"Solar chariot" from Trundholm bog (National Museum, Copensagen)
Now let's mentally imagine a typical natural landscape in Denmark. It can be argued that the overwhelming majority will describe it as flat, well, maybe in some places with groves of low trees. And so - circles of fields, meadows and … mounds - is not it? And - yes, about the way it is. Today! But Denmark looked completely different in the past, and this is again proven by excavations of Bronze Age burials.
One of the many burial mounds in Denmark. In this, for example, the "Girl from Egtved" was buried. Its diameter is 30 m and its height is 5 m.
The fact is that most of the excavated burial mounds contain massive oak wood coffins, carved from oak logs and having a lid inside. This is where the uncultivated field of "new specialists" opens up from history, who for some reason passed by that fact, but how it was all done! You try first to knock down an oak tree with a bronze ax, then carve a coffin log out of it, prepare a lid separately, and all this without an electric sawmill. It is clear that this was not without a high civilization, which put the production of coffins for the Danes of the Bronze Age on stream. They also cut down oaks and wiped out all the forests in Denmark. Such is ecological ignorance.
Something like this looked like oak coffins of the Bronze Age in Denmark. And how many oaks did they need? (National Museum, Copenhagen)
Well, when the deceased was laid in a coffin and placed in a hole in the ground, a mound was poured over him. And it was not even so much poured as it was formed from turf, for some reason laid with the grassy side down. Once the embankment was completed, a stone wall was erected around its base. However, in Denmark groundwater comes very close to the surface and there are many lakes and swamps. Therefore, when swamp water got inside such a mound, a chemical process began there. After some time, a layer of iron oxide formed, which firmly sealed the core of the embankment. Therefore, decomposition did not occur in a humid and oxygen-deficient environment. Therefore, dead bodies and their clothes are very often preserved up to the present day.
Burial at Trindhoy.
All this is confirmed by the work of Danish archaeologists who excavated many mounds, but most of them still remain unexcavated! For example, during the excavation of the Bronze Age Skelhoy Hill (excavations 2002-2004) in the south of Jutland, one could clearly see that its embankment consists of layers of turf. The embankment diameter is 30 m, its height is 5 m.
Contents of the Guldhoy burial, near Vamdrup.
Thanks to the good conditions, the burials were very well preserved, and we can get a fairly complete picture of what the men and women of the Bronze Age looked like, what they were wearing and what items they used in everyday life. Moreover, in the exhibition at the National Museum in Copenhagen, you can meet seven people from this time: women from Egtved, Skrydstrep and Borum Eshoy, as well as men from Muldbjerg, Trindhoy and Borum Eshoy. Immediately, we note that gender differences in clothing were quite obvious and characteristic. For example, women often wore a wide bronze band on their belly, while men's death gifts often include a razor (that is, these people shaved!) And a sword. Both genders wore bronze ornaments in the form of hand bands, fasteners for clothes, and decorative bronze plates known as tutuli. Interestingly, daggers are found in both male and female graves. Does this mean that in the area now called Denmark, the population was more militant than anywhere else? Unlikely. Although war was certainly a part of life at that time, swords were used not only for combat, but also for various ceremonies. In the rock carvings, the sword is part of the man's costume, and it is significant that the fallen soldiers were not depicted in the drawings at all.
Some bronze swords from the graves that are collected in the exposition and storerooms of the National Museum in Copenhagen will be enough for a decent squad!
When in the Late Bronze Age (1100 - 500 BC) burial customs changed and the deceased began to be cremated, the composition of the burial inventory changed dramatically. Now the ashes of the deceased, together with the gifts burnt together with him, were placed in an urn made of baked clay, which was buried … at the edge of the mound. Gifts "to the next world" became more modest and consisted of needles, buttons, and toiletries as razors and tweezers. In burials with urns, swords that were supposed to be men began to be replaced with miniature bronze copies.
For example, in 1883, the corpse of a man was found in an oak coffin in a burial mound in Muldbjerg, western Jutland. But the most interesting thing is that his clothes were perfectly preserved and it was possible to determine that he was dressed in a knee-length "coat" of wool, fastened at the waist with a leather belt, and a wide woolen cloak on his shoulders. His suit included windings on his legs, but they lay in the form of strips of fabric at his feet. A horn buckle, two brooches and two round bronze plates, the so-called tutuli, were found next to him. He wore a fur hat on his head. On the right side of the coffin lay a bronze sword in a finely decorated wooden scabbard. The coffin is dendrochronologically dated 1365 BC.
The coffin of the "girl from Egtved".
The Egtved Girl lived in Scandinavia around 1390-1370. BC NS. Her burial was discovered near the village of Egtved in Denmark in 1921. At the time of her death, she was 16-18 years old, she was slender, 160 cm tall, she had long blonde hair and well-trimmed nails. Although very little has survived from the body - hair, skull, teeth, nails and a little skin, nevertheless she was able to "tell" a lot of interesting things about her time. For example, she was not buried alone. At her feet lay the cremated remains of a 5-6 year old child. At the head of the bed was a small birch bark box containing an awl, bronze hairpins and a hairnet. Above was a yarrow flower, which indicates that the burial took place in the summer. At the feet of the deceased, they also found a small bucket for beer brewed from wheat, honey, marsh myrtle and lingonberries.
Reconstruction of the burial.
