To Reconstruct a Sacrificial Site
The site
Eketorp fort on southern Öland is a prehistoric ring fort excavated between 1964 and 1974. The excavations showed that the first fort on this location was built in the fourth century AD (Eketorp I). About one hundred years later, it was torn down and then re-built on the same spot. The new fifth-century ring fort (Eketorp II) served as a fortified farmers’ settlement for about 250 years until it was abandoned in the late seventh century (Borg, Näsman, & Wegraeus 1976).