stafgarþr (OGu) noun

Literally ‘stake enclosure’, but translated as ‘ancient site’ since the exact nature of these features is not clear. It has been proposed that they were the sites of abandoned Iron Age dwellings, which later became the subject of an ancestor cult, perhaps with the erection of stone pillars within the limits of the ruined foundations. Whilst there are several instances of a stafr 'stake' being forbidden by post-Christianization laws, with the assumption that these were objects of worship, whether or not they were actually engraved with heathen images, the stafgarþr seems to have been a uniquely Gotlandic phenomenon. A full study of stafgarþr has been made by Olsson (1976; 1992) and a short résumé of his conclusions and the suggestions of Måhl and Gösta Holm (in private correspondence) appears in Peel 2015.

Cathey 1978; Måhl 1990; Olsson 1976;Olsson 1992; Peel 2015, 97−98, 261−62, 290−91 note 1/45; Schlyter 1877, s.v. stafgarþer