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6 DISCUSSION To Reconstruct a Sacrificial Site To Reconstruct a Sacrificial Site Aspects of the Iron Age Sacrificial Site at Eketorp Fort, Sweden The article discusses the combination of reconstruction, ex- For a typical family, a day at Eke- example of a reconstruction perimental archaeology and popu- torp fort may look like this: on en- of an Iron Age sacrificial place lar education was realized (Petersson tering the fort, the visitor is greet- in Eketorp, Sweden as well 2003: 209). In 1984, a museum with ed and offered clothes true to the as the limits to what can be finds from the excavations was in- period which they can wear during reconstructed in a Living History augurated. The Central Board of their visit, which is highly appreci- Museum. National Antiquities administered ated. Next, the visitor can try some Eketorp fort until 2001. Since then, it of the crafts and activities that are n Egil JOSEFSON has been assigned to Kalmar County the topic of the day, such as tex- n Jan OLOFSSON Museum (see Fig. 1). tile work or smithing. At certain Eketorp, Sweden times during the day, guided tours The fort’s mission is to make the Iron are performed, some of which start Age and Middle Ages come alive with a short role-play. After such a The site using reconstruction work, guided tour, the visitors can learn archery, Eketorp fort on southern Öland is tours, school programs, role-plays, visit the museum or pet the animals a prehistoric ring fort excavated be- experiments, crafts and common- that graze freely in and around the tween 1964 and 1974. The excava- day activities from those periods. fort. tions showed that the first fort on Approximately 50,000 persons per this location was built in the fourth year visit the fort. So far, Eketorp fort is no great ex- century AD (Eketorp I). About ception from other living history one hundred years later, it was torn What can be museums. The activities carried out down and then re-built on the same with the visitors are to a great ex- spot. The new fifth-century ring fort reconstructed? tent uncontroversial and adapted to (Eketorp II) served as a fortified During the season, several archae- children. Since this goes for more or farmers’ settlement for about 250 ologists are employed, working with less all similar establishments, we years until it was abandoned in the educational activities within archae- have to ask ourselves when recreat- late seventh century (Borg, Näsman, ology. One part of this work is to ing prehistoric times what we actu- & Wegraeus 1976). The fort was used demonstrate and help the visitors ally reconstruct and what we really one last time, from roughly 1170 to participate in every day activities want to reconstruct. Is it a mass- 1240, as a military garrison during and crafts. These activities are, as far produced, cute “light-version” of the the process that led to the creation of as possible, based on our knowledge Iron Age/Middle Ages or is it a ver- the kingdom of Sweden (Borg 2000: of how they were carried out during sion that comes as close as possible 22 pp). the periods in question. To watch to the latest knowledge of these pe- n Fig. 1 The and participate in the characteristic riods? Where are the limits to what reconstructed The reconstruction started in 1978. activities is a way of understanding you can reconstruct? Which can be Eketorp ring As a result, Eketorp fort became the the conditions under which the peo- justified from an ethical point of fort. first location in Sweden where the ple of those times lived (Fig. 2). view? 72 euroREA 3/2006 To Reconstruct a Sacrificial Site DISCUSSION 6 Eketorp and other Klindt- Jensen 1967: 143, Carlie 2002: 659, Josefson 2005: 21p). Iron Age sacrificial sites horse sacrifices are also known from During 2004 and 2005, a great ef- Öland, mainly from the Skedemosse fort was made to illustrate what bog where about 100 horses were an Iron Age sacrificial place might sacrificed at which is interpreted as have looked like on the basis of ex- the central sacrificial place on the is- cavations at Eketorp and other wet- land during the Iron Age (Hagberg land sacrificial places from Northern 1967). There is, therefore, extensive Europe’s Iron Age. material for comparison of South Scandinavian finds of horse bones Excavations showed that sacrifices to that have been interpreted as ritual deities were put in the shallow lake sacrifices. located east of the fort. Although this lake was drained in recent times, a To illustrate small water hole (still there today) was kept open just outside the cur- a horse sacrifice The evidence n Fig. 3 The