The Viking Age (Vol. 1&2) - Paul B. Du Chaillu

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2 feet wide, and turns south-west. The space between the boulders is filled with small stones. In the chamber were charcoal and different things. To the left of the entrance lay remains of two skulls close to each other; and spread in every direction were daggers, blades, and points of spears, points of arrows, numerous amber beads, a necklace of amber, four clay vessels, and fragments of others, &c.

      Fig. 14.—Entrance to passage grave at Uby, Holbæk amt, Denmark. Diameter 100 feet, height 14 feet. The length of the chamber is 13½ feet, width 7½ feet, height 7½ feet. Entrance towards the south passage is 18 feet long, 2½ feet wide, and 5½ feet high. There were found in the passage many human bones and several flint implements and three small clay urns.

      The isolated stone coffins were formed of flat upright stones, and were four-sided, though the two longer sides were not parallel, thus making the coffin narrower at one end than at the other. Most of them were probably covered with one or more stones; and although these have in many places long ago been destroyed or removed, they are sometimes still found in their place. The direction of these coffins is almost always from north to south, and they are generally surrounded by a mound of stones of more or less stone-mixed earth. This form of grave was probably the outcome of the omission of the passage. Several intermediate forms have been found, showing how the passage was gradually lessened until it can only be traced in the opening which narrows at the south end of the coffin.

      Fig. 15.—Interior of the passage grave at Uby. The spaces between the large stones filled with pebbles. The roof is formed by two large stones which have been cut from a large block.

      The length of the stone coffin was generally from 8 to 13½ feet, width from 3 to 5 feet, height from 2½ to 5 feet. A few, especially in Vestergötland, are from 19½ to 31 feet in length, one of the longest graves of this kind in Sweden being one on Stora Lundskulla, in Vestergötland, with a length of 34 feet, and width of 8 feet. Nearly all other stone coffins found are, like the gallery graves, without a stone at the southern end. This cannot be accidental.

      Besides the stone coffin above described, several have been found covered with a mound. The chambers are generally formed of upright flat stones, and roofed also with stones. They are generally smaller than the stone coffins, being from 6 to 10 feet long, and closed on all four sides; sometimes, however, there is found in the southern end an opening as previously mentioned.

      POTTERY.

      Fig. 16.—Clay urn—Stone age—⅓ real size. In passage grave, Stege, island of Möen, Baltic, found with remains of some skeletons. Two stone axes, a flint saw, 2 arrow-points, 3 spear-heads, fragments of clay vessels with covers, pieces of a wooden tub, 2 awls of bone, a chisel of bone, 3 flint wedges, 2 flat scrapers of flint, and 17 amber beads for necklace were also found in the grave. The same mound was afterwards used for burials belonging to the bronze age, with cinerary urns with burned bones, on the top of which was a double-edged bronze knife, &c.

      Fig. 17.—Amber-beads forming a necklace found in the grave with the clay urn.

       The same mound was afterwards used for burial belonging to the bronze age; near the top, and entirely separate from the burial-chambers, there was discovered a very small stone coffin containing an urn with burnt bones, and on these lay a fine double-edged knife, a knife, and a pair of pincers, all of bronze.

      Fig. 18.—Clay vessel found near Fredericia, Jutland. ⅓ real size.

      Fig. 19.—Clay urn. Stone age grave, with flint weapons and amber-beads. ⅓ real size. Island of Möen.

      POTTERY OF THE STONE AGE.

      Fig. 20.—Necklace of amber beads found with other amber beads and ornaments, altogether about 2,500, in a bog at the hamlet of Lœsten, Viborg amt, Jutland. ¼ real size.

      Fig. 21.—Clay vessel which had a top, Stone age. ⅓ real size.—Möen.

      Fig. 22.—Stone axes, of the form of some bronze axes. Several specimens in the Copenhagen Museum. ⅓ real size.—Fyen.

       The two axes in this page are given on account of their peculiar form, similar

       to that of the bronze age. Many other forms of weapons will be found

       illustrated in ‘The Land of the Midnight Sun.’

      Fig. 23.—Clay vessel found in a burial chamber with flint implements and other objects near Aalborg, Denmark. ⅓ real size.

      Fig. 24.—Clay vessel found in a large passage grave, with flint, and other implements, near Haderslev, Slesvig. ⅓ real size.

      CHAPTER IX.

       THE BRONZE AGE.

       Table of Contents

      Abundance of gold—Stone occasionally used for arrow-heads—Pottery—Graves—Commencement of cremation—Objects of this period—Proficiency in the art of casting—Weapons—Ornaments more varied than in the stone age—The Kivik grave—Oak coffins—Clothing of the bronze age—Sewing implements—Burnt and unburnt bodies sometimes found in the same grave—Gold vessels and ornaments—Bronze vessels—Battle-horns—Bronze knives.

      While the three ages to some extent overlap, while we find stone articles running into the bronze age, and bronze and even stone into the iron age, still the distinction between the three periods is too clearly marked to be overlooked. Thus in the bronze age, characterised by the use of that metal and of gold, the weapons were almost entirely of bronze; amber still continued to be used for ornaments, and towards the close of this epoch glass, in the shape of beads, and iron appeared, but silver seems to have been unknown. Sometimes stone continued to be used for arrow-heads and spear-points.

      The pottery shows a distinct improvement on that of the stone age.

      The graves of the bronze age, as in the preceding stone age, are covered by a mound of earth, or a cairn, and contain several burial places. During the latter part of the bronze age the custom of burning the dead was introduced, but in the earlier part the bodies were unburnt. When the custom of cremation commenced and how long it lasted it is utterly impossible to tell, but from the numerous finds it is evident that it must have been in use long before iron became known. The graves of this period also generally lie on the top of some high hill, or the cairns are placed on the summit of some promontory having an unobstructed view of the sea or some large sheet of water. These graves prove that the shores of the Baltic and of the Cattegat were once thickly inhabited by a people having the same customs and religion; and from the situations of the graves, as well as from the objects, etc., in them, we learn that they were a seafaring people. North of the great lakes on the large Scandinavian peninsula these antiquities become more rare, thus showing that country not to have been so thickly settled.

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