er'ea THE UNIVERSITY-MUSEUM UC-NRLF OF B ^ 1st lit rORTHERN ANTIQUITIES IN CHRISTIANIA A SHv)R'i' (lUIDK FOR VISITORS Dr INGVALD I >ET CIIRISITANIA :i)lli:i) \\\ A KB. CAMMKKMKVhK 18S9 .^^^^^^ fcv THE UNIVERSITY-MUSEUM OF NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES CHRISTIANIA A SHORT GUIDE FOR VISITORS Dr ingvald undset CHRIS' EDITED BV ALB. CAMMERMEVER i8Sq DENICKE DET MALLINGSKE EOGTRYKKERI. The first beginning of the Museum dates as far back as 1811, in which year the Royal Society for the Promotion of the Good of the Country founded a collection of national antiquities. In 181 7 it was made over to the University which from the year 1828 set to work to enlarge it. It was not. however, till the year 1862 that it began to grow more quickly, from 1867 chiefly owing to the regular excavations made every year by the Archaeological Society. The Collection at present (April 1889) contains about 14,600 numbers. As it is now greatly in want of more room, it is proposed to erect a new, separate building. In order to get an idea how rich the Country is in antiquitie one must take into account the Museum in Bergen and also the provincial Collections in Arendal, Stavanger, Trondhjem and Tromso. The Museum is open to the public on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays from 12 — 2. The old Viking-ships, the property of the Museum, are kept in separate buildings in the garden at the back of the University. They may be seen at any time on application to the porter in the Central building. 110359 FIRST ROOM (TO THE RIGHT, AT THK FARTHER END). THE STONE AGE 1 he oldest inhabitants of Norway were as ignorant of the use of metal, as those of the other old European countries. They lived in a stone age. The first inhabitants probably came here from Sweden and Denmark in the Neolithic period; the oldest and most frequent discoveries have been made chiefly in Southern Norway and along the coast. The beginning of the stone age in our country dates long before the birth of Christ. The principal material was flint, which is also found in natural blocks in several places on the Southern coast, where workshops for the fabrication of flint implements have been discovered (see the cases 5—7). Most stone objects are found loose in the earth; graves from that time, containing skeletons buried with stone objects beside them, are extremely rare with us. The stone implements have been made by means of other stones and by grinding. The first inhabitants of our country probably lived chiefly by hunting and fishing; they may also have kept cattle, but nothing has been discovered which would give us any definite idea of their way of living. Especially in the most Northern parts of our country a singular group of stone objects of peculiar shape and of a peculiar material, slate, has been found. These Arctic objects are sup- posed to have been relics from the stone age of the Laps, which may, however, in a measure date back rather not so far. Fig. 1—6 show some of the most common Norwegian types of the stone age, fig. 7—8 belong to the Arctic group. 6 — Fig. I. Fit:. 2. Fig. 3- Fig. 4. Fig. 5- Fig. 6. — 7 — In the case no. lO are exhibited specimens from «kitchen middens^ and things found on the coasts in Denmark, which are the oldest traces of man's appearance in the North. Relics from this early time, the older stone age in the North, have not, however, been found in Norway. Case 9 contains objects of stone found in Denmark, exhibi- ted for the sake of comparison. Otherwise the museum contains only objects found in Norway. On the top shelf in this case is to be seen a stone axe with a wooden handle; the handle is fashioned after an antique original found in a Danish marsh. Fig. 8. Fig. 7. In the wall-cases 1 — 2 stone axes with a hole for the handle, of granite and other kinds of native stone, are suspended. Special attention is directed to several fine boat-shaped axes and some clubs of stone with four arms. At the bottom of case I are seen grindstones of quartz, on which stone-imple- ments were polished ; in case 2 unfinished stone axes, in which the hole in the handle is only commenced. It will be seen that the boring has been made with a wooden pin, sand, and water, or with a hollow implement such as the bone of an animal. It has been proved by experiments that axes, even of the hardest kinds of stone, in this manner could be bored through in a few hours. In case 4 arc seen axes, chisels, points of spears and of arrows and other implements, chiefly oi flint. — On the bottom shelf are seen objects of slate (Fig. 7 — 8) belonging to the arctic group mentioned in the introduction, most of them found in the North of the country. In