Thingstead

I did an interesting excursion to an ancient Thingstead situated exactly half way across the southern part of my island, Öland called "Tingstad flisor", meaning Thingstead slates. It was used during ancient times as a meeting place for the people in the region where everything concerning everyday life could be dealt with, like border disputes, right to trade goods, criminal accusations, seeking advice in various matters, probably also trials and maybe even executions. Perhaps there were manhood games and competitions to entertain the crowd or to settle some divergencies.

Nobody knows when these enormous slates of stone were put here. They are three metres high, about one and a half metres wide and twenty centimeters, or so, thick. They must weigh several tons! They are placed about hundred and fifty metres apart and placed in 90 degrees angle to each other, the southern stone is north/south oriented and the north stone east/west. Some theories say they might have been uses as sundials, showing when the meeting started and when it ended. Long ago they were visible from both shores of the island. Today trees and juniper bushes are slowly taking over the landscape and you can't see them as clearly anymore. I could see the east coast sea today through my binoculars but there were too many trees in the way to see the west coast. They are believed to be from sometime during our Nordic brons age, that started some 1500 years before zero.

The place is really special and well chosen, as most Thingsteads are. Half of our wandering group decided to sleep over by the stones and had brought their tents but I was in the half who decided not to, mostly because of the bad weather towards the evening and night. When we left them about five thirty it had begun to drizzle and during the night it's going to rain quite a lot. I'm just not looking for that kind of experiences anymore, I like them to be pleasant ones.

The extra shows a general view over the landscape at Alvaret, the big plain on the south half of the island.