tain wall to allow grazing animals Ever since Kalmar County Museum This reconstruction is based on the sacrificial place to drink. In 1973, an excavation was took on the responsibility of Eketorp following information. According to just outside the undertaken on the eastern gate of fort, there has been an internal dis- the Arabic tradesman al-Tartuschi, fort. Eketorp II, alongside the edge of the cussion concerning the reconstruc- who visited the market town of waterhole. In 1986, another excava- tion of a sacrificial site and what it Hedeby in AD 950, villagers placed tion was carried out in an area of 18 might have looked like during the animal heads on poles to honour m2 to understand the nature of the Iron Age. Crucial was the question of the gods during feasts that were cel- water hole itself. The material recov- how a horse offering could be illus- ebrated with food and drink (Ström ered from these excavations consists trated. Among the arguments against 1985: 86 p). The custom of consum- of bones from many different ani- the idea were those that suggested ing the horse of a dead man at his mals: horse, cattle, goat/sheep, and that visitors would never accept the funeral was practised among the a large number of hazel rods. Most use of real horse heads. The fear was mounted nomads of the east, such significant are the horse finds which that too many visitors would take of- as the Huns (Görman 1993: 283 p). are mainly represented by crania and fence and that it would be too dis- This practice could have been adopt- leg bones (Edgren & Herschend 2000: gusting for children. We discussed ed by Scandinavians who fought in 21 pp). the possibility of using stuffed horse the Hun army from the third century heads, heads made of wood, and/or to the beginning of the sixth century There are other sites with simi- other materials. Because of this on- AD (Fabech 1989: 114). lar horse bone material found in going debate, no reconstruction of Scandinavia (e.g. Sorte Muld and the sacrificial site was made dur- Anthropological studies of the Altai Ellegård on Bornholm, Rislev Mose ing 2002 and 2003. However, during people from the 1840s are also of- and Vestervig on Zealand (Denmark), 2004 and 2005, we settled the matter ten used to support presumed in- as well as Hjärup, Fredriksberg and and decided to proceed with our re- teraction and influence between Lockarp in Scania (Sweden)). Used construction of the sacrificial site at the mounted nomad peoples and during different parts of the Iron Eketorp based on archaeological ma- Southern Scandinavia. Altai horse Age, these sites range in date from terial, early medieval texts and an- sacrifice involved breaking the ani- the early Roman Iron Age until the thropological studies. Here we will mal’s spine and skinning it so that the Viking Age (Klindt- Jensen 1957: 84, describe the reconstruction made in head, hoofs and hide formed a single 2005, since it was the most complete entity. The hide was then placed on one. an approximately 8.5 m-long pole, with the horse head supported on its The most notable part of the sacrifi- end and the legs hanging down on cial site was the two fresh horses that each side (Radloff 1884b: 20 pp). symbolised the present year’s offer- ing by the Iron Age people (Fig. 3). A similar practice is seen in the saga The heads of these horses were of Egil Skallagrimsson. Here, horse placed on diagonal poles, and their heads are stuck on poles in the pre- tails were put into their mouths. The Christian Norse ritual called nid- horse hides, with the hoofs still at- stång. Specifically, Egil, in his wrath, tached to them, were stretched out erects a hazel pole with a horse head behind their heads. Since the exca- on top and points it toward his en- vations provided no evidence of the emies and then curses them (Alvins edible parts of any horses, it was de- 1938: 150p). n Fig. 2 cided that these were probably re- Archaeologist moved and consumed in a sacrificial At Eketorp, it is interesting that hazel Jannika Grimbe meal in the company of the gods be- rods are found in the same context helps visitors fore the horse hides and heads were as the horse heads. There is, howev- make Iron Age displayed. er, no evidence in the Eketorp exca- glass beads. 3/2006 euroREA 73 6 DISCUSSION To Reconstruct a Sacrificial Site n Fig. 4 Horse time and again. One possibility is we placed the skeletal crania and foot bones arranged that the bones were taken down and bones to broaden the interpretation according to placed directly in the water or ar- of the sacrificial site. finds in south ranged around it (Fig.

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