Gamla Uppsala
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Gamla Uppsala ("Old Uppsala") is a parish and a town outside of Uppsala in Sweden. It has 16 231 inhabitants (1991). It was the seat of the Swedish kings before the Middle Ages and figures extensively in Norse mythology and legends.
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Geographical description
Gamla Uppsala is on flat and cultivated plain along the Fyriså (the plain was formerly called the Fyrisvellir) which is densely populated in the southern part, whereas the northern part consists of farms.
History
Early written sources relate that in prehistoric times Gamla Uppsala was famous all over Northern Europe and the seat of the Swedish kings of the legendary House of Ynglings. During the Middle Ages, it was the largest village of Uppland and its eastern part formed the core of the network of royal estates, the Uppsala öd.
Adam of Bremen relates of the Uppsala of the 1070s and describes it as a pagan cult centre with the enormous Temple at Uppsala with wooden statues of Odin, Thor and Freyr. Gamla Uppsala also had a large Ting, the Ting of all Swedes and a large fair, the Disting (a fair which is still held every year).
Other sources relate of a pagan renaissance in the late 11th century under king Blot-Sweyn. It is a testimony of Gamla Uppsala's great importance in Swedish tradition, that when Sweden received its Archbishopric in 1164, it was located in Gamla Uppsala. In practice, it had, however, lost its strategic importance due to the constant elevation of the land.
In 2000, Sveriges Asatrosamfund [1] (http://www.asatrosamfundet.se/) restarted the tradition of holding blóts at Gamla Uppsala. This was the first public blót at the place for more than 900 years. About 90-100 people attended the event. The event made frontpage news in the local newspaper Uppsala Nya Tidning as well as a full page in Expressen.
Archaeology
People have been buried in Gamla Uppsala for 2000 years, since the area rose above water. originally there were between 2000 and 3000 mounds in the area but most have become farmland, gardens and quarries. Today only 250 barrows remain.
In the parish there are more than 1 000 preserved archaeological remains, but many more have been removed by agriculture. There are cairns of splintered stone that reveal that the area was settled during the Nordic Bronze Age, but most of the grave fields are from the Iron Age and the Viking Age.
The great grave field south of the Royal Mounds is from the Roman Iron Age and the Germanic Iron Age. Near the vicarage, a few unburnt graves from the Viking Age have been excavated.
Adjacent to the church there is a plateau of clay, the Plateau of the Royal Estate (Kungsgårdsplatån), on which archaeologists have found the remains of a large hall.
Under the Church have been found the remains of one or several large wooden buildings, which are probably the remains of the Temple at Uppsala. Churches were usually built on previous pagan temples.
The Royal Mounds
The Royal mounds (Swedish Kungshögarna) is the name for the three large barrows which are located in Gamla Uppsala. They are dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. As Sweden's oldest national symbols they are even depicted on the covers of books about the Swedish national identity.
In the 6th century, Gamla Uppsala was the location of royal burials. The location was chosen carefully and in order to make them majestic, they were constructed on top of the ridge. They were built as symbols the divine origins and powers of the Swedish kings of the House of Yngling. Hundreds of people worked for thousands of days in order to realize such mounds. Only a powerful dynasty, such as the Ynglings could muster such a workforce.
By burning the dead king and his armour, he was moved to Valhalla by the consuming force of the fire. The fire could reach temperatures of 1500 °C. The remains were covered with cobblestones and then a layer of gravel and sand and finally a thin layer of turf.
- Thus he (Odin) established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time. [...] It was their faith that the higher the smoke arose in the air, the higher he would be raised whose pile it was; and the richer he would be, the more property that was consumed with him. (Ynglinga saga)
An old controversy and its solution
In the 1830s, some scholars claimed that the mounds were pure natural formations and not barrows. This affront to ancient Swedish national symbols could not be accepted by the future Swedish king Karl XV and in order to remove any doubt, he decided to start an excavation.
The task was given to Bror Emil Hildebrand, the director-general of the National Archives. In 1846, he undertook the excavation of the nine metres tall Eastern mound with the hope of finding the grave of a Swedish king of old.
The Eastern Mound (or Aun's mound)
The excavation was complex and made a lot of publicity. A 25 metres long tunnel was dug into the cairn, where they found a pot of clay filled with burnt bones and around it there were the remains of the charred grave offerings.
Among the most important finds in the Eastern mound were many fragments of a decorated bronze panels with a dancing warrior carrying a spear. These panels have probably adorned a helmet of the Vendel Age type, common in Uppland (the only foreign example being the one in Sutton Hoo). There were also finds of gold which probably had adorned a scramasax, but according to another interpretation, they were part of a belt. The dead was also given several glass beakers, a tafl, a comb and a hone.
Most scholars agree that the mound was either raised for a woman or for a young man and a woman, but as Hildrebrand reburied most of the remains, a new excavation would have to be undertaken before the controversy can be settled. What is quite certain is that the dead belonged to a royal dynasty.
The Western Mound (or Adils' Mound)
In 1874, Hildebrand started an excavation of the Western mound and opened an enormous shaft right into the cairn in the centre of the mound. Under the cobble stones, there were the charred remains of the funeral fire.
In the western mound were found the remains of a man and animals, probably for food during the journey. The remains of a typically male warrior equipment were found. Luxurious weapons and other objects, both domestic and imported, show that the buried man was very powerful. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and a board game with Roman pawns of ivory. He was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a sumptuous buckle. There were four cameos from the Middle East which were probably part of a casket. The finds show the distant contacts of the House of Yngling in the 6th century.
Etymology
The name Uppsala meant "high dwellings" and referred to the halls of the Swedish kings.
The Church
The church was the Archbishopric of Sweden prior to 1273, when the archbishopric was moved to Östra Aros (Östra Aros was then renamed Uppsala due to a papal request). The old cathedral was probably built in the 11th century, but finished in the 12th century. The stone building may have been preceded by a wooden church and probably by the large Temple at Uppsala. After a fire in 1240, a part of the cathedral was removed but the sacristy and the porch were added. In the 15th century, vaults were added as well as chalk paintings. Among the medieval wooden sculptures, there are three triumph crucifixes from the 12th century, the 13th century and the 15th century.
See also:
External links
- Archeological information Gamla Uppsala (http://www.raa.se/olduppsala/index.asp), by the Swedish National Heritage Board.
- Uppsala (http://www.uppsala.se) official site.
Source
- Klingmark, Elisabeth: Gamla Uppsala, Svenska kulturminnen 59, Riksantikvarieämbetet.
- NationalencyklopedinTemplate:NorseMythologynl:Gamla Uppsala