Ales Stones in Southern Sweden: A Remarkable Monument of the Sun Cult and Advanced Astronomy in the Bronze Age

Abstract

Ales Stones is a famous stone ship in southern Sweden. Besides its size (69 m) and location right beside the shore of the Baltic, it is a remarkable monument of the Sun Cult and very advanced knowledge of astronomy by the Bronze Age people. This paper summarizes the findings, and puts it into the context of other monuments in southern Sweden. Also presented are a new time-correction of the sunrise at Winter solstice 700 BC and a remarkable sun-wheel on the Island of Bornholm of astronomical dimensions almost identical to those of the Ales Stones monument: the Madsebakke Sun-wheel. It all provides a congruent picture of intensive Sun Cult activity and close connections between of southeast Sweden and the Island of Bornholm.