Anundshög (also ''Anundshögen'' and ''Anunds hög'') is a

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

near

Västerås Västerås ( , , ) is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 154,049. Västerås ...

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ), is a historical Swedish province, or ''landskap'', in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "(The) Land of the Western Men", where the "western men" (''västerm ...

, the largest in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. It has a diameter of and is about high. Assessments of the era of the mound vary between the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

and the late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

. A fireplace under it has been dated by

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

to sometime between AD 210 and 540. Some historians have associated the mound with the legendary King

Anund Anund sv, Bröt-Anund meaning ''trail-blazer Anund'' or ''Anund the Land Clearer''; alternate names ''Brøt-Anundr'' (Old Norse#Old East Norse, Old East Norse) or ''Braut-Önundr'' (Old Norse#Old West Norse, Old West Norse) was a semi-legen ...

, while others regard this as speculative. It is purported also that the name is taken from the large

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

at the site, (Vs 13) the central stone in a row of 15 alongside the mound, re-erected in the 1960s and apparently marking out the route of the

Eriksgata Eriksgata (i.e. "Erik's Road") is the tour traditionally taken in the Middle Ages by a newly-elected Swedish king through the important provinces of the realm to have his election confirmed by the local thing (assembly), assemblies. The actual ele ...

. The inscription on the runestone reads: : + fulkuiþr + raisti + stainn + þasi + ala + at + sun + + sin + hiþin + bruþur + anutaʀ + uraiþr hik + runaʀ : "Folkvid raised all of these stones after his son Heden, Anund's brother. Vred carved the runes."Magnús Magnússon, ''Vikings!'', New York: Dutton, 1980,
p. 98
At the foot of the mound are 2 large

stone ship The stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom in Scandinavia, Northern Germany, and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by slabs or stones in the shape of a boat or ship. The ships vary in size and were e ...

s placed end to end, and long. The site was a

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

-place and the ship settings may be associated with this function.''Vendel Period Studies: Transactions of the Boat-Grave Symposium in Stockholm, February 2–3, 1981'', ed.

Jan Peder Lamm Jan Peder Lamm (27 October 1935 – 15 June 2020), was a Swedish archaeologist. He received his Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Stockholm for a dissertation about a Migration Period elite cemetery near Drottningholm. Lamm taught archaeology ...

and Hans-Åke Nordstrom, Statens Historiska Museum Studies 2, Stockholm: Statens Historiska Museum, 1983,
p. 130
File:Anundshög, Västerås1002.jpg, Stone ships File:Anundshög, Västerås1000.jpg, Anundshög runestone, Vs 13 File:Anundshög, Västerås1010.jpg, Runestone and some of the line of stones marking

References

External links

Anundshög homepage
*Jouni Tervalampi

Vikingarnas landskap,

Fotevikens Museum The Foteviken Museum ( sv, Fotevikens Museum) is an archaeological open-air museum on the Höllviken peninsula in southern Skåne, Sweden. It contains a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement and a "viking reservation", and visitors p ...

Anundshögen
Runstenar i Sverige, Swedish National Heritage Board {{DEFAULTSORT:Anundshog Archaeological sites in Sweden Västmanland Kurgans Germanic archaeological artifacts Geography of Västmanland County Buildings and structures in Västmanland County Tourist attractions in Västmanland County