In the forests of Árjepluovve, the Sámi say lies a place of the gods. You might miss the site, if you’re not paying attention, but for those looking at the trees, X literally marks the spot. X marks have been cut into Scots Pines marking significant locations, but these marks are under threat.
Ingela Bergman and colleagues have been examining X-marked trees in northern Sweden. These crosses appear on sacred wooden objects, ritual sites, and even prehistoric rock paintings. They also appear on trees, but outside of preserves these trees are being lost to logging.
The crosses are multifunctional. Some X-marked trees serve as boundary markers between traditional taxation lands, appearing exactly at significant boundary points. Researchers found trees with X-marks dating to the 1600s that perfectly match boundary line locations on historical maps.
Other marked trees formed ritual sites, with multiple visits over time creating layers of geometric patterns. Unlike boundary markers, these trees were often hidden in dense forest, suggesting they were sacred objects connected to spiritual practices suppressed by Christianity.
During the seventeenth century AD, the ambition of the Christian Church to convert the Sámi of Norway, Sweden and Finland intensified. With the encouragement of clergymen, ritual sites were destroyed and shaman drums were confiscated. Individuals practising the Indigenous religion were brought to court and punished.
A dead tree with an X hacked into it.
Trees played a significant role in Sámi spiritual practices. Seventeenth-century observers recorded religious practices included carving X-marks on tree trunks, smearing X-marks in reindeer blood on wooden objects, and placing offerings at special trees, especially during midwinter.
In the Vattme forest reserve, Bergman & colleagues found over a 1000 Scots pines with bark-peeling scars that provide evidence of traditional Sámi food harvesting practices. The inner bark was an important part of the diet, full of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates when harvested in June / July.
Unlike other sacred objects, the trees are not easily extracted for museums, and so have remained with the Sámi. Until recently. They can live over 700 years, as living documents of traditions that continued into the late 20th century. But they’re also viewed as timber by the forestry industry.
Following the suppression of Indigenous religious practices in the seventeenth century, marked trees were successively removed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and modern forestry management has seen the fragmentation and loss of Sámi landscapes. As a consequence, the process of transmitting experience and knowledge from generation to generation is being obstructed and the X-marked trees and their contexts are deprived of their significance as the bearers of culture and history. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the documentation, interpretation and protection of all remaining culturally marked trees.
Bergman, I., Zackrisson, O., & Östlund, L. (2025). X-marked trees: carriers of Indigenous Sámi traditions. Antiquity, 99(403), 221-234. https://doi.org/g846vx
Cross-posted to Bluesky & Mastodon.
Images: Cover, Tree Cross by Ingela Bergman.
Dead pine with cross by Lars Östlund.
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