Björkö, Ekerö
Encyclopedia
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in Lake Mälaren
Mälaren
Lake Mälaren is the third-largest lake in Sweden, after Lakes Vänern and Vättern. Its area is 1,140 km² and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west...
in eastern-central Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. It is mostly famous for housing the excavation site Birka
Birka
During the Viking Age, Birka , on the island of Björkö in Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö...
populated c. 750-975 CE, together with Hovgården
Hovgården
Hovgården is an archaeological site on the Lake Mälaren island of Adelsö in Ekerö Municipality in central-eastern Sweden. During the Viking Age, the centre of the prospering Mälaren Valley was the settlement Birka, founded in the mid-8th century and abandoned in the late 10th century and located...
on Adelsö
Adelsö
Adelsö is an island in the middle of Lake Mälaren in Sweden, near southern and northern Björkfjärden. The administrative center of the important Viking settlement Birka was situated at Hovgården on Adelsö.-Geography:...
declared a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
in 1993. Located just south of Adelsö and west of Ekerö
Ekerö
Ekerö is a locality and the seat of Ekerö Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 10,322 inhabitants in 2005.Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA fame lives on the island ....
and Munsö
Munsö
Munsö is a village and a former island in Ekerö Municipality, Sweden. Because of post-glacial rebound, this island in Lake Mälaren is now connected to the island Ekerö.The village has a 12th-century round church....
islands, it is one of the islands in Ekerö Municipality
Ekerö Municipality
Ekerö Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. The name comes from the island Ekerö, and literally means "Oak Island". Its seat is located in the town of Ekerö....
.
History
The oldest of the ancient remains on the island is a small burial groundBurial Ground
Burial Ground is the ninth studio album by Swedish death metal band Grave, released in June 2010.-Track listing:# "Liberation" - 3:40# "Semblance In Black" - 7:50# "Dismembered Mind" - 6:10# "Ridden With Belief" - 7:57# "Conquerer" - 4:44...
on the elevated section on the southern part of the island. It encompasses nine stone structures, of which two are burnt mound
Burnt mound
A burnt mound is an archaeological feature consisting of a mound of shattered stones and charcoal, normally with an adjacent hearth and trough. The trough could be rock-cut, wood-lined or clay-lined to ensure it was watertight...
s and one is a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
known as Ingas grav ("Grave of Inga"). Their character and elevated location indicate they belonged to a temporary Bronze Age
Nordic Bronze Age
The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
settlement (1800-500 BCE), by people who visited the island for seasonal huting and fishing.
The first permanent settlement dates back to the late Germanic Iron Age
Germanic Iron Age
The Germanic Iron Age is the name given to the period 400–800 in Northern Europe and it is part of the continental Age of Migrations.-Germanic Iron :...
(400-800 CE). A small burial ground containing some 15 graves on the north-eastern part of the island known as Ormknös is possibly the remains of a small settlement pre-dating Birka with less than a century. It is possible the burial ground belonged to the village on the island, Björkö by, together with two other burial grounds: Grindbacken, north of the village with 25 graves, and Kärrbacka, south of the village with 45 graves. The latter of these sites contains coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
s and thus indicates the village coexisted with Birka, survived it, and continues to exist. There was nine farmyards in the village until around 1900 when four of them had to move, and today three remain. Most of the existing buildings are from the early 20th century, with a few individual buildings a century or so older.
Birka
Birka emanated around 800 on the shores of the strait separating Björkö and Adelsö, today a pasture-ground known as Bystan covering some 12 haHectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
. The area is still delimited by the ancient defensive earthwork, which once must have stretched further south to the hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
at Borgberget. In the waters outside Birka are remains of poles believed to have served as a naval defence line. Around the earthwork three large burial grounds belonging to Birka have been found. The north-easternmost and largest is Hemlanden with some 1.600 graves; south of Birka are two smaller burial grounds: Borgs hage with 250 graves and Kvarnbacka with 185 graves. Approximately 1.100 of the 2.000 Birka graves have been excavated.
In 1834, a thousand years after Ansgar
Ansgar
Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar, was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The see of Hamburg was designated a "Mission to bring Christianity to the North", and Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North".-Life:After his mother’s early death Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and made rapid...
visited the island, the so called "Ansgar Cross" was erected at Borgberget, and a hundred years later the "Ansgar Chapel" was built just east of the village. The reduced chapel is built in sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
and has a choir, a nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
, and a tower. During services
Service of worship
In the Protestant denominations of Christianity, a service of worship is a meeting whose primary purpose is the worship of God. The phrase is normally shortened to service. It is also commonly called a worship service...
, three large gates are opened to allow for an open-air sermon. The chapel is richly adorned with paintings and sculptures by several well-known Swedish artists.
Today large parts of the northern island have been bought by the Swedish State in order to protect the remains. The area is administered by the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) who is attempting to restore the landscape.
See also
- Mälaren ValleyMälaren ValleyThe Mälaren Valley , occasionally referred to as Stockholm-Mälaren Region , is the easternmost part of Svealand, the catchment area of Lake Mälaren and the surrounding municipalities...
- Pre-history and origin of StockholmPre-history and origin of StockholmThe prehistory of Stockholm is the continuous development and series of events that made the mouth of Lake Mälaren strategically important; a location which by the mid 13th century had become the centre of the newly consolidated Swedish kingdom...
- Adelsö ChurchAdelsö ChurchAdelsö Church is a church located on the Lake Mälaren island Adelsö, in Ekerö Municipality in central eastern Sweden.The Romanesque church, itself founded in the 12th century, is located next to Hovgården, an excavation site and a World Heritage Site dating back to before the Viking Age Adelsö...
Sources
- Ambrosiani, Björn and Bo G. Erikson: Birka vikingastaden (Höganäs: Wiken, 1992)
- Harrison, DickDick HarrisonDick Walther Harrison, is a Swedish historian who was born in Huddinge, Stockholm County, Sweden and spent much of his youth in Staffanstorp in Skåne. On June 12, 2010 he married Katarina Lindbergh in Kalmar Cathedral...
Sveriges historia – medeltiden (Falköping, 2002) - Lindqvist, HermanHerman Lindqvist (journalist)Herman Lindqvist is a Swedish journalist who has served as foreign correspondent in many countries and authored a number of popular books on Swedish history. In particular his multiple-volume Historien om Sverige has become very popular, but has also drawn criticism for lacking historical...
Historien om Sverige. Fran islossning till kungarike (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1996) - Wahl, Mats Folket i Birka. På Vikingarnas tid (Stockholm: BonnierCarlsen, 1999)