before, it is difficult to express an authoritative opinion on 

 the subject. 



They are known, however, from the Bronze age, as they are 

 to be found on the ancient tracings on rocks, as well as on orna- 

 mented stones in graves from this period. The best equipped of 

 these graves, the Rege-grave, belongs to the 14th century before 

 Christ. The spiral ornaments on the large tutulus (fig. 17) and the 

 fibula (fig. 19) proove this. The other antiquities from the Rege- 

 grave are shown in fig. 18—21. The art of ornamenting has come 

 to our country through commercial connections with the civilization 

 of Mycenæ, where the spiral ornamentation was flourishing; and I 

 believe that also the construction of the grave itself with the orna- 

 mented stones must have come to us under the influence of the 

 same civilization, as we know that similar stones occur in the graves 

 there. From the East, where this custom also prevailed, it must 

 have reached Greece by the way of Egypt. 



My opinion is that the ornamented grave-stones are connected 

 with the civilization from Mycenæ, and that, in the main part, they 

 belong to the first part of the Bronze age. 1 suppose that the 

 loose stones found in several of the mounds, must have been put 

 there intentionally; they may, however, perhaps have had another 

 position formerly than they have now. The stone from Skjøling- 

 stad has probably been a "bautasten" (monolith) in a mound from 

 the Bronze age. Later on it was used as a cover over a more recent 

 grave; and so was the Hauge-stone. Both these stones and others 

 that have been found in graves .must have been erected to protect 

 the deceased from evil powers. For this reason they were orna- 

 mented with holy symbols, such as cups, concentric circles, and 

 wheel-figures. 



Surely, whether we find them in the East or in the North, 

 there was a common thought in the custom of ornamenting the 

 grave-stones. In the North we have not the same wealth of figures 

 as in the South, but the signs that are engraved must certainly be 

 understood as religious symbols. 



