have been accidentally found in the ground, where they have been
lost, or buried by their former owners as in a place of security.
Several such have been found under large stones, or on inclines
covered with débris. Things are seldom found in bogs here.
Discoveries of remains from the stone age are far more numerous
in Norway than of those from the bronze age; but as already
mentioned, a great many of. our stone articles must have belonged
to the bronze age. Moreover, stone objects keep much better in
the earth than bronze, which, in unfavourable circumstances, may
disappear altogether. Stone things, on the' contrary, are almost
imperishable. In this case, therefore, it would be wrong to infer
the size of the population from the number of things found. In
Norway the distribution of the population during the bronze age
was very much as it was in the stone age.
Among the permanent memorials from the bronze age, we have
the rock engravings, rough drawings, scratched upon stone. They
are most frequently found on the solid rock, on slightly sloping,
so-called «svaberg» (smooth mountain-side) ; less frequently they occur
upon large loose stones. Two classes of figures can be clearly
distinguished. The first class consists of figures that are not actual
representations of things in nature, but which must have a symbolic
significance. The second class comprises representations of
actual things in nature. It.is evident froin these pictures, that navigation
has played a very important part, and that farming was known.
The bronze age probably lasted in Norway until 300 or 400
years before the birth of Christ.’
The knowledge of iron also came to the Scandinavian countries
from the south, • namely, from the countries nearest ■— on the
north side „to the Alps. The iron age is generally reckoned as
lasting until about the year 1050 A. D., i.e. until the time when
Christianity was’ established in the country, and, as a consequence,
the heathen burial custom of burying weapons and implements
with the body ceased. The iron age is divided into two great
main divisions, viz. the early iron age until about 800 A. D.; and
the later iron age, or the viking period, from 800 to about 1050.
The early iron age is further divided into three sub-divisions, according.
to the various influences that have prevailed in thé Scandinavian
countries, namely, the pre-Roman, the Roman, and the post-
Roman or middle iron age. In the first part, the Roman influence
has not yet reached the north, in the second it is very perceptible,
PREH ISTORIC PERIODS. 125
and in the third, the antiquities exhibit a great resemblance to
those that occur in the -Frankish, Burgundian, and Anglo-Saxon
graves from the later period of migration, ■ but display to a still
greater extent than these, a barbaric development, deviating farther
and farther from the Roman patterns that had previously influenced
them. By the year 800, new influences again assert themselves,
with the commencement of the viking expeditions to the
West from the Scandinavian countries. These expeditions and the
close connection with Western Europe resulting from them, have
contributed more than anything else to give to the later iron age its
peculiar stamp here in the north. The influence from these countries
is very clearly apparent in the remains of this period.
With the close of the later iron age, the principal task of
prehistoric archseology is concluded. Prom that time the written
historical sources gain .in fulness and trustworthiness, while the
archæological sources are dried up. The introduction of the Christian
form of burial has resulted in the almost total absence of antiquities
from the period that followed. What there are go principally
to illustrate the written history; they no longer possess an independent
significance.
In the stone and thé bronze ages, Norway was poor in prehistoric
remains as compared with Sweden and Denmark. This
dissimilarity is already lost in the early iron age. As regards the
number of discoveries of antiquities, Norway^ is now not very far
behind Sweden and Denmark. Prom this it may be concluded that
the population has made more rapid progress in th e , beginning of
the iron age in Norway than in the neighbouring countries. Not
until the iron age did Norway have a population that corresponded
to her ability at that time to afford sustenance to human beings.
Norway is very abundantly furnished with antiquities from
the later iron age. Although this period comprises a much shorter
time than the early iron age, yet the number of known discoveries
of antiquities from the later iron age is about twice as many as
those from the early iron age. The graves, moreover, are generally
richer in remains than those .of Sweden and Denmark, especially
as regards weapons and all kinds of implements, the latter especially
being far more abundantly represented in Norway than in the neighbouring
countries.
The first indication of the use of letters appears in the early
iron age. The runes, which are based upon the Latin alphabet,