Rannarve, skeppssättning

Just north of Klintehamn, you will find these four sailing stone ships. Further into the forest there is also a Bronze Age cairn.

Both cairns and ships are graves. Cairns often have several people buried in them. Ship sites have often been the burial place of one person.

The stones in the ships here at Gannarve are large and heavy. It must have taken a lot of work to get them into place. I wonder who they were built for?

During the excavations, archaeologists found a burial urn with burnt bones. The pot resembled a small hut with a door and roof. Inside the pot were two miniature bronze knives.

When the ships were built, the dead were burned. The bones were collected from the funeral pyre and placed with the grave goods in a pot, which was then buried in the ship or close by. Sometimes the funeral pyre was on the ship site itself.

There are many ship sites on Gotland but almost none elsewhere. We do not know why they chose to build stone ships as burial sites.

Good to know for you as a visitor

• The road down to Rannarve is rough, not suitable for buses.
• The ship saddles are not visible from the parking lot but are located just next door.