A princely dynasty at Stevns

By the lower reaches of the river Tryggevælde Å on the Stevns peninsula lies the Himlingøje burial site. It was used for burials over several generations in the second and third century AD. Over the last 150 years finds have regularly been made there. This is especially due to the building of a railway across the burial site, which disturbed some of the graves. In Himlingøje men and women of high birth were buried. There were striking differences among the graves, or rather the contents of the graves. Some were entirely without grave goods, while others had an abundance of treasures. Presumably this was the resting place of a princely family, but also of servants and slaves who worked for the rich family. An important element of the grave goods is glass made in the Roman provinces. So well preserved are some of these glass items that finders used them as vases for flowers without realizing that they were vessels from antiquity.