has been identified with burnt bones and burnt clay spread all over the area. This phase
of the settlement seems to be dated to the middle of the Iron Age, hence the migration
period or the beginning of the Vendel period (c. ad 450 – 600 ). The place name Lunda
means ‘grove’, and maybe the hilltop site was the holy grove, the sacrificial site of the
whole region.
Recently a cult house has been excavated at the central place of Uppåkra in Skåne
(Larsson and Lenntorp 2004 ). It seems to be older than the house at Borg and the
structure at Sanda. The most spectacular finds are a beaker of bronze and silver, covered
with ornamented gold bands, dated to c. ad 500 , and a glass bowl, made of two layers of
glass, one colourless and one blue, with the same dating. The Lunda and the Uppåkra
finds indicate that cult houses were used already from the middle of the first millennium
ad in Scandinavia.
Figure 18. 2 One of the figurines from Lunda, made of gold, 2 cm high. His toes point downwards,
indicating that he was hanged. (Photo: Bengt A. Lundberg, from Andersson et al. 2004 .)–– Anne-Sofie Gräslund––