PRACTICE <>!' BURNING THE I>K.\1). \'2 ( .) 



In no other part of Kurope do \\c sec such a vast number of 

 graves of this period, showing that the North must then have 

 been inhabited by a far more dense population than other 

 countries; from the number and contents of these depots 

 cineraires, we gather that the population burned its dead in 

 large burial-gn mnds. 



The practice of burning the dead had already become 

 common in the latter part of the bronze age, and prevailed 

 most extensively, if not entirely, during the iron period 

 immediately following it. 



, v . fT' 



Connected with the burning of the dead was the intentional 

 damage done to objects which were exposed to the heat of the 

 funeral pyre. Special care seems to have been taken to 

 render swords and other weapons thoroughly useless. Swords 

 are cut on the edges, bent and twisted ; shield bosses are dented 

 or flattened ; and jewels and other objects are entirely ruined, 

 and the illustrations seen in these volumes will show how 

 thorough the destruction was. Bent swords and shield bosses, 

 &c., were sometimes placed over the cinerary urn, at other 

 times they were put at their side. 



We find that the same custom also existed during the 

 cremation period of the bronze age, 1 many of the swords of 

 that period being broken in several places. 



Among the objects most commonly found are shears, iron 

 knives, silver and bronze fibulae, glass beads, melted or whole 

 in manv of which the colours are unaltered, and as fresh as 



/ 



if made to-day: iron and bone combs, tweezers of iron, amber 

 beads, buckles, dice, draughtsmen, fragments of trappings for 

 horses and waggons, ornaments of gold and silver, fragments 

 of cloth, weapons, iron keys, fragments of bronze and iron 

 vessels, iron clinch nails, spurs of bronze and iron (showing 

 that horses were used at a very early period in the North). 

 clay urns, &c., Ac. A remarkable fact is that the earliest 



1 In nn urn in a mound near Veilo, fragments of a bronze swflrd with hollow 

 Jutland, was found a bent bronze poniard; handle broken at the top of the handle: 

 and iu another mound at Mors, Jutland. (.'}) handle of sword with fragments nt' 

 an urn containing burnt'bones and a broken Made.; (4). fragments of a spear- 

 bent bronze poniard, head broken near its socket. These 



Sehested mentions ( 1) a hrnn/i> sword objects had been intentionally rendered 



broken in four pieces, total length about useless. 

 2 feet 8 inches with point missing: ( _' > 



VOL. I. K 