Well, this is how she could look while she was still alive … The girl's outfit is a typical clothing of Northern Europe in the Bronze Age. The good preservation of his remains was ensured by the swampy soil, which is common in these places.
A well-preserved grave with an oak coffin from the Bronze Age (circa 1300 BC) was discovered in a mound near Skrydstrep, in South Jutland, in 1935. A young woman of about 18 years old was buried there. She was laid in a coffin in a short, short-sleeved woolen tunic with embroidery on the sleeves and around the neckline. A large square piece of fabric gathered at the top with a strap covered her from waist to legs. Her hair was carefully combed and styled, and her hair was covered in a net woven from horsehair. There was a woolen hat nearby. Large spiral gold earrings adorned the ears, and there was a horny crest on the belt.
"The Woman from Skrydstrep." Beauty, isn't she ?!
In addition to burials in barrows, bogs are a truly inexhaustible source of archaeological finds in Denmark.
One of the found bronze shields (National Museum, Copenhagen)
For example, it was in them that unique bronze shields were found, made in the period 1100-700. BC. Such bronze shields are known in Italy, in the south and north of Sweden, and all the way from Spain and Ireland in the west to Hungary in the east. It is highly unlikely that these shields would be used in war. The bronze from which they are made is very thin. So they were used in rituals? From the history of ancient Rome, we know about ancient ceremonies during which the priests danced in spring and autumn with sacred shields in their hands. They were considered symbols of the sun, closely associated with the gods and the cycle of the seasons. But in the Scandinavian rock paintings we also see similar ritual dances with shields.
Showcase with bronze shields at the National Museum of Copenhagen.
Two of these shields on a summer day in 1920, two workers brought directly to the office of the editor of the local newspaper H. P. Jensen. They said that they found them in the Serup Moz bog on Falster while working on peat harvesting. One shield was badly damaged by the impact of a shovel. The editor immediately reported to the National Museum, from where the specialists left for the place of discovery. They determined that the shields were in a swamp in an upright position at a short distance from each other and found the place where they were, but no other antiquities were found near them.
During peat mining at Svenstrup in Himmerland in July 1948, Christian Jorgensen found a fine bronze shield from the Late Bronze Age and donated it to the Himmerland Museum. So much has been written about the find that the National Museum demanded that the shield be turned over to the National Treasury. When this was done, Jorgensen received a solid reward for him at the time - enough money to pay for a new roof for his farm.
By the way, on the territory of Denmark there is no evidence of the ritual use of these shields. But on the Swedish rock paintings, we see that they are used precisely in religious rites. While shields are commonly viewed as weapons, there is no doubt that the rock carvings show that the use of these shields is cult in nature. For example, on a ship on a rock in Head, we see that two men are holding such a shield and are obviously dancing with it. Is it possible that these shields were considered symbols of the sun? Who knows?
Well, experiments with copies of these shields have shown that they are completely useless in battle. The bronze tip of the spear can easily pierce its metal, and if the shield is hit with a bronze sword, it splits in two. This suggests that the shields were used exclusively for ritual purposes.
"Chariot of the Sun" in showcase 12 of the National Museum in Copenhagen.
View of the left side of the "chariot".
But, of course, Denmark's most significant "swamp find" is the famous "Chariot of the Sun", found in September 1902 during the mining of Trundholm swamp in northwestern Zealand. The Sun Chariot was made in the early Bronze Age around 1400 BC. The elegant spiral decoration that crowns it with a golden disc of the sun indicates its northern origin. It is clear that the chariot symbolizes the movement of the Sun across the sky. Moreover, it is significant that the image of the sun was placed on the chariot. Obviously, this is how people of that time wanted to emphasize his movement. Moreover, scientists believe that the "Chariot of the Sun" is not the only one of its kind. Parts of a golden solar disk have also been found at Jägersborg-Högn in North Zealand. Perhaps he was also part of the solar chariot?
Parts of the golden sun disc from Jägersborg-Hegn (National Museum, Copenhagen)
The technology of making the "Chariot of the Sun" is very interesting. It was found that the ancient craftsmen used a complex casting technique using the "lost shape" method. All the parts of the chariot were made of wax, wax sprues and sprues were attached to them, and all this was covered with clay. Then the clay mold was fired, the wax was melted or burned out, and molten bronze was poured into the resulting cavity. Interestingly, there is a defect on the back of the horse - a hole that allows us to look inside the figure and see its inner clay core, around which bronze has been poured.
The cast "chariot" is freed from the clay plaster. Drawing by a contemporary artist.
Well, and finally, they find lurs in the swamps. What is lur? This is a pipe bent in the manner of a huge bull's horn, again entirely cast in bronze! The Lurs date back to the Late Bronze Age (about 1000 BC).
Schematic representation of different types of lures.
Most of them found Denmark, where 39 Lurs were found! They are also found in Sweden, Norway and northern Germany, but not in such stunning numbers. However, there are no such swamps as in Denmark. In Denmark, lures are usually found in pairs and are always found in marsh sediments. They were called that relatively recently, at the beginning of the 19th century. But originally this word comes from the Icelandic sagas, which say that "the soldiers were called into battle with the help of the lur." It just does not describe how this "lur" looks. However, if warriors are summoned to battle, then … nothing better than this gigantic and powerful "pipe" is simply impossible to come up with!
Lura on display at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
So Denmark, already in the Bronze Age, was a territory of high culture, which is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds, and, first of all, simply by a phenomenal number of ancient burials.
