South of Lake Tåkern
In the area south of Lake Tåkern, there are several large solitary barrows – Disevid hill, Tjugby hill, the Bride´s hill, Åsby hill and some more – linked to grave-fields. They are probably Bronze Age barrows (in Sweden, burial sites are not normally excavated) demonstrating that powerful families and chieftans have been living here for thousands of years. This was something to ponder over for recently elected kings, riding past on their Royal Route.
Cat with head and tail on Heda church, late 12th century.Landownership was the foundation of wealth and prestige in the late Iron Age and early Middle Ages. According to some historians, large barrows are always a sign of allodial land – denoting a family domain and inherited ground. The farms were separated from each other by a few hundred metres, but were included in a quasi-village structure, with common outlying lands. The cattle were herded to pastures along paths bordered by stone walls.
Near the Royal Route along the main road in Rök, there was the famous stone from which the parish gets its name. There is a reconstruction of the Royal Route roadway on the car park at the information point. The original is 70 cm below the reconstructed route. But you can still see and follow the old road between the abandoned cemeteries of Väderstad and Harstad. Hogstad was the hundred court site in the Middle Ages for the hundred of Göstring.
Iron furnaces have been found at Järnstad, in the part of the plains bordering the southern forested area. The raw material was bog iron and despite a primitive technology, the finds bear witness to impressive know-how. The arable parts of Östergötland adopted technical and cultural phenomena from Central Europe and the Roman Empire at an early stage.
Heda church from the 12th century, is situated in a rich prehistoric complex and the roads to Alvastra and Gt. Åby are lined with grave-fields. Parts of the road between Heda and Alvastra have been excavated and artefacts from the Iron Age have been discovered. The original road is covered and not visible any more, but it is clear that it was about six metres wide, had a stone edge and standing stones along the sides. According to regional law in Östergötland, this was how all main roads were supposed to look.
The east-west main road met the north-south pilgrims´ way at the Alvastra monastery. From Alvastra the kings rode south on their Royal Route, as this ceremonial journey was to be clockwise, by law.