the cases 5 — 6 are pieces of flint gathered from the places for making flint implements, especially on the Jaederen. There are a few implements which are failures ; most of the pieces must however, be considered as refuse from the manufactory. Case 7 contains objects from a manufacture, where chisels have been made of a kind of native stone, a clayey slate, and ground on sandstones. In case 8 are seen among other objects a few peculiar large implements ot flint, possibly dating from a very distant period, found in the most southern part of the country. THE BRONZE AGE (FIRST ROOM, TO THE LEFT). A very early and distant period of the development of Europe is known by the name of the Bronze age, the objects found of that period consisting only of weapons and implements of bronze, with not the slightest trace of iron. Those objects of bronze present peculiar tasteful shapes and ornaments. Types and forms peculiar to the various countries, were made every- where in Europe of the imported material and after models, im- ported from the South and South-east. An especially rich and fine bronze age has existed in the North (Northern Germany, Denmark and Southern Sweden) and to this group belong also the not very numerous objects of the kind, found in Norway. In the earlier part of this age, corpses were buried, without cremation, in large sepulchral chambers, made in mounds; later on they were cremated, and the burnt bones were put into urns and placed in mounds, often at the top of those which already enclo- sed older sepulchres at the bottom. In Norway,- discoveries from the earlier period have chiefly been made in the southern districts and on the West-coast. In South-Eastern Norway, discoveries from the later period of this age are the most frequent. Kig. II, a. Fig. II, 1,. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. — 10 — The Cases ii — 12 exhibit a variety of objects in bronze from difterent parts of the country; finer tasteful shapes can be noticed. Those acquainted with the great quantity of bronze in the museums of Copenhagen and Stockhohn, will, however, be surprised at the scarcity of it here; the inhabitants of distant Norway no doubt at this time, continued to make use of their stone implements. The bronze objects may generally be ascribed to the. thousand years before Christ. Fig. 9 — 13 show some bronzes, found in Norway. SECOND ROOM. THE OLDER IRON AGE. The beginning of the iron age in Northern Europe dates, on the whole, from influences arising from the civilization pre- vailing among the nations of southern Central Europe, in the last centuries before Christ. Traces of such ante-Roman influences may also be observed in Norway, but it is only when the Ro- mans at the time of Christ's birth had established themselves north of the Alps, and from those stations and colonies begun to influence the civilization even of distant nations, that our discoveries show a powerful, fully developed iron-age-civilization. The first objects of iron were imported, but the people soon learned to utilize the native iron ore, found in marshes and meadows. A. The discoveries of the oldest iron age were made in South Eastern Norway, in the districts surrounding the Christiania- fjord. They consisted of burnt-places and graves with urns placed on even ground, in little low mounds, with burnt bones, loose in the earth, or in urns of clay and wooden vessels (of which gene- rally only the resin used for soldering is left); small objects for use or ornaments are placed in the grave, rarely weapons. These graves are, on the whole, of the same kind with the later urti- fields in more Southern countries. With the exception of a few ante-Roman forms, they chiefly contain articles showing the .first Roman influences, B. A later period is generally indicated by mounds con- taining small stone chests, in which are urns of clay or vessels of bronze with burnt bones, with ornaments and more valuable ob- jects, often purposely destroyed weapons, placed beside them. This latter custom, which also is a common one in the later iron age, must have been founded on a religious belief that the objects had to be killed in order to accompany the dead person to the other world. It is not rare in those graves to find vessels of bronze and glass etc. which had evidently been imported from the civilized Roman world. C. A still later time is indicated by the mounds enclosing large coffins made of stone-slabs, with skeletons and man)- things of value placed beside the latter. Here we not only find a great number of Roman objects dating from a later period, but also articles proving that those graves partly run parallel with the l)eculiar Germanic civilization