Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Judi Lynn

(160,542 posts)
Tue Feb 13, 2018, 10:50 PM Feb 2018

Found: Neolithic Spiderweb Stones in Denmark


They may have more to do with the sun than with arachnids.
BY VITTORIA TRAVERSO FEBRUARY 13, 2018

FROM ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICANS TO the classical Greeks to today, spiders and their webs have long had symbolic and religious meaning. Now, archaeologists digging at a Neolithic site on Bornholm, Denmark’s easternmost island, have unearthed some mysterious 5,000-year-old stones engraved with what appear to be spiderwebs. But they may not have had anything to do with arachnids.

Their patterns are not vastly different than those on the roughly 300 “sun stones” found since the 1990s at the site of Vasagard, on the same island, which appears to have been a ceremonial center for Neolithic sun worship. (Bornholm is the place in Denmark with the most hours of sunlight per year—so perhaps it is no surprise that prehistoric sun-lovers gathered there.) However, as explained by Finn Ole Son Nielsen, chief archaeologist at the Bornholm Museum, sun stones usually have a simpler set of radiating lines—while the new finds have more intricate lines in between, giving them a distinctly arachnoid look. Researchers have found at least four so far, including one that is somewhere between a sun stone and a spiderweb stone.

More:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/neolithic-spiderweb-stones-denmark-archaeology


2 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Found: Neolithic Spiderweb Stones in Denmark (Original Post) Judi Lynn Feb 2018 OP
looks spidery to me Hermit-The-Prog Feb 2018 #1
Read several artcles at link. Are a lot of scandinavian archeologists women? Lots of women mentioned bobbieinok Feb 2018 #2

Hermit-The-Prog

(33,347 posts)
1. looks spidery to me
Thu Feb 15, 2018, 05:42 AM
Feb 2018

I think it's a stretch to associate that carving with the sun. The ladder rung lines connecting the spokes are much more suggestive of a spider web, to me. The medieval church ceiling used for comparison likewise looks spidery. Note on the church ceiling that to the left in the photo is what appears to be the moon, and on the right a special star which could be the sun. That leaves the spider web in the middle as just that -- a spider web.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Anthropology»Found: Neolithic Spiderwe...