Björkö ( Swedish for "

Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

Island") is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Lake Mälaren A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

in eastern-central

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It is mostly famous for housing the excavation site

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continent ...

populated c. AD 750-975, together with

Hovgården Hovgården is an archaeological site on the Lake Mälaren island of Adelsö in Ekerö Municipality in central-eastern Sweden. During the Viking Age, the centre of the prospering Mälaren Valley was the settlement Birka, founded in the mid-8th ce ...

Adelsö Adelsö is an island in the middle of Lake Mälaren in Sweden, near Björkfjärden. The island is part of Ekerö Municipality and Stockholm County. It is about by ferry and road west of downtown Stockholm. The administrative center of the impo ...

declared a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in 1993. Located just south of Adelsö and west of

Ekerö Ekerö is a locality (urban area) and the seat of Ekerö Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 11,524 inhabitants in 2017. It is also an alternative name of the island Ekerön, on which the Ekerö urban area is situated. Sports The ...

and

Munsö Munsö is a village and a former island (the latter is also known as Munsön) in Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm County in Sweden. Because of post-glacial rebound, this island in Lake Mälaren is now connected to the island Ekerön. The village h ...

islands, it is one of the islands in

Ekerö Municipality Ekerö Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in the Provinces of Sweden, province of Uppland in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. The name derives from the name of the main island within the municipality whose name is ...

History

The oldest of the ancient remains on the island is the ruins of a shrine, which was unearthed in the area of highest elevation on the island. In ancient Germanic the text found on stone structures there refers to something or someone known as “the one” or “the harbinger.” The shrine comprises nine stone structures, of which two are

burnt mound A burnt mound is an archaeological feature consisting of a mound of shattered stones and charcoal, normally with an adjacent hearth and trough. The trough could be rock-cut, wood-lined or clay-lined to ensure it was watertight. Radiocarbon d ...

s and one is a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

known as ''Ingas grav'' ("Grave of Inga"). Their character and elevated location indicate they belonged to a temporary

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlement (1800-500 BC), by people who visited the island for seasonal hunting and fishing.Bratt The first permanent settlement on the island dates back to the late

Germanic Iron Age The archaeology of Northern Europe studies the prehistory of Scandinavian Peninsula, Scandinavia and the adjacent North European Plain, roughly corresponding to the territories of modern Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Northern Germany, Poland, the Net ...

(400-800 AD). A small burial ground containing some 15 graves on the north-eastern part of the island known as ''Ormknös'' is possibly the remains of a small settlement pre-dating Birka by less than a century. It is possible the burial ground belonged to the village on the island, ''Björkö by'', together with two other burial grounds: ''Grindbacken'', north of the village with 25 graves, and ''Kärrbacka'', south of the village with 45 graves. The latter of these sites contains

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

s and thus indicates the village coexisted with Birka, survived it, and continues to exist. There were nine farmyards in the village until around 1900, when four of them had to move, and three remain today. Most of the existing buildings are from the early 20th century, with a few individual buildings which are a century or so older.

Birka

Birka settlement originated around 800 AD on the shores of the strait separating Björkö and Adelsö, today a pasture-ground known as ''Bystan'' covering some 12 ha. The area is still delimited by the ancient defensive earthwork, which once must have stretched farther south to the

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

at ''Borgberget''. In the water adjacent to Birka are the remains of poles believed to have served as a naval defense line. Around the earthwork three large burial grounds belonging to Birka have been found. The north-easternmost and largest is ''Hemlanden'' with some 1,600 graves; south of Birka are two smaller burial grounds: ''Borgs hage'' with 250 graves and ''Kvarnbacka'' with 185 graves. Approximately 1,100 of the 2,000 Birka graves have been excavated. The archaeological finds from the excavations are held by

Swedish Museum of National Antiquities The Swedish History Museum () is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden, that covers Swedish archaeology and cultural history from the Mesolithic period to present day. Founded in 1866, it operates as a government agency and is tasked with preservi ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

In 1834, a thousand years after

Ansgar Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishopric of Bremen, Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the ...

visited the island, the so-called "Ansgar Cross" was erected at ''Borgberget'', and a hundred years later the "Ansgar Chapel" was built just east of the village. The small chapel was constructed using

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and has a

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, and a tower. During

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

, three large gates are opened to allow for an open-air sermon. The chapel is richly adorned with paintings and sculptures by several well-known Swedish artists. Today, large parts of the northern island have been bought by the Swedish government in order to protect the remains. The area is administered by the

Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board (; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture. The goals of the agen ...

(''Riksantikvarieämbetet''), which is attempting to conserve and restore the landscape.''Besöksmål''
(Stockholms Läns Museum)

References

Sources

* * Ambrosiani, Björn and Bo G. Erikson: ''Birka vikingastaden'' (Höganäs: Wiken, 1992) * Harrison, Dick ''Sveriges historia – medeltiden'' (Falköping, 2002) * Lindqvist, Herman ''Historien om Sverige. Fran islossning till kungarike'' (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1996) *Wahl, Mats ''Folket i Birka. På Vikingarnas tid '' (Stockholm: BonnierCarlsen, 1999) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bjorko, Ekero Islands of Mälaren Archaeological sites in Sweden Geography of Stockholm County Tumuli in Sweden Ekerö Municipality

History

Birka

See also

References

Sources