Stone ship

“Tjelvar’s grave”, Boge, Gotland, Sweden, 1938

Tjelvar’s Grave is one of the best preserved stone ship settings in Gotland. According the legend Tjelvar, the first man lived in Gotland, is buried there. Archaeologists have dated the grave to made in the late Bronze Ages, 1100-500 BC.

Tjelvar’s grave is 18 metres long and 5 metres wide. The height of the gunwale stones diminishes towards the centre of the ship, which has also been filled with stones to form a boat-deck. A plundered stone-slab coffin, containing cremated bones and a few potsherds, was uncovered in an excavation in the 1930s.

More info on stone ships. 

Photo by Mårten Stenberger, from the Flickr photoset of the Swedish National Heritage Board, via First Time User.