--- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> from:
>
> Erling Albrectsen
>
> Fynske Jernaldergrave I: Førromersk Jernalder, Einar Munksgaard,
1954
>
> [Iron Age Graves from Fyn: Pre-Roman Iron Age]
>
> "
>
> VI Conclusion
>
> ...
>
> This new material from Fyn >
> In other words, Albrectsen is puzzled that there is gap in finds
> between South and Southwest Jutland and those in Jutland north of
the
> Limfjord and in the east. Now, I speculate, does that possibly mean
> that South and South West Jutland were Celtic and the eastern and
> nothern "cultural sphere" was (proto-) Germanic (ie. pre-Sciri and
> Bastarnae Germanic)? Perhaps Albretsen's "mid-Germanic" is Celtic?
> South and South Western Jutland are those areas of Jutland where
> gender has disappeared in Danish, as it has in English, which has
> (also?) a Celtic substrate.
>
> Torsten
Trying to follow the discussion of Goths and Getae, this website and
article showed up.
Q: The dates for the graves seem to be quite early, as well as the
ability to align them.
Any validity here ?
Ravi
http://gotland.luma.com/Uppsala.html
The Great Pagan Midwinter Sacrifice
and the Royal Mounds at Uppsala
(by Göran Henriksson, Astronomical Observatory in Uppsala, extract
from article in Tor 27)
According to the established interpretation, the great pagan
midwinter sacrifice in Uppsala took place every ninth year. After the
introduction of Christianity, this tradition was preserved by the
Disting (Disa Thing), which included an assembly and a market.
By combining historical data and calculations of the dates of the
full moons within the Disting period, it has been possible to
establish the exact years of the cycle, for example, AD 852 the same
year as St. Ansgar's second missionary journey to Birka.
At the end of the 17th century, the Uppland farmers were still using
King Aun's rule, according to which the phases of the moon in the
Julian calendar fell a day earlier after 304 years. Such
displacements in the eihgt- year cycle took place in 1692, 1388,
1084, 780 and 476. The semi-legendary King Aun is considered to have
reigned about AD 450-500 and was buried in Uppsala. The three "royal"
burial mounds there have been dated by Sune Lindqvist to AD 450-550.
Summary of the article
Old Uppsala (Gamla Uppsala), a few kilometres north of the modern
city of Uppsala, was the old, Swedish, heathen cult-centre, famous
for its three, large, "royal", burial mounds. In 1986, I noticed that
these three mounds had been carefully aligned and had the same
orientation as the majority of the Swedish passage graves. It was
also possible to relate this orientation to the lunisolar calendar
that was used to determine the date of the periodic sacrifice of
humans and animals at the midwinter full moon every eight years,
according to the lunar, eight- year cycle. Representatives from the
whole country had to take part in this sacrifice, in which 72 males -
one human and seven animals - were hanged in a holy tree every day
for nine days.
The oldest description of this sacrifice was written by a German
missionary, Adam of Bremen, in 1075. According to him, there was a
great sacrifice in Uppsala every ninth year, but this interval is
probably due to a misunderstanding. In the old Nordic language, the
first year was counted from the first day of that year and after
eight years the ninth year was reached. Therefore the meaning of the
text is that this sacrifice took place every eighth year, as we would
say.
The three mounds are oriented in the direction in which the sun set
on 3 November and 8 February. In ancient Sweden, the year started at
the first new moon after the 21st of October, according to the modern
calendar. This means that the first full moon of the year could
earliest appear at the 4th of November, only one day after the sun
set in the direction in which the northern sides of the three mounds
were oriented. This difference is insignificant, because the dates of
the full moon were computed by runic-calendar sticks (runstavar) with
the full moon marked only at 19 fixed dates within each month.
Three lunar months later, on 8 February, the sun sets again in the
same direction. Another three lunar months later, on 29 April, the
sun rises in the opposite direction. Every 19th year, the moon will
be full on all three of these days.
By comparing historical events with computations of full moons, it
has been possible to identify the unique, eight- year cycle for this
important midwinter sacrifice (Henriksson 1991, 1992). It took place
at the full moon that occurred in our calendar between 28 January and
26 February, the so-called Disa Thing period (Distingsperioden). The
first day of the sacrificial period, 28 January, may have been
defined by observations of the setting sun at the top of Tunåsen, the
highest natural hill in the otherwise flat landscape, from an upright
stone on Tingshögen, the fourth large but flat mound.
The same dates were already important in the Neolithic calendar that
was marked by grooves in the bed rock on the island of Gotland in the
Baltic and by the orientation of the passage graves in Västergötland.
The oldest were made on 27 January 3294 BC and the passage graves can
be dated to 3300 BC (Henriksson 1983,1985, 1989, 1992, 1994).
On the last day, 26 February, the sun set on top of the originally
smaller, Middle Mound, the oldest of the three "royal" mounds. This
mound has been dated by Sune Lindqvist to AD 450-500 and may be the
tomb of the semi-legendary King Aun or Ane the Old, who is believed
to have reigned sometime in this period, (Lindqvist 1955). There was
a 304-year period, called Aun's period after this king, at the
beginning of which the full moon would occur one day earlier in the
Julian calendar, (Rudbeck 1689). Such an event took place in the year
1692.
Counting backwards in 304-year intervals, we arrive at the year 476
as a likely starting-point for the cycle, if it is to be connected
with King Aun. This would mean that the Julian calendar
must have been introduced into Sweden no later than this year
(Henriksson 1992).
For more information please contact
tore.gannholm@...