which on a Roman foundation flourished in West-Europe. We here see the clearly defined Nor- wegian types developed as imitations and remodellings of those imported from abroad. In this older iron age the knowledge of written characters also first appears in the North. The Runic characters of that time are among the Southern Germa^iic nations formed after a peculiar kind of the Latin alphabet. Those inscriptions, on stone or metal, are, however, short, but very valuable from a linguistic point of view, as they make us acquainted with the language of our ancestors in a very antique form. In the cases 13 — 15 are exhibited objects of gold and valuables, mostly found loose in the earth, treasures concealed in the olden time. In case 13, at the upper end to the right, nr. 1944, are fragments of a splendid Roman glass vessel, of a blue colour with figures in relief of white glass on the blue ground, no doubt remnants of a pendent to the famous Portland-vase in the British Museum (from the sarcophagus of Alexander Severus A. D, 230). Through being sold or robbed, it was probably brought to the North, where it appears to have been fitted with the thin gold hoops with barbarian ornaments which are in the box close by. It was ploughed up at h'Aer, near Dram men. In the cases 14 and 15 we specially notice numerous gold-bracteates, ornaments to be suspended resembling coins, of Northern workmanship, stamped only on one side. On the tablets above the cases 23 and 26 we sec casts of various forms of similar pieces from the museums in Fig. 14- ^"ig 15- Fit:. 1 6 FiiT 17. Fig. iS. J-iK- 19- l-\. 2,. Fig. Fig. 20. — 14 — Copenhagen and Stockholm. These show us how the Northern bracteates gradually were developed as imitations, and repetitions of imitations, of Roman gold coins from the 4th century. In the 5th — 7th cent, the stamps become more and more barUfcrian, and the more so the farther north we go. hi case 15 we observe a great number of gold ringfe that have been cut in pieces; these were « payment rings », of which pieces were cut and weighed, when goods were paid for. In case 36 is seen a small apparatus for weighing (in a modern case) found in a mound. Case 16 chiefly contains fibular, buckles. We notice the development of the forms from the imported Roman ones, through forms, similar to those in England named ^the Saxon ones, to those of the later period (the middle iron age), the large Northern ornamental buckles, of which the largest known specimen is seen in case 18. It was found in a mound near Trondhjem. The oblong stones (of quartz) in case 18 were used for striking fire. In the wall-cases 18 — 21 are seen grave vessels, chiefly of bronze; the one to the left and the glass vessels, have been imported from the districts of the Roman civilization. The clay urns, shaped like flower pots, represent a peculiar Norwegian type. In the cases 22 — 23 are seen clay urns of different shapes and sizes, found in mounds, used partly as receptacles for burnt bones in small stone chests, partly as furniture for skele- tons in large sepulchral chambers. At the bottom of cases 26 — 29 are specimens of objects of the most ancient kinds yet discovered (see A.). In the cases 20 — 31 are chiefly exhibited such objects as are mentioned at B, in 32 — 33 objects found in large sepulchral chambers (see C); likewise on the shelves in the wall-cases 24 — 25, and on the bottom shelves of 34 — 35. This period in Norway extends far into the 8th Century. Fig. 14 — 22 show types of this period, found in Norway. THIRD AND FOURTH ROOM. THE LATER IRON AGE At the introduction of Christianity, the custom of embellishing the graves of the departed with the weapons, implements, and ornaments they had used while Hving, disappears in the different countries. Because the new rehgion only obtained firm footing in Norway several centuries later (about a. d. icmdo) than in the southern and western countries, the things discovered in our graves represent a period (about a. d. 8oo — lOOO aft. Chr.) which cannot anywhere else be so completely illlustrated by or- naments, implements and weapons. Of all countries Norway is extremly rich in discoveries from this time. Cremation is in this period by far the [)reponderating ritus. Specially interesting is the not uncommon custom to bury the remains of the dead in a vessel deposited in a mound. A splendid specimen of this is offered by the famous Viking ship from Gokstad, which is kept in a separate building at the back of the university (a short guide to it by Dr. Ingvald Undset can be obtained on the spot). Our discoveries from this period extend over the whole of the country, as far north as Finmar- kens Amt (70° n. b.); they