Stone Enclosures —Linking Time and Guiding Space

From the late Roman Iron Age, stone enclosures and houses with a stone foundation have been built on Gotland. Stone enclosures have generally been interpreted as fences between the infields and the outlying land. I will argue that this explanation is insufficient and that we also have to consider t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kerstin Cassel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Svenska Arkeologiska Samfundet 1996-12-01
Series:Current Swedish Archaeology
Online Access:https://193.10.12.85:443/csa/article/view/1084
Description
Summary:From the late Roman Iron Age, stone enclosures and houses with a stone foundation have been built on Gotland. Stone enclosures have generally been interpreted as fences between the infields and the outlying land. I will argue that this explanation is insufficient and that we also have to consider the enclosures' symbolic and social significance. The stone enclosures were part of people's everyday practice as they moved through the landscape, and the enclosures structured the reality. The stone enclosures can be seen as both linking and separating, and one interpretation put forward is that the enclosures "embody" the social structure.
ISSN:1102-7355
2002-3901