TY - JOUR
T1 - The Kalvestene
T2 - a reevaluation of the ship settings on the Danish Island of Hjarnø
AU - Sebo, Erin
AU - Wiseman, Chelsea
AU - McCarthy, John
AU - Baggaley, Paul
AU - Jerbic, Katarina
AU - Benjamin, Jonathan
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The ship setting site on the island of Hjarnø, known as the Kalvestene (“the calf stones”), is a grave field made up of ten small ship settings dating to the Viking Age. Although it is a comparatively small site, textual evidence suggests that, surprisingly, the Kalvestene were well-known, at least in some parts of medieval Scandinavia. The site is unusual among Danish grave fields in that all the settings are ship shaped, with no surviving circle, oval, or triangle settings, mounds, or other monument types. It has been assumed that this anomaly is due to natural erosion and anthropogenic intervention because Ole Worm’s 1650 description and drawing of the site indicates there were once more than twenty settings, including circle settings. This article reconsiders that assumption using a range of interdisciplinary approaches and evidence. It critically analyzes medieval and early modern written records and surveys previous studies of this site (including those unpublished), offers a reinterpretation of geophysical data alongside aerial photogrammetric and LiDAR data, and presents the results of our survey of the Kalvestene. In particular, we aim to answer three questions: how accurate is Worm's study? How do the ship settings at Hjarnø compare to other Danish ship settings? And, why were the Kalvestene famous?
AB - The ship setting site on the island of Hjarnø, known as the Kalvestene (“the calf stones”), is a grave field made up of ten small ship settings dating to the Viking Age. Although it is a comparatively small site, textual evidence suggests that, surprisingly, the Kalvestene were well-known, at least in some parts of medieval Scandinavia. The site is unusual among Danish grave fields in that all the settings are ship shaped, with no surviving circle, oval, or triangle settings, mounds, or other monument types. It has been assumed that this anomaly is due to natural erosion and anthropogenic intervention because Ole Worm’s 1650 description and drawing of the site indicates there were once more than twenty settings, including circle settings. This article reconsiders that assumption using a range of interdisciplinary approaches and evidence. It critically analyzes medieval and early modern written records and surveys previous studies of this site (including those unpublished), offers a reinterpretation of geophysical data alongside aerial photogrammetric and LiDAR data, and presents the results of our survey of the Kalvestene. In particular, we aim to answer three questions: how accurate is Worm's study? How do the ship settings at Hjarnø compare to other Danish ship settings? And, why were the Kalvestene famous?
KW - burial
KW - Iron Age
KW - medieval Scandinavia
KW - stone ship
KW - Viking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105108836&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15564894.2021.1900955
DO - 10.1080/15564894.2021.1900955
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105108836
SN - 1556-4894
VL - 18
SP - 147
EP - 163
JO - Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
JF - Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
IS - 1
ER -