show that now much clearing and cultivation had taken place even in the interior of the country. The later iron age is the age of the Vikings, of the Normans. Hence the objects discovered afford many proofs of connections with foreign countries, chiefly foreign coins and numerous ornaments, which generally exhibit the native style of the Celtic countries of the West (especially Ireland) and conse- cjuently must have been imported from thence. Many other objects, too, show us strange forms, partly remodelled in the North in a peculiar way. In this period, another Runic alphabet was used in the North for writing, distinct from that in use in the earlier iron age, consisting of only 16 characters instead of the 24 of the older alphabet. The discoveries made in our graves from that time are remarkable for great variety of objects, weapons and ornaments, implements and tools for man's as well as worman's work. Several of these varieties of implements have, with but few alte- rations, been in use among our peasantry up to the latest times. In case 39 are several objects found in graves which afford special interest by showing us foreign coins, which enable us to fix their exact age. In one place we find 6 Frankian coins (of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious) and one Anglo-Saxon (from about y. 800). They have all been pierced and thus in Norway been used as ornaments. In another place we see two 1 6 l-'iR- 23. fig. 24. Fig. 25. ill Fig. 26. mm Fig. 27. Fi». 20. — IcS — Arabian silver coins from about y. 900. They have come to the North from the South-East through Russia, through mercantile transactions which in the 9th and loth century brought great quantities of oriental silver up to the Eastern countries of the North. hi case 42, close to the entrance, lie the metallic objects found in the wooden sepulchral chamber in the Viking ship from Gokstad. As may be seen at the ship (kept in a sepa- rate wooden shed in the garden at the back of the university), tnis grave has been robbed already in the olden time. Therefore no weapons or other valuable objects of metal were found, only the fragments of small things here exhibited, which were scattered in the earth inside the chamber. They are mostly mountings on strappings, of lead and gilt bronze; of the latter, special notice should be taken af some pieces marked with animal and equestrian figures (fig. 27), Case 45 contains several discoveries from female graves, chiefly consisting of ornaments, mostly beads of coloured glass, crystal and amber. As will be seen, considerable uniformity prevails in the numerous discoveries from this age, as to the forms of the weapons, implements, and ornaments. When closely examined, however, we find many differences and variations, which cannot, of course, be commented upon here. The next room still contains objects from the same later iron age, chiefly arranged in series after the various forms, not in collected discoveries. In the cases 62 — 65 are series of swords, arrows, spears, axes etc. from various places. Several of the swords have handles inlaid with bronze or silver, and show, on the blade, traces of the name of the maker in Damascene work. On the wall opposite the windows, two pieces of iron chain- mail armour of this period are suspended, made in a manner that was in use already in the time of the Romans and far into the middle ages. In the cases 66 — 68 are gold and silver objects, chiefly from discovered hidden treasures. Special notice should be taken of the gold spur, with a strap-button belonging to it, with handsome ornaments, in case 67, to the left. It was found in the earth near Moss, south of Christiania. The whole of Fig- 31- the right side of the desk is filled uj) with a rich discovery from Eker, above Drammcn: IJyzantian and Arabian coins, a small medallion with a Greek inscription, a small carneol with a Mer- cury in intaglio^ buckle with three points and ornamented in Carolingian style. All this shows that a great deal of this treasure were things imported from Byzantium. The treasure which con- tained above 5 "K of gold, had evidently been buried in the second half of the 9th century. hi case 69, the numerous pieces with ornaments in the Celtic style, placed in the middle of the case, must be specially pointed out among the ornaments of gilt bronze; these have no doubt been brought home from h'eland or Scotland. Similar articles arc not uncommonly found in Norway, especially on the West coast. In the wall-cases 70 — 71, at the bottom, are fragments of the peculiar bronze bowl-shaped brooches which were worn in pairs, hi the other cases, and especialy in 72 — 73, are implements of various