"The idea that the stone ship might have been an astronomical calendar has no supporters among academic archaeologists," said Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist, managing editor of the archaeology journal Fornvännen.
Rather, Ales Stenar was probably an ornate grave marker, he said.
The Swedish countryside is home to many similar megalithic structures, which are generally known as stone ships. Most of them date back to Sweden's Late Iron Age (approximately A.D. 500-1000), and they serve as burial monuments, Rundkvist said.
Archaeologists using radiocarbon dating have calculated that Ales Stenar was built about 1,400 years ago, near the end of Scandinavia's Iron Age -- long after the construction date estimated by Mörner's team. [Photos: Mysterious Stone Structures]
Ales Stenar was built by members of a war-like community of seafarers who used oxen, slaves, rope, sleds, wooden spades and simple steel tools to collect and raise the huge boulders, Rundkvist said.
"This was the world of Beowulf," Rundkvist said, referring to the epic poem set in Iron Age Scandinavia.
Ships were an important part of life in this nautical culture, which may have inspired communities to mark the graves of important people with stone ships, some scholars say.
Rundkvist believes there's no evidence for anything beyond that -- including Mörner's Stonehenge theory.
"New Age mystics like standing stones," Rundkvist told LiveScience.
De akademiska arkeologerna som Rundqvist hänvisar till har nu blivit JO-anmälda av Bob Lind. De anklagas för forskningsfusk eftersom de påstått att det viktigaste C14-provet tagits under en av stenarna. Det togs bevisligen bredvid stenen och visar att platsen varit igenvuxen och övergiven vid den tidpunkt som de akademiska arkeolgoerna påstår att dessa stenar byggdes.
