The Scandinavian Bronze Age started quite rapidly at around 1750 BC, and is marked by three simultaneous events: 1) importation of bronze from the east Mediterranean region, 2) export of amber from southeast Sweden to the east Mediterranean region, and 3) the carving of pictures of big ships on bedrock and boulders in southern Scandinavia. We take this as evidence of travel and trading by people coming from the east Mediterranean region on big ships via Gibraltar and the North Sea to Scandinavia. At the same time, the Sun cult flourished in southern Sweden and Denmark, as evidenced by monuments perfectly oriented with respect to the Sun’s daily and annual motions over the sky (e.g. Ales Stones), rock carvings of solar symbols and in solar alignment, and a number of ritual objects related to the Sun Cult (e.g. The Golden Sky Dome). In this paper, we summarize and update available data, especially the data from Southern Sweden.
The Bronze Age has a time-transgressive beginning, ranging from 3300 BC in the Near East and 3200 BC in the Aegean region, by 2100 BC in Great Britain to 1750 BC in Central Europe and Scandinavia (
their bronze production [
Similarly, the Bronze Age ended stepwise; first in the Near East and Aegean region, then in Great Britain and Central Europe, and finally at 500 BC in Scandinavia (
In Scandinavia, the Bronze Age started at 1750 BC and ended by 500 BC (
・ The import of bronze.
・ The export of amber.
・ The rock-carving of huge ships.
We found this time-coincidence striking and natural for a combined theory on the cause of the onset of the Scandinavian Bronze Age:
・ People from the Eastern Mediterranean came to Scandinavia in big ships via The Strait of Gibraltar and the North Sea.
・ The ships were loaded with bronze.
・ They set up a trading station in southeast Sweden.
・ They brought back amber, which flooded the Mycenae tombs from about 1600 - 1500 BC.
This theory was first presented at the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo [
It seems significant that the isotopic composition of the copper in bronze objects found in Sweden all indicate a Mediterranean provenance [
In the Ravlunda area (
We therefore proposed [
The Kivik grave [
We have discussed the motifs on the stones and other symbols of foreign origin in southeast Sweden before [
In the center of the left stone, 8 birdlike persons seem to be in mourning at the sides of a sarcophagus. It might perhaps be interpreted as the nymphs (heliades) mourning the death of Phaeton, who fell into River Eridanos and died, and where the tears of the nymphs transformed into amber [
There are two quite clear omega-signs. Their origin must, of course, come from the Aegean region with older occurrences also in Egypt and Mesopotamia [
At the top of the right stone in
Pictures of huge ships started to appear frequently on rock-carvings and tool ornaments in Scandinavia all from the onset of the regional Bronze Age at 1750 BC [
Aegean travel and trading outside The Straits of Gibraltar already at 1750 BC opens new perspectives on long-distance travel and trading as further discussed in [
Some of the Swedish rock-carvings of ships are so similar to pictures found in Greece (
“We have no doubts that the Aegeans and Phoenicians were true Atlantic Ocean sailors and, in their excellent ships, in the Bronze Age reached all the way up to Hyperborea, today’s Scandinavia, in their search for amber, furs and maybe even tar” to quote our conclusion in 2010 [
It is common knowledge that the Sun played a central role during the Scandinavian Bronze Age [
rock-carvings and bronze ornaments and objects.
The Sun chariot from Trundholm in Denmark is a vivid evidence of the presence of a Sun cult. It was found in a peat bog in 1902 [
In the Simrishamn area of southeast Sweden (
The most impressive site is at Järrestad where there are hundreds of pictures cut into a bedrock surface consisting of quartzite [
The pictures occurring on the Järrestad site have been subjected to a statistical analysis of alignments [
This seems to provide clear indication that the Winter solstice played a central role in the life of Bronze Age people in SE Sweden. This, in its turn, confirms the importace the Sun played during the Bronze Age.
Other objects in the rock-carving have solar alignments, too. There are 20 ships. All of those are pointing to the SW; i.e. the sunset at Winter solstice. A serpent is aligned to the NW; i.e. the sunrise at Summer solstice (15% of the feet have the same alignment).
