xviii description of tiie plates,
communicates some interesting facts, which« may suggest the topics
Of future inquiry.*
“ Over many parts of Denmark are scattered earthen mounds,
which are termed in the country ‘ Jettehoie %or Giants’ tombs •
They are regarded as relics of the olden time. Their vast number,
proves, says the author, that they were not raised during one« age,
and history records that the custom of erecting mounds over the
dead prevailed in the north of Europe for many centuries previous
to the introduction of the Christian religion. That these monuments
belonged to different ages isTurther evinced, by the difference
of their structure, and of the relics of ancient art which have been
discovered in them. For a long period of time it seems to have
been customary to deposit in these graves burnt bodies,'or merely
collections of burnt bones in earthen vessels: but this was not the
oldest custom, nor .was it universally prevalent: we sometimes find
bones in earthen vessels in the same graves with entire'skeletons.
With the dead it was usual-to bury various articles, such as his-
weapons, working tools, ornaments, and some religious tokens,
probably amulets, fetisses or talismans. In the later pagan 'times
such things were-of bronze, sometimes of gold, seldom of silver, of
iron: in the more ancient times the: ornaments were generally of
amber, and the weapons and implements of stone or bone;,seldom,;
perhaps never, of metal. This circumstance furnishes thp ground
for distinguishing the sepulchral remains of the northern land -ag;
belonging to different chronological eras.” :''
“ Now, as we are obliged to admit that iron was known to the
nations of Gothic or German race, who inhabited Sweden,, Denmark,
and Norway; from an early age, and who were the ancestors
of the present Swedes and Danes, we must refer the existence of
the earliest class of these remains to a period ending two thousand
years ago, and reaching back not only beyond authentic historical
memorials, but even beyond the earliest traditions. It is evident
that they belonged to a people older than the Danes. ■ Who were
this, people? The early traditions speak of giants, elfs, the hereditary
enemies of the Goths, and it is highly probable that under
these names were designated that ancient race whose indefatigable
industry, supplied the want of metal. As history gives little inforr
* I am indebted for the opportunity j>{ consulting this memoir to the kindness
of Professor Owen. The drawing has'been taken by thé permission
of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, in'whose Museum the cast
is deposited. ,
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. XIX
mation, a research into the contents of the sepulchral mounds themselves
seems to be the only resource for elucidating this question.
“ Though many of thesegraves have been opened, and in some not
fewer than twenty skeletons! have been discovered, there is yet not
one entire skeleton in any museum in Denmark. ;
“ In the summer of 1836>-M...Hage of Stege, in the isle of Moen,:
ordered two mounds to be opened, which were situated close together,
near‘Byefi : the style and contents-of these barrows prove that they
belonged tb tbe;Oldest''’ period of similar remains. An opening, in
the southern end of each mound affords an entrance to a narrow
passage, whteh leads into a chamber in1 the 1 centre of the mound ;
the passage's,1 as well1’as the chambefy are formediby means of rough
stones of' a flat- shape. The sepulchral chambers are fourteen or
sixteen ells lafigf between four and five broad,- and two ells and a
half* high.” From this- account it would appear that thesemldest
‘ Jettehoie5 or“ * Gravhoie;’ in the Danish islands, . bear a close
rébèm-blanee to our long sepulchral barrows in Britain. Some of
them4dntain, aslt seems, ten-br even twenty;human skeletons; Three
skulls were procured by Professor Eschricht from one of ; the tumuli
above mentioned'. ’ They are described and figured- in the memoir,
and "the1 east sent to the Museum was taken from one of them.:
Pr6#Ss0r r®sehricht afterward s compared diese : skulls, and the
rhlie#6f art found in the Same barrows, witb.several extensive col^
lections of similar remains in the Danish museums, particularly
with the contents of sepulchral mounds near Hellested*in' Sjælland..
The result Seems to be, that the shape of the skulls is very similar in
all the tombs which belong to the first;age, or that of stone, implements.
In “thèse tumuli there are numerous ornaments of amber,
Weapons of stone and of bone, but no relies that indicate the knowledge
of metals among the people who deposited them. These
tumuli are very numerous, and extensively spread, showing that
the tribe to which|they belonged were forages the sole inhabitants
of* the northern countries. In aperies of -barrows different from:
those described ornaments, such as rings of gold, sometimes of
copper or of bronze, make• their appearance; and these belong
evidently to a much later period of ■ Paganism-. A third age succeeds,
which is that of iron instruments and weapons : the people
whose relics are found in these last are supposed to have been the
ancestors of the Danes, namëly, of the Iutief Gothic or Germano-
Scandinavian race.
We still want more precise information, as to the osteological