Stone circle (Iron Age)

The stone circles of the Iron Age (c. 500 BC – c. 400 AD) were a characteristic burial custom of southern Scandinavia and Southwestern Finland, especially on Gotland and in Götaland.

They should not be confused with earlier bronze age and neolithic Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany.

A tradition of making stone circles existed on the European continent in Wielbark culture near the mouth of the Vistula River in the first century.

[citation needed] Even if knowledge that the stone circles were graves was later lost, it was still fresh in the 13th century as testified in these lines by Snorri Sturluson in the introduction of the Heimskringla:[1][2] As to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age of Burning; because all the dead were consumed by fire, and over their ashes were raised standing stones.

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.