The vertical image of a small boat with 4 cup-marks [
Ales Stones (
show that the movements of the Sun over the year in relation to the blocks recorded 365 days and 12 months, where the 7th month was of 35 days and all the others of 30 days [
On the top of the 8th block in the NW, there are 4 cup-marks in a boat form with the long-axis perfectly aligned to the sunrise at the Winter solstice and the sunset at the Summer solstice, and the short-axis aligned to the sunrise at Summer solstice and sunset at Winter solstice [
On the top of the 8th block in the SE, there are 3 cup-marks in a triangle with the sight-line between two and straight over the third pointing exactly at sunrise at Winter solstice [
On the 1st block to the east of the bow stone (
Finally, we were able to show that Ales Stones are built after the same basic geometry―the rectangle, the circle and the Summer solstice alignment―as Stonehenge (
This concludes the review of why Ales Stones were erected, and the answer is; as a sophisticated astronomical calendar.
Next question is: when was it erected [
erected at about 750 BC [
Today, there is a minor deviation of 0.77˚ of the sunrise at Winter solstice from the perfect straight alignment, which corresponds to an age of erection at about 700 BC [
The agreement between the stratigraphic-radiocarbon age of 750 BC and the deviation age of 700 BC is satisfactorily close.
Stenhed is another stone ship oriented in SW-SE with respect to the sunset at the Summer solstice and the sunrise at the Winter solstice [
Heimdall’s Stones refer to a circular monument with strict alignments to the main Sun positions during the year. The sunrise at the Winter solstice has a panoramic direct sight-line to a distinct break-in-slope in the bedrock hill of Stenshuvud. Some of the stones have interesting rock-carvings (including one omega-sign). The site is described in great details in [
At Brantevik there are a number of graves from the Bronze Age. Even those graves show an orientation with respect to the Sun’s annual motions [
There are a number of monuments in the Båstad-Torekov area in SW Sweden (
A huge Bronze Age grave known as “Dagshög” is bordered by two lines of stones, forming a V-shaped figure. One of the lines is perfectly aligned to the sunset at Winter solstice and the point of the Kullen Peninsula to the SW.
To the north of Torekov, there is a group of Bronze Age graves built of beach shingle. A man-made passage leads out to them. The passage is aligned to the sunset at Summer solstice and the Sun sets right over the topmost grave. The passage must have been constructed to fit this alignment.
Tofta Högar refers to three Bronze Age graves, and a stone ship (9.2 m long and 2.7 m wide) aligned to the sunset at Summer solstice.
The Lungaro grave is a mound with a stone ship and grave inside. The ship is oriented E-W, i.e. in the solar directions at equinoxes, and with the grave at the middle of the south side of the stone ship.
It seems significant that the more we observe and measure of the geometry of Bronze Age monuments, the more objects with strict alignments to the solar motions we document.
When a group of stars form a pattern or a picture, we speak about star constellations. Ancient people in Babylon, Egypt and Greece are known to have observed the sky and identified and named such constellations. In 1928, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognized 88 official modern star constellations.
The oldest picture of star constellations may be found on a Sumerian cylinder seal. Seal 47 in the Newell Collection [
This means that people in the east had begun to identify and name star constellation already 2000 years before our Scandinavian Bronze Age. It seems, however, that the bulk of constellations were defined within a relatively short interval at around 1300 - 1000 BC [
If the interpretation of the Ekenbergrock-carving of [
Consequently, we can now establish 3 fundamental facts with respect to Swedish (Scandinavian) Bronze Age, viz.
1) The onset of our Bronze Age at 1750 BC by travel and trading between the East Mediterranean region and SE Sweden (
2) The introduction of sophisticated solar astronomical knowledge as manifested in the circular calendar of Heimdall’s Stones, numerous rock-carvings strictly oriented with respect to the annual solar motions and the remarkable solar calendar of Ales Stones (
3) The introduction of a Babylonian-Greece star constellation view as recorded in the Ekenbergrock-carving (
With this background, we will now analyze two objects (4 and 7, below) from the Bronze Age, and demonstrate that they can only be understood in terms of ancient astronomy (points 1 - 3 above).
In 1847, a gold urn was found at Mjövik, Nättraby parish, in SE Sweden (
From the side, the Mjövik golden urn may well be understood in terms of an urn or bowl (the bent edge suggests standing on a surface and contradicts a drinking bowl). Turned upside-down (
In the center of the dome, there is a larger sun-symbol with 6 sunbeams or spokes connected with 6 of the 12 sun-symbols around the edge. This implies a base in the old Sumerian sexagesimal system (
The first three 60-day segments include 2 sun-symbols and 2 moon-symbols. Segments 4 and 5 only include 1 moon per segment, however. The missing moons are present in the 6th segment, however, where 4 moons occur. Whether this is due to a simple mistake of the goldsmith or it has some deeper meaning is not yet known. However it is clear that we have here a manifestation of an elegant combination of the solar and lunar year by people worshiping the Sun in the Bronze Age.
