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Ales stenar (Ale's stones)
– one of the most visited attractions in
Sweden “Between
the sea and heaven cants the coast there
Ale raised a giant ship of stones, recumbent
where the glare of light dispersed, in
the darkened stillness of the forms reconciles, a
saga obscured shrouded to the tones of the
Baltic, a
memorial whose secret alone it conceals.”
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Ale
stenar is among the most popul-ar attractions in Skåne; a place of
such
magnificence that Swedish Ra-dio-listeners voted it as one of
Swe-den's Seven Wonders. Every year more than 700 000 people make their way up here, to
be astonished and to enjoy the views across the sea and the
countryside. Nobody knows for sure what Ales stenar is. What we do know is that this 67 metre long megalith monu-ment comprises 59 stones, each weighing as much as 2 tonnes. |
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Restoration and excavation The
monument was first restored in 1916 when fallen stones were raised and
some others were returned to their original posi-tion in the ship. The
site was subjected to major restoration work in 1956. By then soil erosion
had almost completely buried the stones under a layer of sand.
The
mystic Archaeologists have discovered man-made hollows on
several of the raised stones, round cup-marks a few centimetres across
chiselled into the stone. Although most com-mon on Bronze Age remains,
such cup-marks are known from many monuments and even well into the
twentieth century people occa-sionally used them to deposit offerings.
Many of the hollows are hidden today be-cause they are located at the base
of the stones. The hollows were probably chiselled into these stones before they were dragged up to the ridge. Some of the stones probably originate from ancient graves on the inlands, from dolmens and chambered barrows. The hollows were made when the stones had another location, and with the intention of being visible. |
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Over the centuries this stone monu-ment has been
known by many na-mes. While Ale may sound like a per-sonal name, history
has no record of such a man and some researchers claim that the word
simply means "a ridge", making Ales stenar "the sto-nes on the ridge".
Others maintain that Ale is an ancient word for a temple or sacred
place. The speculation about Ales stenar continues. This monument on the ed-ge between heaven, earth and sea, really fires our imagination. What rites did ancient people perform here? What rites do we perform here today? |
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Ansvarig för sidan: Marie Holmström