kinds, some of them similar to those still in use by our peasantry. hi case 71 between the windows are vessels of soap- stone or small iron plates riveted together. Pots of cast iron were quite unknown here in heathen times and much later still. Fig. 23—31 show objects from this period, all found in' Norway. FIFTH AND SIXTH ROOM. THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AGE. At the introduction of Christianity into Norway, at the beginning of the nth century, the custom of furnishing the dead in their graves with the things they chiefly had used in this life, ceases. Thus we have no certain information of the objects in use and the ornaments common at that time. What the museum contains of things from that period, chiefly consists of church objects, partly inventaries, such as altar cupboards, of which several are seen round about in the 5th room, hi all these, the national Saint of Norway, the sainted King Olav, is re- presented in the traditional style, dressed in royal robes and crown, holding the axe in- his right hand, the chalice in his left. and with his foot on a drat^on with a crowned human head, symbohzint; his victory over paganism. In case 76, arc several pieces of gilt copper with ena- melled ornaments. These are partly figures from crucifi.NCS, partly mountings of rehqvaries, probably imported foreign work. In case 77 are several objects with Runic inscriptions, from the 13th — 14th century, in the later enlarged alphabet. Most conspicuous of this period, are the carved porches from our old wooden churches. The Romanesque style has in Norway developed a peculiar form of churches called Stave- kirker, of which a specimen ma>' be seen at Bygdi*, near Oskarshal (Gol church, removed from Hallingdal). Several hand- some porches from such churches arc exhibited here. The most interesting of these, however, are some in the sixth room, some of the carvings of which are representations of our old heroic legends. On the door-planks from Hyllestad church in the Sittersdal (Fig. 32) are, at the bottom on the right one, seen the dwarf Regin forging the sword for Sigurd, above that, Sigurd trying the sword by striking against the anvil, then Sigurd killing Favne, the dragon. At the bottom of the other plank, we see Sigurd frying the heart of the dragon; he puts his finger with some of the blood on to his lips to taste it, and thus learns to understand the language of the birds! Above we see the 3 birds which according to the lulda-song warn him against the dwarf. Next we see Sigurd's horse Grane with the treasure in a chest on his back; above this Sigurd killing Regin the dwarf. At the top, we see a figure from another legend, Gunnar in the snake pen, playing with his feet on the harp. This curious porch probably dates from the time about A. D. 1200. This room further contains a couple of interesting old chairs, richly ornamented carvings, and also the tombstone of a woman related to the royal house of Norway, from the 14th century. 7th ROOM. THE MORE MODERN TIME. From the time after the Reformation, the museum chielly contains objects illustrating the native antiquities of the last centuries. Fig. 32. mt lri>M'..."iM k».M — 23 — In wall-cases 85 — 86 \vc notice parts of a bridal costume, from Thelemarken and the western districts; in the cases 88—89 national silver ornaments. Case 94 contains national musical instruments {Jangeleiker) from the mountain parishes. Cases 95 — 96 mostly contain furniture from the later centuries; at the top on the wall is placed an interesting picture of a peasant from the Sa.'tersdal with his two wives and nume- rous children. Beside these cases, is a specimen of the old national high loom. On the wall opposite the entrance, is a piece of tapestry for coverincj the wall above the elevated seat at the head of the table, (^n it Lot and his daughters are represented, and it bears the date of the year 1579. It is from Thelemarken and is a national imitation of the foreign gobelins, showing us the starting point of the national tapestry-work which still exists, especially in tl^e Gudbrandsdal. At the bottom of the wall, a great number of calender staves are suspended, and also some rollers. In the cases 99 and lOO we see articles found in graves from the heathen time of the Lapps in the most northern parts of our country. In the garden at the back of the university, the Viking ships from Gokstad and Tune are kept in separate buildings (a guide is to be had in the building). A few old Runic stones are also exhibited. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. JftN24 1948 m.'s&M.^'di LD 21-100»i-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 Ill i 1. II lil iliJio COSlDbSSDS