20 
Gabriel  Gustafson. 
[No.  7. 
puzzle"  which  hang  in  each  other,  might  be  again  met  with  as  an 
ornament.  There  is  such  an  ornamental  figure  found,  which  must 
certainly  have  some  higher  significance,  and  which  to  a  certain  extent 
reminds  us  of  the  square  referred  to.  It  is  seen  illustrated  in  fig.  14. 
This  is  probably  easiest  explained,  as  a  strip  with  four  loop-corners 
by  means  of  which  it  is  bent  into  a  square  form,  but  that  may  be 
regarded,  also,  as  four  lines  formed  into  a  square  and  connected  by 
loops  at  the  ends.  In  other  specimens  of  this  ornament  the  loop 
bends  are  minimally  small,  so  that  in  them  the  square  seems  to  be 
the  chief  object.1)  That  this  mark  is  a  sacred  symbol2),  is  seen  from 
the  fact  that  it  appears,  on  a  large  scale,  as  the  only  ornament 
on  the  gold  bracteate  from  Lyngby  in  the  Copenhagen  Museum. 
And  it  is  shown  still  more  strongly  by  this,  that  it  is  seen  on 
the  face  of  a  sculptured  stone  from  Havor.3)  These  remark- 
able stones,  of  which  a  considerable  number  have  been  found  in 
the  island  of  Gothland,  have  certainly  been  raised  over  graves.  The 
one  referred  to  here  pertains,  presumably,  to  the  time  of  the  gold 
bracteates  and  of  the  Evebo-find,  consequently  the  period  imme- 
diately  before  the  time  of  the  Vikings,  the  later  period  of  the  early 
iron  age.  It  has  the  symbol  spoken  of,  represented  on  a  large 
scale,  in  the  middle  of  its  face,  surrounded  by  ornamental  twinings. 
Other  stones  from  the  same  period  have  other  symbolical  ornaments^ 
and  a  few  have  figurative  representations,  which,  however,  become 
more  eommon  on  stones  of  a  younger  type  which  come  down  to 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  Era.  A  few  of  the  younger  ones 
have  runic  letters,  but,  so  far  as  is  known,  none  of  the  oldest  ones. 
At  the  bottom  of  a  clay  vessel  from  Sobrusan,  in  northern 
Bohemia,  the  symbol  illustrated  in  fig.  15  was  seen;  the  original  is 
incomplete,  but  may,  with  certainty,  be  completed,  as  has  been  done 
here ;  it  appears  to  consist  of  four  lines  laid  in  cruciform  upon  each 
other,  and  with  projecting  rectangular  ends.  If  the  ends  are  united 
we  then  obtain  the  strip  bent  with  four  loop  corners.  That  it  is 
a  sacred  symbol  is  probable,  from  the  fact  that  other  vessels  found 
1)  Crap.  "Atlas  for  Nord.  Oldkyndighed",  fig.  205  (gold  bracteate  from 
Gothland)  and  Lindenschmit,  Handbuch,  Tab.  XXVII  fig.  o  (Zierscheibe  from 
Rudesheim). 
2)  Cmp.  Worsaae,  The  Industrial  Arts  of  Denmark,  pag.  170. 
3)  The  stone  has  not  yet  been  published.  1  found  it  in  1886,  laid  as  the 
flag-stone  cover  of  a  Viking  grave,  but  in  such  a  manner  that  it  was  clearly 
evident  that  it  belonged  to  an  older  period. 
