whole calendars, simple calendar, ships land, crocodile, territorial claim, Himmelstadlund, Leonardsberg, Skepplanda, ritual calendar, cone and sickle, Gladsaxe Skaane, Lappland, slab cist

Let us again look at the Meadow in Haugsbyn to get a picture of calendar rocks in general. They made calendars and other ritual laws for about four thousand years and the tradition of course varies with time and place. However we may see the folk lands everywhere had their own "language" and still all of them have many symbols and ideograms in common.

Nowadays they almost globally standardise our world so that we here expect a round model of the sky and zodiac everywhere. But on our rocks are rectangle, square, round, oval, kidney, half circle, triangles as forms for simple or complicated and sometimes only a part of a calendar.

The Meadow is carved on small rocks in two rows. Between them is an open area of grass. We cannot interpret it as our language with a string of words. However we may understand many symbols and know what they are about. To tell a story about something we usually need a red line to follow and keep the logic together.

Having a model corresponding to the real matter in question is sometimes useful. Although the night sky seems round or as a cup it is still a generalisation but as near as possible to the real sky. However, a circle is not easy to divide in parts. Picturing it in two dimensions narrows the practicable sketching. Other forms than circles were a question of local convention at the time and for us it is a quest for fantasia if we want to understand.

If symbols are abstracted from natural forms in our surrounding, we may easily understand. There is a natural logic in forms and also when they are set together. It is a global language and easier to understand if we know what the message is about.

So we may understand symbols for ALIKE, JUNCTION, TWINS, IBAN, IN ORBIT, IN EARTH, HALF, SNAKE, LEAD, IS, GIVE, UNDER, TOE LEADER, ORBIT IN ORBIT, PATH and so on. As Twins or Geminis are found on the night sky as well as the Snake, we already have a red thread to follow.

If we find more descriptions of the same kind, we may suggest that something have been a convention overall. The rectangular form we find in Jaerestad Skaane but it is too messy to use. But at Himmelstadlund is a rectangular calendar and nearby Leonardsberg has

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The two carvings have Aries in common. In Egypt they picture four Khnums as four corners of the night sky. Nevertheless it is naturally possible that three rams were used to show a trisection of the sky, that become common about the last millennium. The trisection was in use in Egypt and the Levant and we see it in Scandinavia in late carvings. They used the method early in the Indus culture and the Assyrian Empire probably brought it to Europe. During the New Babylonian empire they brought the sitting Shiva and the three-head god to Western Europe and as far as to Scandinavia. Actual as star of the equinox from about 1250 BC onwards was Aries.

From these carvings we see that clear forms or methods make the whole image clearer and easier to try to interpret. Although in these cases understanding the figures is difficult, partly that depends on the poor quality of the picture. The next carving is far easier to understand.

The place is only a little more than a kilometre from the river Gauta Aelv and a kilometre from the Crocodile rock at Skepplanda. We may ask, have a tribe of immigrants settled at Skepplanda (where ships land) and wrote down their ritual calendar. Especially the ships are of a different kind.

This does not lead to conclude that different stiles and figures always are import or have been brought by invaders.

They make the carvings at one occasion and become the ritual law and calendar in Alvhem (Elfhome). Some of the ships associate to Egyptian reed boats. It is only the spread thirty to forty cupmarks at the last group of ships that may be of a later date. They may have been used in a celebration of ancestors' day in November or maybe a Remembrance Day. Normally we see loose cupmarks in spring or after harvest so this late celebration tells about another culture like the Egyptian one. There are twelve groups so thinking about twelve months is easy.

When we look at details, we also associate to Egypt. On the boat at left is a dog's head at left and at the other end cone. In Egypt the dog may be Sirius or Canis Major. A cone was the symbol for the harvested grain, so we may read the boat "from the Sirius dog to Cone". On next figures we se a pair of legs we also find in Egypt so maybe the main issue is underground. At funerals they used a combination of the KA-symbol and a pair of legs under the surface. We may understand both as "to go" and KA is the going spirit and the legs under the surface are the body. The same is happening when the seed is sent away for a journey in the underground.

On this image I suppose that the cone and sickle stands for harvest. The style is not pure Egyptian but surely influenced by the great land in second hand. Dating this is difficult, but as it may be of the same family as the Crocodile we may date it to about 1100 BC.

A few kilometres to the south near a tributary to Gauta Aelv is the Crocodile on a smaller rising rock. It looks like a fish or a Crocodile. We may understand it as symbols for the months if we disconnect them from each other.

The Hand dates it to about 1100 BC. Below the Crocodile is a symbol for "Go" and it is found on late medieval calendar staffs too.

A few kilometres to the south near a tributary to Gauta Aelv is the Crocodile on a smaller rising rock. It looks like a fish or a Crocodile. We may understand it as symbols for the months if we disconnect them from each other.

The Hand dates it to about 1100 BC. Below the Crocodile is a symbol for "Go" and it is found on late medieval calendar staffs too.

