|
 |
 |
Country: |
Sweden |
Locality: |
Hägvide |
|
 |
Region: |
Gotland |
Area: |
Lärbro |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Environment & Surface |
 |
 |
 |
|
Open-air
Shelter
Cave
Portable
Megalithic
|
Geography: |
Flat and wide rock surface in the middle of a field. Farmland, pasture. |
Proximity: |
Close to Hägvide farm-house, 300 m from the road to Lärbro-Hellvi. |
|
 |
Geology: |
Limestone. |
Surface: |
Flat, rough surface with cracks and striation. |
Dimensions:
|
Length 10.00 m.
Width 4.00 m.
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Art |
 |
 |
 |
Description: |
Engravings
Paintings
Painted engravings
High or low-relief
Sculpture
Hägvide, Lärbro parish, Gotland. The locality is the largest in Gotland, situated in a field, close to the Hägvide farm-house. There are about 20 ship figures, double-lined of Rörby type, with short crew-strokes and extended stem and stern. There are a number of shafted axes, about 6 foot prints placed in pairs, of which some over or under ship figures. There is a large amount of cup marks, of which several are attached by elongated hollows.
|
Figures: |
20 ship figures
Shafted axes
6 foot prints
Cup marks
|
|
 |
Chronology: |
Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic
Neolithic
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Roman
Middle Age
Modern
Unknown
The South Scandinavian rock carvings are usually dated to the Bronze Age, c. 1800-500 BC, after Montelius six period system, but the weapons and ship figures at Hägvide dates the oldest part of the locality to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, c. 2300-1500 BC. The foot prints and possible some of the cup marks are probably younger.
|
Notes: |
Only three carvings are known in Gotland at this date, In Hägvide, Lärbro parish, Bjerges in Lye and on the island of Fårö. And yet Gotland has an abundant Bronze Age culture. This could be because the limestone is soft and erodes easily, but it can also be that the Bronze Age culture in Gotland developed other ways for the ceremonial and ritual sphere. The Hägvide locality is generally seen as older than the majority of the South Scandinavian rock carvings, dated on basis of the shafted axes from the Late Neolithic/ Early Bronze Age and the ship figures with stylistic similarities with ship figures on datable objects from the Early Bronze Age. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
Bibliography |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Conservation |
 |
 |
 |
Status: |
Public
Private
Park
Classified site
|
Risk: |
The major risk for carvings are chemical weathering, which makes the hard quartzite losen up and fall out, leaving white dots on the darker rock surface. Also natural weathering (mechanical weathering) during winter/spring, when water freeze in cracks and openings in the rock, creates major damage to rock faces with carvings. The biological weathering is also a danger to the rock carvings, and even to intense cleaning of the rock surface during documentation can make the rock fragile and expose the carvings to wind, water and air-born pollution. The few carvings in Gotland have been carried out in limestone, and are subject to severe weathering. |
|
 |
Conservation: |
Good
Quite good
Mediocre
Bad
|
Intervention: |
Occasionally the rock surface are covered with earth and sand to prevent weathering. When there are animals causing damage, fences have being put up around the carved area. The Hägvide carvings have been covered by sand and earth. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
By |
 |
|
|
Record n. 773 / 807 |
No commercial use is allowed. Specific © is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution |
|
|
 |
EuroPreArt, European Prehistoric Art, is a web-based archaeological project funded by the European Union which aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art.
It is proposed by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT, Portugal),
CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Italy - Europe),
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España),
Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón (España),
Université de Liège (Belgique),
Gotland University College (Sverige),
University College Dublin (Eire),
Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Italia),
Study Centre and Museum of Prehistoric Art of
Pinerolo (Italia),
The European Centre for Prehistoric Research in the Alto Ribatejo (Portugal),
ArqueoJovem - a youth NGO (Portugal).
|
|
|
 |
|