Grave Orb is the name for a petrosphere that was put on the tomb of a deceased. Grave Orbs were made throughout Scandinavia from the Pre-Roman Iron Age until the Vendel era.
The Grave Orb could have been selected for its round shape or shaped by hand. They were then put in the centre of a burial site. Tumuli, stone circles and stone ships often have a reclined or raised central stone, and grave orbs derive from this practice. They were of ritual or symbolic significance.
Some grave orbs are engraved with ornaments, such as the orb at Inglinge hög or Barrow of Inglinge near Ingelstad in Småland. Hög is from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound or barrow.
Famous quotes containing the words grave and/or orb:
“Who then is she,
She holding me? The people’s sea drives on her,
Drives out the father from the caesared camp;
The dens of shape
Shape all her whelps with the long voice of water,
That she I have,
The country-handed grave boxed into love....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Thus the orb he roamed
With narrow search, and with inspection deep
Considered every creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)