Places of Assembly: New Discoveries in Sweden and England

Sanmark, A.; Semple, S.J.

Abstract

This paper reviews recent field results from Sweden and England demonstrating that currently held perceptions of assembly-sites as archaic and cultic are only partially accurate. Evidence has emerged for the purposeful creation of assembly locations in the fourth to eleventh centuries AD as one of the many processes of kingdom formation. In common with other modes of expression such as burial, the creation of assembly sites was often undertaken by adopting or reusing ancient locations marked by palimpsests of prehistoric remains. However, as evidence from Sweden demonstrates, meeting-places could also be created de novo, and newly monumentalised by the addition of standing stones, inscribed stones and mounds.

Citation

Sanmark, A., & Semple, S. (2008). Places of Assembly: New Discoveries in Sweden and England. Fornvännen, 103(4), 245-259

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Aug 6, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 18, 2010
• Journal: Fornvännen : tidskrift for Svensk Antikvarisk Forskning.
• Print ISSN: 0015-7813
• Electronic ISSN: 1404-9430
• Publisher: Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 103
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 245-259
• Publisher URL: http://fornvannen.se/2000talet/fornvannen_2008.html