stance that they are met with in great numbers, and contain urns of clay, with burnt bones, ashes, and other antiquities. The most remarkable places of interment in Sweden are un- questionably the ship barrows (Skibssœtninger), as they are named.
By this term is understood an oblong enclosure of stones running to a point at the ends, which is filled with a heap of small stones mixed with earth, while occasionally the space enclosed is quite level. At each end is usually seen an upright stone, by which doubtless the stem and stern of a ship are indicated. The resemblance to a ship is still more obvious from the circumstance that there exist similar enclosures of stone, with a tall stone in the middle, in imitation of a mast, and with several rows of small stones which go across the enclosure, and represent banks of oars. They lie chiefly in the neighbourhood of the sea, for instance in Gothland and Oeland, but in particular in Bleking, where they are met with in several places in considerable numbers, associated with round, square, and triangular graves; at the place called Listerby Aas alone are seen about a hundred, although many have perished in the course of time. They differ considerably as to size, occurring from eight to sixty paces long, and two to fifteen paces broad: in the larger ones the terminal stones are from twelve to sixteen feet in length. In general they are to be considered as burial-places of the Vikings[1]; in single
- ↑ It appears from Mr. Worsaae's large and more important work, entitled "Zur Alterthumskunde des Nordens," 4to. Leipsig, 1847, p. 17, that there have been found in some of these ship barrows tolerably large iron nails, such as are used in the construction of small ships or boats; so as almost to convert the supposition that such barrows have been the burial-places of