The climate of Scandinavia is different to southern Europe and within our sphere as the spring comes a month earlier in south than north. The earliest seed gave perhaps enough gain in Denmark and Skaane. But it could not acclimatise in the north and gave less and less gain according to light and temperature. In Lappland it will not grow because of lack of light. We may suppose that a lot of trials have been done when man tried the inventions from southern cultures.

Spring has always been the real start of the year. Especially in the northern sphere the winter is the transport to spring. In Europe and also between the Indians of America March was the Crow moon. Main rituals start with the spring moon as it is to day in the church. The early medieval church kept the time. That was earlier the job of aldermen or the king or his mate.

We find some simple calendars with only marks for spring and Ramadan. The symbol of spring may be an empty boat or a cup mark shoving that "the flow" has began.

In practise the form of the abstracted year is not important. We need to show that it is a journey with a break point and an apparent end. It starts all again at the break point is the convention.

On a big stone at Gladsaxe Skaane the curved pickaxes are of same type as generally in East Gautaland. We see the typical open circle and some mark on the circle. The rest of the carvings are mostly in a special Skaane style as also East Gautaland has its own style. However, we have two simple kidney-shaped calendars that are much alike.

At Simris 19 Skaane ca 1700 BC wee see a grower year. That we may decide from the symbols in use. At right we see the spring boat and a horse. It is one of the earliest horses known in this combination. The horse is supposed to have come back to northern Europe after 3000 BC. Yet at Troja it is found after 1800 BC. However, the Hittites were early the best equestrians with stud and down written instructions in training horses.

Normally the horse is a late symbol that for an example is in the centre of the Sigurd-carving eleventh century AD. It is also on the reverse on early Danish coins. Comparing the ship to the dated cutlass from Raurby makes the dating. The break and boat below the middle are perhaps sowing time. To the left is the Ramadan break maybe also picturing that the crops' journey is broken.

At the side are two crossed circles often seen at harvest and spelled KA KA or understood the work of "to go" ... in Swedish is the saying "St. Olofsīkaka" that may be a Catholic version of an old saying at harvest.

The carving at St. Johannes Eastgautland is not so clear and there is no sign of growers. A cupmark could although be a sign of spring. At the winter side are two short strokes. Old folks called them goose eyes in my youth. Usually we spell them "the other or the second" alternatively "the other side". That is as when we enclose by quotation marks meaning that we set the sentence outside the main text into another world.

These carvings are from Naemforsen Lappland and have the foot print in common with southern Scandinavia. The elks and most of the other carvings at the rocks are typical for Lappland. Here the footprints stand for a whole year. The right foot has a marked toe perhaps symbol of Perseus, the Engender. In the heel is an empty boat for spring. They symbolise slaughter in autumn with the negative elk, and the other has marked a womb and seems pregnant in winter. The carvings have been completed many times and dating them is difficult. Although from Alta we know that Lappland followed the new age from its beginning ca 4200 BC. Here we see they used the symbol footprints in the same way as on Dal.

We often see this small composition as a detail on carvings. Here we see the empty open boat of the spring season. The footprint with one stroke is summer half and the two stroked is winter half year.

These figures are in centres of a big half circle formed carving at Himmelstadlund Norr-kauping. From the right we see the two quarters of winter. The spring quarter has the open boat and maybe a figure spelled "go into the path". On the fourth quarter is an opening as the Ramadan break and the figure is double lined as it is the second of two summer quarters.

We know for sure that never wrote a god law or carved his footprints anywhere. When talking about gods, forgetting that the interpreter usually is a man is easy. Maybe the men want to be freed from responsibility when they use a god as virtual doer. So if we se a footprint or other figures they are in themselves territory claims made by men at the time. Let us use a quote from the Sumerians that shows how they made claims on land by using stele and mound. Maybe some "empty mound" is just a claim.

Lagash and Umma were two Sumerian cities located 18 miles apart. Three documents were found on clay cylinders and date from about 2500 BC. Here the first of them that tells about use of a stele as boundary marker and also that making a mound was like a claim.

The struggle went on for a couple of generation and destroying the canal and irrigation was one of the methods. In the end Entemena of Lagash killed the Big Man of Umma. Notice that Enlil, Ningirsu, Shara and Kadi are all deities. It was convenient to blame or make abstract role models to be responsible or be the higher powers in the name of which the worldly Lugal = Big Man ruled.

Here we must remark that rock-carvings occur not in all places and maybe they used stones and mounds instead. In other places maybe it was not important. However the manifested claim was "hard paper" in those days, I suppose.

The Minoans spread a rumour about Minotaur but also about a copper giant that defended the island Crete. After that the living heroes began to wear some suit of armour. The giant stones of Bretagne were probably in use as terrible evidence that the people had a giant whom had done the stone rows. In Skaane they have the giant Finn who does not like the church but is good as friend if some foreigner is too harsh in appearance.

Nevertheless, the real giants were always in the sky. Have a look a dark clear night at Orion, the Archer and the hero "who strike well" and see another world.

I remember when the TV came and especially on visits to the countryside. Elderly people lived within the series and talked about them daily as if the characters were neighbours. This is of course harmless if someone uses the imaginations as a virtual world that may have some solutions to own problems.

The real problem comes when the world leaders like Reagan think him as president in a B-movie with its very simple moral. Alternatively without a sense of proportions see an enemy in the sky and use huge amounts of common resources on a star war to prepare for a non-existing enemy. The space projects about growing tomatoes on Mars are mostly of the same kind.

This was a warm-up before some words about claims. It is natural that many beings live in a territory and claims to be the owners. This is possible as long as there are conventions that man may own land as the first stage of claiming. If one may use an almost virtual owner instead of oneself, it is best as long as the surrounding accept this. Using pure force can be costly and results in a lot of enemies.

So representatives of gods, churches, nations and corporations have besides families and individuals during the civilisation claimed almost all territories on the globe. They believe they own them ad eternity. However, their own dead is the true quest. Unfortunately responsibilities do not follow with ownership. Airborne polluting does not respects others properties.

Yet it goes on and on because every owner thinks "If I allow others to pollute my land, I have the right to pollute others land". To this day the collective ought to have been the real power to keep individuals within good sense and wisdom. However the collective is also a make-up of individuals ... so man is consuming and polluting his own living space. Personally I never manure my own greenhouse with carbon gases, pesticides, PCB, plastic cans, sulphur or whatever wastes come from factories and people into our big greenhouse. The pollution is in proportion to our consumption and our habits to take no care of the living space in which we grow our food.

The one who named man Homo sapiens sapiens knew Latin, but normal people do not. He did not know a bit about the beast in man. It is no wisdom and common sense when man claims to be the sole owner of earth. All the other beings are owners too and the guaranty for a natural living space with sound conditions. Unfortunately other being may not vote and they do not know English.

Nevertheless peoples of the world require for themselves a gentleman agreement that everyone should respect territories of humankind. Otherwise the struggle would never end ... perhaps better for nature if mans only enemy, the man himself reduced the polluting and destroy humankind to an acceptable extend.

Some claims from Dal and the small calendars may have been the first claim at a settlement. Still many carved rocks are filled on with time to a degree that we cannot get a real picture or meaning of the many figures.

The carvings at Trollungebyn on Dal are nearby a slab cist and in it are some small carvings. So we can surely date it to about 2000 BC. The cist is of an unusual kind on Dal because it has entrance in the gable. We know the type from Germany, France and in the Alps and the megalith culture is of course common along the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to Norway.

Owners of the cist were probably not farmers but settled to use the mountains with green stone as raw material. Four symbols to the left are the normal year. The upper figures are the year half and the Urn actual at the time and symbolise the storing of corn. At that time big crocks were used in storing. To the right are two connected symbols and the upper means "working" and lower probably "with fire" that can be many kinds of production.

The claim from Knarrbyn Dal is perhaps of the same age because it is nearby a pair of slab cists. Here circles are used to picture "rounds" an old word in this connection "tour" is another. It shows simply the four quarters and the different configurations give each a name. The BAN UR symbols are meaning the end of year I suppose.

There are some finds of copper in the mountains from Haugsbyn Dal to Lake Vaenern. In the 1620s the leaseholder of Dal invented old open casts and found some new possibilities. We do not know when the old ones were in production.

However that is why we may associate to mining directly when we see the carving in the mountains at Haugelund. Negative cut hands means they are below the surface and the gesture generally means "Ga up ma" or "Get open Mama!" Above the hands is the wane crescent and on the left of it "mother and child" alternatively "working in the fork" symbol.

My English dictionary says that the economics of the natural household in the past before last Word War was primitive. Nevertheless it did not pollute as much as the advanced of today. The destroying of species was not so fast as today.

My generation have a child foot in the natural household and may understand the ritual year as we experienced it. Spring comes usually at the end of February as a promise on Zealand. To me spring was a fresh scent of tar because it was one of the first jobs was to clean and coat the wagons and wooden tools. My first stroke with a brush was surely with tar.

Occasionally work on fields started as early as seventh of March and was ready before the end of the month. All things were horse-driven and our farm had all animals and crops of the usual kind at that time.

Then came all the works on the farm. As a child one never gets a full picture of the year. Master has his scheme and mistress her scheme for daily doing as well as for whole the year. Only reservation is the weather and outer oppression as the Germans at the time.

As a whole the animals, crops and weather controlled the year. The few ordinary rituals were Eastern, Whitsun and Christmas. The almost pagan events were Lent, Midsummer and harvest gille. That feast is of very old origin in August. In the Edda it is The Quarrel with Loke when originally all the gods and idols in sky were visible except He in the Underworld. Farther back it is the dolmen or the Table for Gods. The events with feast and joy youngsters of course knew about and looked forward to.

Those who never have lived in the primitive households cannot really understand it. If they do, they may also feel and understand the living of ancestors at least 4000 years backwards. Perhaps 2000 years more to the beginning of the real new age of civilisation in its cradle 4200 BC.