Astronomy and Sun Cult in the Swedish Bronze Age

Abstract

The Scandinavian Bronze Age started quite rapidly at around 1750 BC, and is marked by three simultaneous events: 1) importation of bronze from the east Mediterranean region, 2) export of amber from southeast Sweden to the east Mediterranean region, and 3) the carving of pictures of big ships on bedrock and boulders in southern Scandinavia. We take this as evidence of travel and trading by people coming from the east Mediterranean region on big ships via Gibraltar and the North Sea to Scandinavia. At the same time, the Sun cult flourished in southern Sweden and Denmark, as evidenced by monuments perfectly oriented with respect to the Sun's daily and annual motions over the sky (e.g. Ales Stones), rock carvings of solar symbols and in solar alignment, and a number of ritual objects related to the Sun Cult (e.g. The Golden Sky Dome). In this paper, we summarize and update available data, especially the data from Southern Sweden.

New Find of Six-Spoke Sun Wheels from the Bronze Age in Scandinavia

“…The two semilunar arcs, we interpret in terms of solar eclipses. So far the interpretations agree well with previously described objects [10] [11].…”

“…A group of 9 six-spoke Sun wheels are shown together with two semilunar arcs. The 9 Sun wheels are obvious analogues to the ones described on "the Golden Sky Dom of Mjövik", the rock carving at Stora Backa in Brastad and from the Sun-temple at Sippar in Mesopotamia as discussed in [10] and [11].…”

“…Ales Stones is a remarkable monument of clear astronomical dimensions in Southern Sweden [2] [9] [11]. The form is a stone ship of 69 meter's length, and it is strictly aligned in NW-SE direction: i.e.…”

“…We have published a number of papers on astronomical monuments and object from the Bronze Age in Sweden [1]- [11], out of those papers the last two [10] and [11] referred to the six-spoke Sun wheel found on "the Golden Sky Dome from Mjövik" in SE Sweden, the rock-carving at Stora Backa at Brastad in SW Sweden and on a stone tablet from the ancient Sun-temple at Sippar in Mesopotamia. All these three objects are from the Bronze Age.…”

“…The six-spoke Sun wheel symbols record the course of a year in six segments all representing 60 days per segment and 360 days in total for the whole year (as further discussed in papers [10] and [11]). It was a novel finding calling for ex-International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics tended research.…”