Show ANCIENT VIKING KINGS WERE CREMATED IN KILNS recent excavations in swedish mounds shed light on unique t funeral services kupsala upsala sweden proof that the blung kings of sweden were cremated inside of firmly constructed kalns kilns and not on top of ordinal y has been unearthed here by prof sune during his excavations in one of the famous funeral mounds lo 10 bated near this university known as the swedish cradle of culture long before stockholm became the capital kupsala upsala was the seat of the swedish kings and when they died their bodies were solemnly burned as a special homage through observation of the materials uncovered inside a hitherto un opened mound the has corn to the conclusion that for a kings funeral some years ag an elaborate la borate and solid structure of t josy wood was erected on the traditional site and inside this building the royal remnants and certain weapons and ornaments were placed to accompany him on the journey to valhalla the successive layers of gravel burnt clay and ashes proe that the funeral kiln was constructed on a pile of loose stones which admitted air from below and logs were fitted together to form a small dome with an opening at the top then after the kings body had been placed inside the walls were coated with a thick layer of clay making them airtight when therefore a torch was applied at the base a strong draft helped to start the conflagration that consumed both logs and contents after the combustion of the inner frame the clay coating also collapsed and the entire remains were then covered up with sand and gravel in nils way alie mounds grew in height with each royal funeral and today some of them are as high as 80 feet this interpretation of the cremation method which hai its counterpart in certain roman customs ig strikingly confirmed both by passages in the ica landle and anglo saxon epic about beowulf one of the incidents in the icelandic literature for instance tells of a swedish king named arcy aha had ruled alg people in peace for many years and when he died he wa secretly put inside of a pare built a door and three openings and fearins failure of crops and viar as soon a his spirit departed for valhalla hit subjects apt him there for three years before they applied the torch |