Kivik King's Grave (Kungagraven i Kivik)
Kiviksgraven · Bredarör
Early Nordic Bronze Age·Nordic Bronze Age (Scania elite)·🇸🇪 Skåne, Simrishamn Municipality, Sweden
About
About Kivik King's Grave (Kungagraven i Kivik)
Most elaborate Bronze Age cairn in Scandinavia near Kivik, Scania: huge 75 m diameter mound (restored height 3.5 m, original ~5 m) containing 3.25 m stone cist with eight decorated slabs bearing unique Bronze Age rock carvings — ships, axes, horses, humans and sun wheels — the only decorated burial cist in Nordic Bronze Age. Built c.1400 BCE Early Bronze Age for elite double burial. Excavated 1931–33, cairn controversially reconstructed with concrete. Double burial with bronze artefacts suggests long-distance chief.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Ship and solar iconography meaning — sun voyage?
Theories
- 01Chief with Mycenaean or Atlantic contacts importing pictorial ideas via amber trade; unique Nordic narrative art inside tomb
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 1500–1300 BCE (traditionally c.1400 BCE)
- Period
- Early Nordic Bronze Age
- Culture
- Nordic Bronze Age (Scania elite)
- Purpose
- Elite double burial cist with pictorial rock art under large cairn
- Abandoned
- Late Bronze Age
- Rediscovered
- Quarried 1748; excavated 1931–33 (Gustaf Hallström)
- Excavation
- Excavated
c. 1500–1300 BCE (traditionally c.1400 BCE)
Initial construction
c. 1104 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
55.6827° N · 14.2340° E · 15 m · 2 mapped features
Decorated cist
cistEight sandstone slabs with ship, sun, horse carvings
55.6827° N · 14.2340° ECairn perimeter
cairnRestored 75 m kerb and mound
55.6827° N · 14.2340° E
Gallery