Anundshög, a Viking Burial Site

 On our country drive, we just happened upon a mini-Stonehenge, but one we could actually walk up to and touch.  We were happy to see that it was free with free parking as well.  The burial mound is the largest in Sweden at a diameter of 200 feet and a height of 30 feet.  It reminded us of a pre-Columbian Native American burial mound in Cahokia, near St. Louis, Missouri.  

Anundshög is dated to between A.D. 210 and 540.  We're lucky if things are more than 100 years old in Alberta!

Welcome to Anundshög.  Open 24/7.

We can touch these ancient stones!  Some people even climbed on them.

A mini-Stonehenge for sure, but a little more modern.

"Did you ever take a walk through the forest . . . Stop and dream a while among the trees . . . You can look up through the trees right straight to heaven . . . You can almost hear the voice of God in each and every breeze"

"You've got to stop . . . and smell the roses . . . you've got to count your many blessings every day . . . You're going to find the road to heaven is a rough and rocky road . . . If you don't stop and smell the roses along the way."  

I love that song that was on the radio when I was a teenager.  Every time we're in a forest, we sing that song.

Now we're at the burial mound.

It's not as high as the burial mound at Cahokia but still impressive.

We're on top of the mound looking down on the "stone ships."  Rocks were placed in the shape of a ship and burials took place within the shape.

It's chilly on top of the mound.  Am glad for my winter coat even though the temperature isn't that cold.  It's humid.

Looking out toward winter wheat from the top of the mound.

A huge runestone complete with runes.

The stone says that "Folkvid raised all of these stones after his son Heden, Anund's brother Vred carved the runes."

We're inside the stone ship now.  There are 8 stone ships surrounding the main burial mound.

Goodbye ancient stones.

We took this picture so that our neighbors, Faye and Danny Beyer, could see how Swedes preserve their hay bales.  We wondered what they did as it's so wet here and we saw hay fields cut but not baled.  Then we saw these bales all covered in white plastic.  Maybe it's like silage?