The Fröslunda Shields and area around ❤️

The shields are some truly high-status objects that were probably left as offerings to the gods during the last trembling part of the Bronze Age. One can well imagine that they were previously kept hanging on the walls of a magnificent temple to the gods. The place where the finds were made is called Fröslunda - a fantastic name as it means that it is a place of sacrifice dedicated to the god of habits Frey.

The very thin shields are made of hammered bronze and are beautifully decorated. When they were found, they were lying on and next to each other on an area of only four m² and were probably sunk in a shallow bay belonging to Lake Vänern. The Fröslunda shields were made around 700-500 BC.

In Sweden, a similar shield has been found in Nackhälle north of Tvååker in Halland, in today's Denmark nine have been found and in all of Europe another twenty or so. In Fröslunda there was thus a third of these unique shields, the largest find in the whole world...

They are said to have been made south, in Austria, and then imported to Västergötland, but this is probably more of a speculation. The shields were given their own room at the Västergötland Museum in Skara.

At Fröslunda Farm you can see the ruins of the main building of a medieval farm that measured 28 x 8 m - a memorial stone now stands in the garden. According to FMIS, a new house was built on the site in 1970, and it is stated that a number of children's graves were found during the construction.

Stenhusbacken is a large burial ground with over 100 graves, located about 700 m southeast of Fröslunda farm and right next to the road up to Läckö. Up here on the hill there has been an older settlement, and perhaps this is where the people who made shield sacrifices lived - the Vaners?

The burial ground is large, 450 x 330 meters, and consists of a rock coffin, a trident, sixteen burial mounds, about seventy stone settings, three judges' rings, a square stone circle, a rectangular stone setting and seven standing stones that have now fallen over.

But there must have been more graves here, because on the western side of the hill there are hundreds of lump stones that look like they were rolled down from the burial ground, probably to provide space for cultivation...

Strangely enough, at the top of the hill there is a larger water-bearing pond. This is said to be a place of sacrifice.

A smaller, stone-lined water source on the burial ground.

Thats the description of the area were they found this amazing Shields

Have one amazing day everyone  

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