Käringsjön. A Fertility Sacrificial Site from the Late Roman Iron Age in South-west Sweden

Abstract

In the beginning of the 1940s the sacrificial site at Käringsjön, in Halland, south-west Sweden, was investigated by Holger Arbman and Erik Floderus. Some years later the archaeological results were presented by Arbman in an exhaustive publication. Since then the site has been regarded as a typical example of the sacrificial sites used by the peaceful agrarian populations in the practice of the fertility cult. In this paper Käringsjön is brought up to renewed discussion. This is done i.a. by means of a structural analysis, in which is shown a very conscious use of the site. The sacrificial depositions are seen to closely correspond to the annual changes of the sun's movement in the sky when rising and setting on the horizon. It is here suggested that the sacrifices took place not only during different seasons but also at different times during the twenty-four hour day. Finally, the paper also deals with the questions of whether Käringsjön should be seen as a sacrificial site of local or of regional importance, and why the site was suddenly abandoned around 400 A.D.