The Egtvedgirl / Egtvedpigen

Egtvedpigen is a famous Danish grave-find from Bronze Age and one of the best preserved,especially for her wellkept dress, which brought new knowledge about Denmark's past. She was considered a Danish girl from the beginning, but new knowledge and analyses have shown that she was born and grew up in south western Germany.

Egtvedgirl, National Museum.

yarrow from the hill, july 2010/gb

A Jutland farmer wanted in 1921 to remove the rest of a great hill, named "Storehøj", in his fields to make room for sowing, but while he was digging he hit a two meter long oak coffin. "Storehøj" was at that time outdigged and almost flat , but the wellkept grave with the oak coffin and a young girl's  body was placed in the eastern part of the hill. The coffin was an outhollowed barked oak trunk, one half was the coffin, the other a lid. The oak coffin is dated to year 1370 BC. Everything was found placed in the coffin as it were almost 3500 years ago. The coffin was lined with cow skin and the body of a young girl was placed carefully on the soft skin surrounded by her grave goods and covered with a woolen blanket -  and the coffin was closed . A little yarrow flower was put on the edge of the coffin before the lid was put on. The yarrow reveals that she was buried on a summer's day.

Storhøj in july 2010/gb

The region of Egtved was at that time of Bronze Age a power center in Jutland. Southern Germany and Denmark were two dominating power centers in western Europe. The archaeological material reveals that there are many direct connections between the two regions. One theory is that the Egtvedgirl was a girl from southern Germany who was to marry a powerful chief in Jutland in order to seal an alliance between two strong families. She was buried in a hill of her own, she was a person of high status. On a summer's day in 1370 BC her body was carefully buried in an oak coffin and covered by a grave hill, later named "Storehøj", close to Egtved village west of Vejle city. Her story is a fascinating tale from Bronze Age, and only because of her early death and burial in the grave hill at Egtved we are now able to discover more about the Bronze Age people. 

bronze belt plate(from Langstrup)/ wikipedia

The Egtvedgirl's teeth tell us that she was about 16-18 years old when she died. Although her skin and body parts are gone the find is still exceptional, since her dress and grave goods are very well preserved. She was carefully wrapped in a cow skin and covered by a woolen blanket. Her dress was a short-sleeved blouse, a kneelong cord skirt and a woven belt, mounted with a circular bronze belt plate , decorated with a spiral pattern. The belt plate symbolized the sun, the most important element of the Bronze Age religion. Fastened at her belt was a comb made of horn,  and her feet were wrapped in pieces of cloth. She had a bronze arm ring on borth arms and a fragile ear ring in one ear. A little wooden bowl beside her contained the rests of a fermented fruit drink - some kind of beer - and in a small box made of linden barch were a bradawl and the rests of a hair net. At her feet was a bundle of cloth with the burnt bones of a 5-6 year old child, and at her head a small box of birch-barch bones from the same child.

In the coffin was a wooden bowl, which in the bottom had a layer of thick brown precipitation. When the content was analysed it was obvious that it had contained a fermented drink, probably honey-sweetened beer. The drink was made by lingonberry or cranberry. Besides this were wheatgrains, rests of sweet gale and large amounts of pollen from the lime tree. The Egtvedgirl's brew is now put into production after 3.300 years. 

National Museum /Egtved girl/wikipedia

The grave hill "Storehøj" is reconstructed today, and in attachment is a small museum with permanent exhibitions and alternate activities. The Egtvedgirl is considered one of the best kept Bronze Age finds i Danish history and she is one of the most famous persons from antiquity.  She is today at exhibition at the National Museum in Copenhagen, and she is one of more than 20 Danish grave finds from Bronze Age which is unique worldwide.


New knowledge.

Schwarzwald, wikipedia/gb

The Egtvedgirl was not born in Egtved. She was from the start considered a Danish girl but today we know that she was born and grew up many hundred kilometers from Denmark. Analyses by help of the isotope strontium of her hair, teeth and nails show that she was born and grew up , probably in southwestern Germany -  and that she came to Egtved shortly before her death. The analyses of her hair and a thumb nail show that she travelled back and forth during the two last years of her life. This new knowledge tells us that the Bronze Age people travelled long distances in a relatively short time. The people of Bronze Age lived in a cosmopolitic and dymamic world.

the small museum/wikipedia

belt plate and arm ring/museum/gb

barch box/ july 2010/ museum/gb

The wool from her dress, the blanket and the cow skin come from a region outside Denmark. The wool comes from sheep which grass in various places or in a relatively big area with a complex geology  - and this is found in South West Germany. A combination of various analyses point to that the girl, her dress and the cow skin come from Schwarzwald (800 km south of Egtved). The same goes for the cremated rests of a six year old child, who was buried with her.

