Öland and Kalmar - Part 2 - Skeddemosse (21-May)

The next morning we woke and got ready for a big day.  The rugby game started in Kalmar that afternoon so we had a little time to explore.

Our first stop was Skedemosse on Öland.  The site was a sacrificial bog from the Iron Age. It was drained (but we didn't know that) and excavated in 1959 and many weapons and skeletons (human and animal were found), likely sacrificed from boats on the bog.  Most of the bones were horse bones, but at least 30 sets of human bones (child and adult) were found, as well as seven gold rings (weighing 1.3kg together).  It was a sacred lake and site of sacrifice from 400BC to 1100AD.

Map of the walk around Skedemosse - we did the 5km walk

The walk itself was beautiful - the weather was perfect and the flowers were coming out, making some awesome colour combinations:

Panoramic of the purple and yellow field

One of the other sites were the old stone walls used to mark the fields:

Stone Wall

Stone Wall

A clearing surrounded by forest

Hiking and exploring

Skedemosse Sacrifical Bog

The site of the Bog

The above photos show the sacrificial bog - well the original site of it.  We were a little disappointed to find out (after a 5km hike) that the bog was now just a meadow, but as with most of the places we have visited, it was a bit awe-inspiring to consider the history behind the place and how it must have been back in 400AD.

The sign by the bog site read:
"Skedemosse was the biggest, most important sacrificial site on Öland for a long time, from 400BC until the early Middle Ages, around the 12 century AD. One of the archaeological finds in Skedemosse is the skull of a young man who was beaten to death. It was found along with the remains of 37 other battered human bodies and a number of horses and cattle.  Archaeologists have also recovered gold objects, intentionally broken weapons and bone remenants from sacrificial meals. All sacrifices were submerged in the lakes waters.  Skedemosse is a part of our cultural heritage, protected by law."

Crossing the canal

The canal

The canal above has the following sign:
"You are standing at a canal that was dug in the mid-17th century to drain the lake in Skedemosse, on the command of future king Charles X Gustav (1622-1660). Skedemosse was once one of Öland's biggest lakes, a remnant of the ancient Ancylus Lake, which gradually shrank to form the Baltic Sea. The sea wall here served as a damn, preventing the water from flowing out into the Baltic. Legend has it that Charles X Gustav himself headed the draining of the lake, spade in hand, and quenched the worker's thirst with beer from the royal cellar at Borgholm Castle.

The final leg of the trek!