At least that would likely have been what the neolithic people believed as this grave was prepared for an important person. It seems like humans in their quest to be remembered spend vast resources to manifest their magnificence for posterity. All in vain; who knows anything about the chief buried here?
Last week-end I attended a wet plate collodion workshop in Slovenia and it was such great fun! It was run by Topshit Photography – and it was Topshit for sure. Wet plate photography is a far cry from ‘spray and pray’ digital photography. The result is also a far cry from digital images. It’s really magic to see the image appear on this large 10 by 12 inch glass plate. Still life framed by a window, simple and very different from digital imagery. Is it better than digital? Hardly, if you look for technical perfection. However, to me it is pretty pleasing.
A memory of an industrial past buried deep in the forest
Magic if you’re into runic magic. The message is not particularly magic though, it says, in modern Swedish:
‘Holmlög lät resa stenarna efter Olev, sin son, och efter Kättilmund, sin broder’
Holmlög had the stone raised after Olev, her son and after Kättilmund, her brother. Perhaps they had perished in a Viking raid somewhere.
An interesting feature of the stone is that it has both Christian and heathen symbols – the cross at top and the snake or dragon at the bottom. The stone is dated mid to late 11th century and the country was barely Christianized at that time. The location of this stone is Torsåker. A decidedly heathen name – Thor’s field. Curiously, many pre-christian location names with strong ties to heathen beliefs have survived to this day.
Freddy's Photo Project 