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Fig. 40.—Woollen shawl.
Fig. 41.—Cap.
Fig. 42.—Coarse woollen cloak.
Fig. 43.—Woollen skirt held by a striped band.
Articles of clothing, Treenhöi, Jutland.
On the left side under the cloak lay a bronze sword in a wooden sheath, of lath lined with deer-skin, the hair being inside. The hilt was ornamented by an oval bronze button at its top. There were no traces of leggings or other protection for the legs, but the feet seem to have been protected by strips of wool, and to have had leather shoes or sandals on.
Fig. 44.—Woman’s skirt and bodice of wool, found with bronze ornaments, and a bronze poniard with horn handle by the side of the body which had been wrapped in a deer-skin.—Aarhus, North Jutland.
The graves of women contain daggers, which may possibly imply that the women had been warriors; also large spiral rings, various ornaments, finger-rings, bracelets, glass beads, &c.
Women’s dress of the bronze age seems to have consisted of the skirt and bodice as at the present time, but the men’s clothes were quite different from those of the iron age; in the earlier time trousers were not worn, while we see them in use in the latter.
Many sewing implements of bronze have been found in the graves, the needles like those of the stone age are sometimes made of bone, but many are of bronze; awls were used to pierce the holes in garments that were made of skins, and some peculiar shaped knives have been found which were probably used in the making of skin clothing, or in cutting leather.
In a grave-mound near Aarhus, in North Jutland, a coffin made of two oak logs was found. The bottom of the coffin was covered with an untanned ox or deer-hide. On this lay a large cloak, made of coarse wool and cattle-hair. In the cloak, which was partly destroyed, was wrapped the skeleton of a woman dressed. The hair was long and dark, and a net covered the head, tied under the chin.
Fig. 45.—Profile of mound of the bronze age, with large coffin and unburnt body, and stone cist with cinerary urn containing burnt bones, also three smaller stone cists filled with burnt bones. Dömmerstorf, S. Halland.
Fig. 46.—Mound and sepulchral cist. The stones in this grave were of size of the fist, and formed a pavement of a diameter of about a yard. The urn contained burnt bones, among which were found a bronze awl, and fragments of a bronze saw.
Fig. 47.—Mound at Elsehoved, Fyen. At the bottom, in the centre of the mound, was found an irregular grave filled with earth, of about 4 feet 9 inches in length, 1 foot 9 inches in width, 1 foot 10 inches in depth (measured inside). Outside, on the natural soil, was spread a bed of earth, rich in charcoal, which contained remains of burnt bones and pieces of a clay urn, &c.
Burnt and unburnt bodies are sometimes found in the same mound; the latter generally at the bottom of the graves, the former at the top, this shows that the graves with unburnt bodies are considerably the older of the two. A mound with several graves may possibly have been the burial place of one family. The graves of the later bronze age are more numerous on the shores of the Baltic than in other parts of Europe. Sometimes the burnt remains have been found wrapped in clothing, and placed in an ordinary sized coffin, but more generally these burnt bones are preserved in urns of clay enclosed in a small stone cist.
Fig. 48.—Cairn covered with earth, bronze age, Kongstrup, Zealand. Diameter nearly 40 feet; height, 10 feet; covered with about 3 feet of clay, containing over thirty urns, one of which was fastened with a resin-like substance; with burnt bones and cinders, protected by little sepulchral cists made of slabs.
Fig. 49.—Mound of the bronze age, covering a double ring of stones; diameter of outside ring 86 feet; containing several burial-places, with urns and burnt bones.—Near Kallundborg, Zealand.
These stone cists of about the length of an average man are interesting as indicating the transition to the small ones containing burnt bones; some of these of a size large enough for an unburnt body have contained only a small heap of burnt bones, and evidently belonged to the period when the cremation of the dead began to prevail. Many of these little cists are only large enough to enclose a clay pot, in which the bones were collected; sometimes no coffins were found, but only clay pots containing ashes, a small bronze knife, a bit of bronze saw, or something of that kind. In some cases the bones were put simply into a hole in the mound and the whole covered with a stone slab.
Fig. 50.—Clay vase; ⅙ real size. Found in stone cist in the mound with an urn containing burnt bones, among which lay two bronze knives.—Mound at Gjöttrup, near Lögstör, Denmark.
Fig. 51.—Pot of burned clay; ¼ real size. Found in a mound with urns and bronze objects.—Vidstrup, Hjörring amt, Denmark.
Fig. 52.—Cinerary urn,⅙ real size. Burnt bones.—Holstein.
Fig. 53.—Cinerary urn,⅙ real size. With burnt bones.—Jutland.
Fig. 54.—Fragment of woollen cloth. Real size. Found at the bottom of a mound at Dömmestorp, in Halland; in a fold of it lay a well-preserved bronze poniard with its leather scabbard. The shawl was 5 feet long and 20 inches wide.
Fig. 55.—Maglehöj mound; height about 14 feet, diameter 40 to 50 feet; with sepulchral chamber, height, 5 feet; width, 5½ feet; length, 7 feet. Inside the chamber the ground was laid with cobble-stones; on top of these flint-stones, 2 to 3 inches in thickness; and then again a layer of cobble-stones, and among these were found: a diadem of bronze, two pieces of shields or breast-armour, the blade of a dagger, &c., &c.—Zeeland.
Fig. 56.—Floor of chamber.—Maglehöj.
Fig. 57.—Interior of chamber with cinerary urn.—Maglehöj.
Fig. 58.—Gold vessel,½ real size, found with ten other similar ones. All of 20-carat gold. Placed with the handles downward in the bronze urn, Fyen (see p. 101).