Stone ship settings or Skeppssättning are amongst the most remarkable Viking age monuments in Scandinavia, but what were they for? They were built over a period of 2000 years from the Nordic bronze age until the end of the Viking age, mainly in grave fields but they weren’t just associated with burials and cremations as they were also used for a kind of meeting called a ‘Thing’. This video explains how the stone ships may relate first to a Bronze age cult of the sun in Gotland, and later to a Viking belief that the dead would need a vehicle for a journey to and from the underworld. The stone ship settings included in this film are Tjelvars grave in Gotland, Anundshög in Västmanland, Åsa domaresäte in Södermanland, Ängakåsen and Ale’s stones in Scania and the Jelling...