Key Facts

• The largest barrow in Northern Europe. It is more than 15 meters high and has a diameter of 77 meters.
• The timber construction is unique, made from 70 – 75. 000 logs of timber.
• It was built during one winter and one summer in the period between 533 and 551.
  
• It has been excavated gradually, from 1869-79, 1939-40 and in 1993.
• The mound contains one single cremation burial. The bone material which has been    identified includes   both fragments of a human scull and different bones from animals.
• The deceased’s sex has not been identified, but he or she was aged between 20 to 35 years.

• Large barrows mark power centres in the late Migration Period and Merovingian Period (ca. 500 – 800). It is during this period small, provincial kingdoms like Romerike developed,   and, along with   them, the social and cultural structures we know from the Saga Period.
• The mound must have been an important sign of power and a focal point in the local society.
• The settlement around was in continuous use both before and after the mound was built. Hovin has been a cultural centre and a large farm in the local area for many centuries.
• More barrows were established in the vicinity of Rakni’s Mound in the late Iron Age.