medieval market, Egtved july 2010/gb

landscape Egtved, july 2010/gb

The dating of the Egtvedgirl's coffin is a summer's day year 1370 BC. It is possible that the Egtvedgirl left Germany and went to Jutland to marry a great man's son, but after a few months she went back home to fetch a child from her home region, maybe a little brother or little sister who should be fostered in Egtved.  The child got sick and died underway, and the body was burnt, which made it easier to transport. The Egtvedgirl's hair shows that she has either suffered from starvation or been sick on the tour. Maybe she was still sick when she arrived at Egtved where she died shortly after and was buried with the child. She is the only person from Bronze Age, who was buried with the burnt bones from a child. The child was too old to be her own, but it might be her brother or sister whom she brought to Denmark to be fostered by her family in law. The analyses say that the child and the Egtvedgirl came from the same region. 

Theories:

Human sacrifice?
In the grave was a bundle with the burnt bones of a 5-6 year old child. The child was too old to be the girl's own child.  Maybe it was her little brother or sister or maybe a child who was sacrificed. From another woman grave in Bronze Age from the southern part of Jutland  is known a possible human sacrifice. The grave was examinated in the 1980s. Here was the body of a woman with a very rich grave equipment. At her feet were the burnt bones from a grown human, maybe her personal slave who was killed and burnt when she died? Possible human sacrifices are known from some contemporary graves in Bronze Age.

Dance rituals?
The Egtvedgirl was dressed in a significant cord skirt which reached her knees, it was wrapped twice around her waist and was about 38 cm long. That kind of skirt was used through Bronze Age. Some small women figures in bronze, found at Zealand, are also dressed in cord skirts. It has been suggested that the figures depict rituals which was made at the cult-feasts. Maybe women dressed in cord skirts danced ritual dances, and maybe the Egtvedgirl took part in these dance rituals.

Storhøj july 2010/gb

 

Source:  Det Natur og Biovidenskabelige fakultet, Københavns Universitet. .

professor Karin Margarita Frei,  Københavns Universitet
professor Kristian Kristiansen, Gøteborg Universitet. 

photo: wikipedia
photo: grethe bachmann, july 2010.

The Vikings - The Ring Castles in Denmark

1) Trelleborg

Trelleborg house, photo: grethe bachmann 2004

A special class of monuments from the Viking Age are four ring castles or military camps in Denmark  The earliest found is Trelleborg at Sjælland (Zealand). It lies in the western part of Sjælland ab. 4 km west of the town Slagelse, between this and Storebælt, where two rivers meet - and from here they are running as one river out into the sea north of the town Korsør. The Viking ring castles are colloquially known as "Trelleborge". The ring castle Trelleborg at Sjælland was placed upon the land between two rivers in the late Viking period, the excavations showed that it probably was built upon an ancient blót-place, which was seen from several sacrifice pits and from some house-rests. After comprehensive fill- and levelling work the castle was built, according to a thoroughly worked-out  project, which by skilled engineers were laid out in the field with extraordinary mathematical precision. The ring castle consisted of two components: a main castle and a front castle.

map from wikipedia

The main castle is a circular place, surrounded by a strong and still existing ring bank, which towards the land side (south and east) is further strengthened by a curved broad and deep moat. This ring bank had four gates, one to each corner of the world, and these gates were interconnected  two and two (crosslike) with wooden streets crossing in the center of the place and dividing it in four equal sized sections. In each section were 4 equal size houses, arranged in blocks, a total of 16 houses. With their curved long walls and their straight cut ends these houses looked like ships with cut bows. Each house was divided in 3 rooms, one smaller in each end and a large mid-room, 18 meter long. The planks of the houses have disappeared, but have left marks in the earth in several places, which show the plan and the contour of the buildings.

A few lesser houses were noticed, partly guard houses at two gates, partly chief houses in the middle of two blocks, and finally a ship-shaped house in smaller dimensions north of the northeastern block. It seems furthermore that inside, along the ring bank, was a ring street. The ring bank had palisades on both sides and was in several places strengthened with an inside timber reinforcement. The 4 gates, which behind the palisades had strong stone packings, were covered by a timber loft and worked as tunnels. Outside they could be closed by a couple of gate wings (iron rings and big keys were found by the entrances). Outside, towards the landside, the ring bank was dressed with a mantle of stiff clay, held together by wooden sticks and branches. Towards the meadows, to the northwest and southwest, the bank rested upon a foot of stone and post work and was higher up covered by vertical palisades.

