Sanda 53:1
DatedEst. 2000 BCE–800 CE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Sanda 53:1 is a stone circle in Region Gotland, Sweden. It lies at 57.4002° N, 18.2271° E.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Sanda 53:1
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sweden has thousands of recorded stone circles, or round stone settings. Stone circles in southern Scandinavia date mostly to the Iron Age, much later than the great circles of Britain, which were built mostly between 3300 and 2500 BCE. In Scandinavia the stone ship, or ship setting, was an early burial custom, with a grave or cremation surrounded by stones, and ships were built from about 1000 BCE to 1000 CE; round settings belong to the same grave-field tradition, often found alongside ships and mounds. The regional background, “Swedish stone circles”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in Sweden are generally dated 2000 BCE to 800 CE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
Swedish stone circles belong to the Bronze Age of the Nordic sphere (c. 2000-500 BC); during the Iron Age stone circles were built in southern Scandinavia whose Germanic Iron Age ends c. AD 800.
Setting
60 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (10 within 1 km, 31 within 5 km), 12 of them of the same type. The site belongs to a dense concentration of monuments. In Region Gotland, Sweden, 207 of the 980 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Sanda 100:1 (0.2 km south-east, megalithic mound); Sanda 50:1 (0.3 km north-west, stone circle); Klinte 4:1 (0.3 km south, megalithic mound); Sanda 47:1 (0.3 km north-east, megalithic mound).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Heritage status: monument in Fornminnesregistret.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Swedish stone circles
Sweden has thousands of recorded stone circles, or round stone settings. Stone circles in southern Scandinavia date mostly to the Iron Age, much later than the great circles of Britain, which were built mostly between 3300 and 2500 BCE. In Scandinavia the stone ship, or ship setting, was an early burial custom, with a grave or cremation surrounded by stones, and ships were built from about 1000 BCE to 1000 CE; round settings belong to the same grave-field tradition, often found alongside ships and mounds.
One site shows the variety. Anundshög near Västerås in Västmanland covers about 215 by 205 metres and comprises 42 archaeological remains: 12 burial mounds, 10 round stone settings, 5 stone ships, 14 standing stones and one runestone. The largest mound, also called Anundshög, is 64 to 68 metres across and 9.2 metres high, and charcoal from a hearth at its base was radiocarbon dated to between 210 and 540 CE. Together the stones, mounds and ships show that round stone settings and ship settings stood side by side in the same cemeteries.
Dates are rarely secure. Where a setting has been excavated, its date comes from charcoal and finds, but most are dated only by form and by their neighbours.
When visiting, look for circles in grave fields beside mounds and ship settings, and for the kerb of a collapsed mound.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Stone circle, Wikipedia: Ship setting, Wikipedia: Anundshög, Wikipedia: Nordic Bronze Age · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2000 BCE–800 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for stone circles in Sweden; this site has not been dated itself. Swedish stone circles belong to the Bronze Age of the Nordic sphere (c. 2000-500 BC); during the Iron Age stone circles were built in southern Scandinavia whose Germanic Iron Age ends c. AD 800.Source for this date
Where it stands
Sweden
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 57°24′01″ N, 18°13′38″ EFor a GPS or map app: 57.40020, 18.22709
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Sanda 100:12000 BCE–1050 CE
- Stone circleSanda 50:12000 BCE–800 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Klinte 4:12000 BCE–1050 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Sanda 47:12000 BCE–1050 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Sanda 51:12000 BCE–1050 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Sanda 49:12000 BCE–1050 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Sanda 48:12000 BCE–1050 CE
Rannarve grave field1000 BCE–1000 CE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q29340236wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q29340236CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0