Ship Settings
Burial Traditions
The tradition of using ship settings as burial monuments is a Gotlandic custom that began during the Late Bronze Age (around 1000–500 BCE). This practice involved placing the deceased in ship-shaped stone settings to send them to the afterlife.
In his study Östersjöns skeppssättningar - monument och mötesplatser under yngre bronsålder (The Ship Settings of the Baltic Sea – Monuments and Meeting Places of the Late Bronze Age), Joakim Wehlin notes that there are records of 412 ship settings, of which 352 are confirmed to still exist. He estimates that about 30-40% of Gotland’s ship settings have disappeared since the Late Bronze Age, suggesting that there may have originally been around 800 such structures.
Wehlin also points out that during the Nordic Bronze Age, the ship became an important symbol, with a noticeable concentration of ship settings on Gotland. He hypothesizes that the individuals buried in these ship-shaped graves were likely part of a maritime network in the Baltic Sea, facilitating the import of long-distance bronze objects to the region.
Structure of the Ship Settings
The ship settings are constructed from large stones, typically granite or limestone, with lengths ranging from 6 to 46 meters. One of the largest examples is found at Gnisvärd in Tofta, while another similarly sized structure lies underground at Uppgarde in Vallstena. There are also examples of underground ship settings made from limestone slabs.
Gotland’s Skilled Shipbuilders
It is often said that these ship settings reflect the Gotlanders’ skills as shipbuilders. The types of ships varied considerably, as the people of Gotland were known to travel extensively across the Baltic Sea. For instance, ship settings found on the western coast of the Gulf of Riga suggest the existence of a Gotlandic colony in the area.
Although ship settings exist throughout Scandinavia, most of those on the Swedish mainland date from the Vendel and Viking periods. In contrast, the Gotlandic ship settings are as much as 3,000 years old, twice the age of those found elsewhere.
Ships in Stone Art
One stone carving from the 7th or 8th century depicts a ship with a sail, created during what is almost the Viking era. Shipbuilding traditions on Gotland have deep roots, and to the untrained eye, the Bronze Age ship settings may not seem very different from Viking-era ships. However, experts note the evolution from Viking ships to cogs, a type of vessel depicted in the oldest known image of a cog.
Bronze Age Fleets
Many history books mention the existence of fleets of stone ships on Gotland, and this is true. At Gålrum, a fleet of seven stone ships has been "sailing" for 3,000 years—predating the journeys of Odysseus and even the time of Moses. Similarly, at Rannarve in Klinte, a smaller fleet seems to be sailing northwest toward destinations like Estonia or Russia, not the Swedish mainland.
Religious Speculation
People in the Bronze Age likely worshipped deities, as people have done throughout history. The ship settings may have been intended to transport the deceased safely into eternity. However, the specifics of their religious beliefs remain uncertain. The discovery of a sun chariot in Denmark suggests the possibility of sun worship, a theory supported by potential solar symbols found on early picture stones. There is also speculation that Gotland’s sword-grinding stones are linked to astronomy and lunar phases, indicating the moon may have held significance.
The ship-shaped graves are often interpreted as a belief in an afterlife, possibly connected to the horizon over the sea. However, it's important not to impose modern assumptions onto ancient cultures. While the idea of a journey to the afterlife, akin to Charon ferrying souls across the River Styx, may have existed at the time, there is no concrete evidence to support this.
The Norse religion, or "Asatru," appeared much later, predominantly in Icelandic texts from the 13th century—around 2,000 years after the Gotlandic ship settings were created.
Astronomical Alignments
Tore Gannholm, in his book Gotland – Östersjöns pärla (Gotland – The Pearl of the Baltic), suggests that many ship settings are astronomically aligned with the maximum positions of the sun or moon. According to him, this could indicate that the Gotlanders practiced some form of sun or moon worship. However, it is difficult to know for certain what their religious or spiritual practices were, or if they even engaged in organized worship at all.