Trelleborg, the castle site, wikipedia

The second component of the castle was a reinforcement belt towards the landside = a front castle. This belt, which was curved to the south like the curve of the main castle, but square to the north, was fortificated with a low bank and a flat moat. Upon the curved section was built in a radial construction: total 13 elliptic longhouses in the same shape as the 16 block houses of the main castle, but of a little smaller size. Upon the square section of the belt were near the castle (outside its eastern gate)  two similar houses placed parallelly; and further to the east was the castle's burial site with ab. 150 graves, probably  following the ancient sacrifice place, which before Trelleborg's building belonged to the sacrifice place out on the isthmus. The  entrance to main castle and front castle were both from the south.

Trelleborg, photo H. Stiesdal 1948/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960  

An impressive  plan like Trelleborg was made by engineers. The used unit of measure is an approximated Roman foot (Roman normal foot: 29,57 cm - the calculated medium size of the Trelleborg foot is 29.33 cm ), which is shown in all the main measures of the castle. The block houses are 100 feet long, the front castle houses 90 feet, the ring bank is 60 feet broad, the small houses in the middle of the two blocks are 30 x 15 feet. Radius from the center to the inner edge of the ring bank is 234 feet, the distance between the two moats is also 234 feet, while the distance from the center to the nearest gables of the front castle houses has the double measure = 468 feet. In the construction the center was chosen first, from where the circular curves were marked which limit the banks and moats; the same center is also the cutting point of the two mutually perpendicular main axis, which divide the main castle area in four equal large sections, which continue through the four gates. All over the constructors have used extremely care and precision.The whole building plan inside the ring is constructed in squares.

 Example of house at Fyrkat/ photo grethe bachmann

Example of house at Fyrkat: photo: grethe bachmann 2010


Trelleborg has a splendid location in the large meadows with its back to the higher mainland. The holes in the underground from the houses are marked in the grass by cement -  the ring banks and the moats are partly rebuilt, and the visitors will get a stunning impression of how a Viking garrison looked in the Viking period. The National Museum has constructed a modelhouse in full size, it's like one of the front castle houses. It was  placed upon the site in a short distance from the castle. The modelhouse is built in wand construction with walls of broad vertical planks. The roof is constructed above cross beams where stand vertical short posts, it has a length-curved ridge and is thatched with wood chippings. Outside along the longwalls run a low gallery with its own roof; its purpose might have been to guard the longwall against rain and snow. A house had usually door in both gables and in both cross walls, and there were two side-doors in the long mid-room, one placed in each longside and always counterposed diagonally. The gable rooms had sometimes digged cellars ( maybe storerooms for food or waste pits or even dungeons). In the large mid-room was a plank or clay floor and a fireplace in the middle, and at the sides were probably broad sitting- and lying benches. In the roof probably an air hole (a lyre). The Trelleborg house is like this description. It is not certain and can never be if this house is exactly like it  really was. The construction has been critizised and there have been suggestions about other Trelleborg houses. The Fyrkat houses can tell us more ( see the coming article about Fyrkat). The Trelleborg house was renovated in the 1980s.

Trelleborg, common burial, photo 1948 NN/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.  


The burial site of Trelleborg tells us as expected that the main part of the buried were young or younger men (20-40 years); but there were also several women, a few children and some old people. The gifts in the graves were relatively few. Nothing indicates Christianity, unburnt burials with the body placed east-west were known in Denmark before Christianity arrived and marked the burial customs. Three graves were common graves, the largest with ten burials. The grave gifts included only few weapons ( most remarkable was an unusually  broad-edged, but also narrow-bladed silverplated war axe ) - there were several tools, like blacksmith tools and agricultural tools (scythe blades and a ploughshare). And furthermore jewelry, claypots and things for spinning and weaving. These things give Trelleborg a safe dating: namely to the last part of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th  (ab. 975-1050). The life of the castle was not long, but obviously it did exist, when Sven Tveskæg conquered England and when Cnut the Great fought the Three King Battle at Helgeaa.

 Trelleborg, silverchain with Thor-hammer, Danish/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.


It is also obvious that Trelleborg was a military camp and a naval base. The location is classic with an easy access to the sea and however with protection and shelter from assault and floods. Ship could supposedly be trailed up the river stream to the castle, and each ship-shaped blockhouse housed a ship's crew. The contents of the graves (as for agricultural tools) indicate that the people of the castle had to provide supplies so they did not have to rob the farmers from the neighbourhood.