This implies that a new archaeoastronomical instrument has been found, recording the 12 solar-lunar months, and the motions of the Sun over the year (
From what has been presented above, we know that the Bronze Age people had an advanced knowledge in stellar astronomy (e.g.
Therefore, the right position of the golden object from Mjövik is here proposed to be with its dome-side upwards (right-hand-side images in
Rock-carvings from the Bronze Age are very abundant in Sweden. One of the favorite motifs is the Sun. We have searched for 6-spoked sun-wheels in Scandinavian rock-carving literature, and only been able to find one picture (
This picture shows the Sun and another celestial object (the Moon according to us but a comet according to an anonymous reviewer) when carried over the
sky by two ships kept in motion by a deity. It provides an excellent image of the ancient solar-lunar observation and interpretation of the daily, monthly and annual motions over the sky.
Sippar was an important city in central Mesopotamia [
The Sippar stone tablet has been assigned an age of about 1200 - 1300 BC [
In 1847, a bronze object was found in a peat bog at Balkåkra in southern-most Sweden (
Hasfalva near Sopron) in 1913. The technique indicates that they were both manufactured by the same craftsman (or workshop). In Sweden it is assigned an age of 1500 - 1300 BC, and in Hungary an age of 1000 - 800 BC.
This “ritual object” was interpreted in many different ways; a drum, a sun altar, a gong or a throne [
None of the proposed interpretations seem to hold up to deeper analyses. It seemed obvious that we are dealing with an object closely linked to the Sun cult: the surface has a typical solar ornamentation, and it stands on 10 solar wheels. We therefore propose that it is some sort of an astronomical clock or sundial. We have measured the angles at different solar positions, but not yet been able to figure out how it exactly may have worked.
The Sun Chariot from Trundholm was mentioned above. The idea that the sun disk is carried over the sky on a chariot pulled by a horse (
The Nebra Sky Disk is another famous object indicating a deep interest in astronomy and sky phenomena in northern Europe in the Bronze Age.
The Nebra Sky Disk (
According to [
It is included in this paper, because it provides another vivid example of quite advanced astronomical understanding already in the early Bronze Age.
The annual solar motions proposed by [
With onset of the Bronze Age, the Phallus cult rapidly spread over Scandinavia. This is most vividly seen in rock-carvings at different places all over Sweden, the most well-known example coming from Bohuslän in SW Sweden. The Phallus cult has clear roots in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Studies in southern Sweden [
Ancient harbours along the Portuguese coast are indicative of long-distance travel by eastern Mediterranean sailors [
Bronze Age all the way to the Azores are suggested by new observations [
This supports the conclusion by [
In conclusion, we trust we have shown that travel and trading in the Bronze Age was intensive and occurred over long distances. Cultural and trading influences from the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East regions occurred partly over land and via rivers, and partly by huge ships over the open seas. The travel that sets the start of the Scandinavian Bronze Age must have been over the open seas, however (
The ships images occurring as rock-carvings in Sweden must represent huge ships because they have a continuous log-keel extending forward in a pronounced battle-frame. Usually, the bow and stern are formed in the shape of impressive dragons. The ships seem to have been manned by a big crew (in a ship at Brastad, for example, one can count 36 persons). These ships must be built for open sea travels (as they are far to large and heavy for travel via river systems, which includes the pulling/pushing over land-bridges).
Very advanced understanding of astronomy and utilization of this knowledge in order to measure time of the year and time of the day seem to be firmly established in Northern European Bronze Age culture already at about 1750 BC (Figures 10-17); i.e. at the onset of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia and Northern Europe (
The Golden Sky Dome here presented in a new understanding includes the turning up-side-down of an assumed bowl (urn) so that it becomes a dome (
There can be no doubts that we in Swedish Bronze Age archaeology find not only evidence of long-distance travel and trading, but also deep cultural influences from Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean region (
We declare no conflict of interest. The paper was linguistically checked by Doctor Pamela Matlack-Klein, Appomattox, Virginia, USA. We acknowledge useful comments from two anonymous reviewers.
Mörner, N.-A. and Lind, B.G. (2018) Astronomy and Sun Cult in the Swedish Bronze Age. International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 8, 143-162. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijaa.2018.82010