Linnaeus has been here. Thousands of visitors follow the path to its centre every year. It is known as Kivik Graves, formerly the King's Grave, but for hundreds of years the site was called Bredarör - the wide stone cairn. And no one knows who was buried at the bottom of the tomb over 3,000 years ago.
Text: Caroline Alesmark | Photo: Mr Peter Carlsson
Kiviksgraven from above.
One summer day in 1748, two farmers were quarrying stone in Bredarör in Kivik, perhaps for their fences or log walls, and under all the layers of boulders they happened to hack their way into a chest made of stone slabs. The two men, Anders Sahlberg and Lasse Persson, thought they had stumbled upon a treasure and dug all night, but found nothing.
The rumour spread quickly in the village, but instead of honour and wealth, the interlude ended with them being interrogated, accused of hiding the treasure, and subjected to chastisement for a few months at the Kristianstad fortress. After a trial, however, they were acquitted on 8 June 1749.
Already the year after the digging, on 31 May 1749, Carl Linnaeus and his secretary Olof Söderberg passed the site. The grave was called "Penninge-grafven" and Linnaeus writes: "Here was a burial place established for the old world".
But no higher authority intervened, quarrying continued in the cairn, and three of the rocks disappeared. During the 18th century, the tomb was both neglected and destroyed. Among other things, a rock is said to have been removed from here to be used as a building block in a liquor boiler in Mälby - today, however, it is back.
It was not until several years later, when the rock carvings themselves were discovered, that the world began to show historical interest in the tomb. Professor Nils Henrik Sjöborg at Lund University became involved in restoring the tomb and the site was protected in 1814.
Over a hundred years later, when the mill in Äsperöds was demolished, the remains of another mound were found - it had been used as a base for a millstone. The mill was built sometime between 1791 and 1798 and it is then that the mould is said to have been removed from the grave.
In 1931-33, an extensive survey of the Kivik Grave was carried out. The archaeologists found traces of a Stone Age settlement under the cairn. In connection with this, the cairn and the grave were rebuilt, and the angled passageway leading into the burial chamber through an iron gate was also built.
Entrance to the Kivik Grave
The current version of the Kivik Grave was restored in 1932-33 and rebuilt to its original external dimensions, 75 metres in diameter. How high it was originally is only a guess, it may have been both higher and lower.
The twisted passageway leading to the room with the tombstones did not exist in the ancient tomb. Nor was the magnificent stone portal or the room itself, all of which were built so that visitors would have an opportunity to look at the stones.
Inside the tomb, the rocks are tilted in the shape of a coffin, lit by discreet lamps. Scientists have tried to interpret the images over the years. The eight stones show axes, ships, four-footed animals, circles filled with crosses - wheel crosses, chariots, people and wind instruments. Something seems to be happening, like the figures in the comic strip, people are moving across the images.
Inside the Kivik trench, the rocks are tilted.
In Hans Alfredson and Tage Danielsson's 1971 film 'The Apple War', the story's young good-hearted hero, played by Per Waldvik, fights a huge dragon that comes crawling out of the Kivik tomb. However, the dragon was a peaceful iguana and the tomb a model made of papier-mâché.
The Kivik Grave raises more questions than it answers and there are many interpretations. Recent archaeological investigations show that several teenagers are buried at the site. New research suggests that Kivik may have been an important trading centre as early as the Bronze Age, and that transactions in copper and amber may be linked to the grave.
Leaning over the rocks, the imagination easily runs away. Who or what was buried under all the stones, why was he, she or they given such a huge grave? Who are all the figures on the rocks, what did the instruments they blow sound like? What kind of dance are they doing? Is it a sacrificial procession, a calling down of the gods, a burial ritual?
Kiviksgraven south of Kivik, right next to Skåneleden. To get here you walk on the Skåneleden SL4 Österlenleden, stage 5 between Simrishamn and Kivik. The SL4-5 stage is 21 kilometres long, but you can also start in Vik, for example. The trail runs along the coast past old-fashioned fishing villages, harbours and beaches. There is a campsite with shelter at Tjörnedalagården in Baskemölla.
Click here to buy the book "Troll forest and fairy dance - hike to mysterious places"!