Trelleborg gives witness about a strong organizing power. This can only be a king, who was able to build such great plans. There are no supporting points, which indicate that a hostile power was stuck in Denmark. The archeaological finds do not tell about this -  and not history either. But history tells another story: that this period was marked by a Danish display of power. Trelleborg had room for 1200 men. It is not known when the Trelleborg camp went out of use. There are no traces after a finishing fire.

Text/translated: grethe bachmann 
Source Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne,Gyldendal 1960. 
 Next:  Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken. 

Information from Slagelse Municipality 2013:
Trelleborg is a fantastic piece of cultural heritage from the Viking period and the best and best preserved of the three circular castles Fyrkat, Trelleborg and Aggersborg. Together with among fx the Jelling monuments and Dannevirke the ring castles tell us about a very exiting and crucial time in Danish an European history.
The location Trelleborg was never forgotten, the main part of the earth banks were directly visible right up to the beginning of the excavation - and the circular inner bank is seen clearly upon maps from the 1600s and onward, but the character of the installations was first known as a Viking fortification when the National Museum started the excavations in 1934 under the leadership of archaeolog Poul Nørlund.  The excavation was provoked by a local motorcycle club who had rented the area in 1933 for the purpose of converting it into a motocross track.   
(Source:  Slagelse Kommunes hjemmeside. )




Other Informations (Source: wikipedia):

Trelleborg was the first discovery of a circular castle in Denmark.
 
The Trelleborg area is about 6 ha = 12 football fields. F

The excavation, the registration of findings and the reconstruction of building works were published in 1948 in a scientific paper written by Poul Nørlund. 

In 1979 it was succeeded to do a dendrochronological dating of wooden pieces from Trelleborg, and it was detected that the trees were felled in June or July 980.

For the building of Trelleborg was felled half of the oak woods which existed at Sjælland.


Already in Poul Nørlund's paper the building master was identified as either Harald Blåtand or Sven Tveskæg, mostly all scholars,who have commented this question, agree that it must be the same person, who was the building master of these castles. One of the essential arguments is the precise geometry in the main line of the plan and the common characteristics in the craftmanship. Another argument is the great  similarities in the design of the plans. The dendrochronological datings from Trelleborg points at Harald Blåtand as the building master and because of the dating the historians now mostly agree to point at Harald.

There are no written sources which mention the ring castles in a direct way. The known Scriptures close to the events are the chronicle by bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, written 1013-18, and an unnamed monk of St. Omer's tribute to Cnut the Great's widow, written about 1040. Here is a possible reference to the Trelleborgs, since it is told that Sven Tveskæg fortified his kingdom with castles, which had to be a protection against the enemies who had invaded and occupied the country.

Adam of Bremen's work from ab. 1070, descriptio insularum Aquilonis, illustrated a number of factors related to the Danish Viking period , but there has not been identified any mention of the ring castles. The Danish chronicles from the Middle Ages (Aggesen and Saxo) have no direct references either. It is remarkable that the ring castles are not mentioned, and it seems that the writers did not know the existence of the castles - and this is an indirect evidence of the short lifetime of these castles.


Latest info: 

Wooden shield from Trelleborg, exhibition Moesgård Museum Århus

In September 2008 archaeologists from Sydvestsjællands Museum and from Moesgård Museum (Århus) found a wooden shield during an excavation at Trelleborg. It is the first time a wooden shield was found in Denmark. The shield is about 80 cm diameter with a characteristic hole in the middle for the shield boss. The shield is dated to the Viking period and to the castle's usage period in the end of the 900s.

Anders Dorset, one of the leading archaeologist at the excavations, also considers that the examination shows evidence of that Trelleborg had a clear maritime significance.

Lindholm Høje, Vendsyssel, North Jutland

I saw a woman standing on top of the hill at Lindholm Høje, a timeless figure; she could be a Viking woman looking for her husband's grave.



All these people that lived here once, unknown names, unknown faces. Although archaeology has special technological methods today and discovers more and more from our past, we will probably never be able to know much more than we already know about the people who lived here at Lindholm Høje.



North of Limfjorden, upon Lindholm Høje, a little west of the town Nørre Sundby, was in the 1950s examinated a burial site from Germanic Iron Age and Viking Period. The contemporary buildings were originally situated a little north of the burials, but the place was exposed to sand drift and gradually, as the burial site was covered under layers of drifting sand, the town grew over the burials. Around 1100s A.C. the inhabitants gave up the fight against the sand and moved down to the coast, where the present town Nørre Sundby is.

