On the path we meet Tommy guiding tourists that came with the channel ship.
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Many of the visitors comes with the channel ship. This is the first view when coming up from the lake.
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This is The Law of the Naked from ca 2200 BC.
There are many threats against this world heritage. Acid rain eats the clay and the groves are widening, then water stays in them instead of running of. Another threat is the yellow lichen eating the clay slate. This year I think the farmer had been to near with his fertiliser? When the surface is broken the weather Mights work on it. Natural clay slate should be like a child's rump in feeling the surface.
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The rock is usually named Rock of Serpent-windings.
I find only two or three small serpents and I see that indefinite waves are symbolising time flow. However we can see two long waves lines of the half-year serpents if we wish. On the Thing-place we see that symbolism. The upper serpent is the summer-half and the ritual law of growers. The lower serpent-line is the cattlemens' ritual law. They had that kind of division in the known cultures also.
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The protection formula,
As everyone knows, if anybody tramps the Naked, he will face ill.
The Naked is one of the oldest symbols for humanism of mankind. We see her with a moon-horn in French caves. She is of course fertility that should be guarded … and her fields should be fenced in. It is also understood that the naked is sacred. But that imply the man should give her clothes and what she needs.
She should not be touched by modern fundamentalists saying it is a sin to be naked. The sin is in the watcher's eyes then. The Sumerian texts tell about the motherless child with her mother sleeping in Underworld. It is just an urge to take care of the motherless.
We can naturally even imagine that in some case it was dead penalty if you tramped the Naked. It is also natural that none is allowed to affect the institutions of law and order.
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This is the beginning of the law and it is easy to associate to a naked goddess when we see the natural naked feet at left in the picture.
Maybe we should call the rock the Oldest known Rostrum in Europe. In legal language a place for the speaker would be an institution whether it is in the ritual society or in our kind of democratic society. Maybe the priestess stood there every spring and read the law. We know from later customs that the "law-reader or a pair read the law for the thing. … se also
Footstool.We can also compare with Babylon and "Enuma Elish". The epos was recited during the "akitu" festival in spring. It is about creation and about the resurrection ritual in spring. We have just small allegories in the Voluspa of the Edda
The beginning tells about the need of fences during the growing season. In the middle of the rock is a line with the marriage code telling about handtake. It was usage on Dal until the church got formalised about 1700 AD. The peasants thought that it is enough to shake hand and make a holy promise. Future will tell if it stay.
If we use our imagination we see a young lady standing in the footprints reading the law of the year. The "first time"-ritual is then repeated every year in spring. It is easier to understand when we hear about the folk memory from the place. It tells about the young pairs going to the woods in spring. The growers made a ritual that ended in mixing sperm with seed for the sowing. But it should of course be a young couple … some rituals may "live" for thousands of years if only there are carriers.
Seven different footprints as symbol for the individuals.
Maybe they gave the law or maybe they are idols for the seven summer moons. If we go after the month names in our calendar three of them should have been Maiden. That is hard to see from a footprint.
The Naked we know from India and Middle East at the same time. They usually picture her en face with two braids while our Maiden is in profile and with one braid.
In Rajahstan they still celebrate the Naked = Devi 18 days in spring and the feast ends in bathing. Their ritual has been going one for thousands of years.
We can compare the law with fragments from the Edda telling about a treaty between "aesir and vanir". Then it is between the newcomers asking for fenced fields and the already settled cattlemen. Then we could also call it Law of Brotherhood. We see much of the symbolism in Scandinavian rock-carvings
In Sumer they made also a treaty but that was according to the myth a marriage between the New Moon Maid Inanna and the herd Dumuzi. We se that symbolism on our rock too.
Still in our days they have feasts and "meeting" here. This was about "Medieval Days".
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View from the Meadow.
The place can have been a feast place since there are small rock-arvings on the rocks on both sides of the open place.
The little rock is covered but there are some ground grooves that may be from the third millennium BC. In some places such as on Flyhov Vaestgautland, Gotland and places in South Sweden they have made more than 3600 grooves in the period 3100 -- 2100 BC.
They ground the grooves as a ritual and they got big chisels. The time was at firts full moon after spring equinox and in the direction of Antares in Scorpio … at least in the beginning.
It is obvious that the logic of the ritual is "go beneath" as a foregoing symbol act.
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No words
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This is the most pictured rock from Högsbyn and is called Tumblers rock.
It is easier to understand that the other rocks with pure symbolism. We see two sections of pictures, but Tommy has dug and he found the third section. It is very damaged so it is covered again. This is from the middle of last millennium BC.
They have investigated the place in front and found that there has been a fire there about 1200 AD. Fire ritual was part of the rituals in many places during ancient times. Nowadays we have ours at May the first.
Some of our rocks have an area of eroded rock and maybe the cause is that they had a fire on the rock sometimes.
No words ... a hot summer day a rest near the café under the trees. In the Garden are small carvings on small rocks. It is perhaps the oldest feast place with pictures associating to 3000 BC.
Now to
Museum