CHAPTER XV. 



GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES IN THE NORTH. 



Similar antiquities in the North and in Southern Russia Roman coins 

 The trade of Gotland in earlier times Ornaments and other objects of 

 bronze. 



AMONG the archaeological wealth of the North still belonging 

 to the earlier, but not earliest, iron age, we find a class of 

 graves and antiquities which are of special importance, for 

 they help us to fix very closely a date for the period to 

 which they belong, and for this light we are indebted to Roman 

 coins and other objects, both Roman and Greek, which these 

 graves contain. 



Many of the finds of this period are most interesting, as 

 showing the taste of the people in the North, and a wealth 

 and civilisation of which we were not aware. They are the 

 more valuable because we see from them the wide extent of 

 the maritime expeditions and overland trading journeys of the 

 people towards the beginning of the Christian era. They show, 

 as has already been pointed out, the intercourse which the 

 people of the North had with those of the Black Sea and the 

 Mediterranean, and also with the newly-acquired north-western 

 provinces of the Roman empire (Gaul, Britain, and Frisia). 

 But, what is still more important, they help to prove the 

 general truthfulness of the earlier Edda and Sagas, for they 

 show that the Asar, or whoever the emigrants were, who came 

 north, and who were said to have brought their civilisation 

 with them and to have given it to the people there, were 

 either related to or on intimate relations with the people who 

 inhabited the shores of the Black Sea ; for many of the 

 antiquities which were claimed to be of a peculiar northern 

 origin are identical with those found there ; while similar 



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