South of Limfjorden at Bejsebakken by the town Aalborg are traces of settlements from the same period as Lindholm Høje. Probably both Bejsebakken and Lindholm Høje were important trade-places in the late part of Iron Age, but they might also have been wealthy villages, where the inhabitants lived from farming and fishing only. The strategic placements seem to indicate that they were places of more than a common significance.



The land north of Limfjorden, Vendsyssel, was connected to Jutland via the narrowest place at Limfjorden; (Aalborg-Nørresundby) the north-south land-traffic crossed the east-west sea route, and this was of great significance for the trading. In the beginning of the Viking Period the trading route went south, crossing the foot of Jutland at the Eider-river with the town Hedeby (Haithabu) as the dominating trading center. It is not known if Bejsebakken and Lindholm Høje were integrated in this trading net with international contacts or if they were just internal markets for goods to and from Vendsyssel.

Several things were found at Lindholm Høje and Bejsebakken. Upon the museum at Lindholm Høje are exhibitions. Upon Bejsebakken was found a little bronze-buckle with animal ornaments, the first hesitant beginnings of one of the styles which later was dominating in the Mälarn-area. Although it is on a slight basis, this finding indicates that the two Limfjords-villages had more than local and craftsmanlike contacts with the other part of Scandinavia.



The sand drift was a catastrophe for the inhabitants, but it has preserved the graves in a unique way. Up to four meter thick layer of drifting sand has protected the burial-site and its original surface so the graves look like they did in ancient times. In almost each case the dead person was burnt and burnt together with various things, like bronze-jewelry, glass pearls, little tools like iron knives, spindle whorls, gaming pieces and often a dog. Around the funeral pyre was raised a stone circle and a very thin layer of soil was spread over the dying fire. A short time after the drifting sand arrived and covered the rest, which the western wind had not yet removed.



At Helgö, Birka, Hedeby and other of the oldest villages were established large common burial sites. In Denmark is Lindholm Høje the only known example up till now and one of the prettiest Danish ancient memories. It is the largest burial site from Germanic iron age with not less than 600 preserved graves which covers the time from the 500s up till year 1000. The graves are marked with stone structures and were established in year 400-1000 AC.

The preservation-conditions have been good caused the shifting sand which has covered and protected the place since the 1100s. Findings from the graves are exhibited at the Museum at Lindholm Høje. From the top of the hill is a remarkable view across Limfjorden which already in ancient times was of great importance. In the excavations of the 1950s were also parts of a village and a new-ploughed field from the Viking Period excavated.



Jewelry , Urness -style, found at Lindholm Høje

Lindholm Høje Museum has two various archaeologial exhibitions. One tells the story about how they lived and died in Iron Age and Viking Period at Lindholm Høje. The other is about "Oldtiden i Limfjordslandet" (Ancient times around Limfjorden). Both exhibitions are passed on in an untraditional way, where reconstructions, panoramas, pictures and sound are combined with archeaeological findings. There is a rich opportunity to meet man from ancient times through experience and objective absorption. In the museum is a café.

Source: Politikens Danmarkshistorie, bd. 2, Danernes Land, 200 B.C.- ab. 700 A.C., Lotte Hedager, 1992.


photo Lindholm Høje August 2008: grethe bachmann

Lindholm Høje, Viking Burial Site, North Jutland

A guest looks across the burial site...........


..and this is the first sight of the 700 viking graves.


Single graves, systematic arrangements, stone ships......


..similar to Højstrup Viking Burial Site further west of
Limfjorden but much bigger


All those viking burials were sanded up for 900 years
until they were discovered and excavated in the 1950s.


photo: sb
Here's a visible stone ship. Who was this Viking? One of
the Viking chiefs maybe.

Lindholm Høje with 700 graves from the Viking Period is a fascinating place. The graves were sanded up and have been untouched for more than 900 years. The burial site at Lindholm corresponds to the Højstrup Viking Burial Site further west of Limfjorden near Tømmerby church and Aggersborg, also wellknown places with Viking traditions.
At Lindholm are single graves, systematic arrangements and stone ships. The archeological finds are exhibited in a museum close by which was established by Aalborg Historiske Museum. Here is also a museum shop and a café.

Lindholm Høje is placed on a high plateau north of the modern city Nørre Sundby and Aalborg with a fine view to Limfjorden. The place was discovered and excavated in the 1950s. At the same time the archaeologists found a furrowed field under the sand which showed that the viking farmer had left it in a haste under a sand storm. After the storm the field was obviously given up. It is an extremely rare thing to find a field with 900 years untouched visible furrows. Even the farmer's footprints were there.

photo August 2008: grethe bachmann
photo August 2008: stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto