ARCHAEOLOGY IN DENMARK. 



21 



was also fashioned into ornaments. Gold, too, was known and 

 widely used. 



We have emphasized the fact that the dead were buried dur- 

 ing the neolithic. At the beginning of the bronze age inhumation 



Fig. 17. Band of Bronze. 



was also practiced. Stone cists of full size were constructed in 

 many cases ; in others very curious coffins, made by splitting 

 oaken tree trunks and then hollowing the two pieces, one into a 

 trough and the other into a cover, were constructed. As time 

 passed cremation was practiced ; the ashes were buried in stone 

 cists, which gradually diminished in size until at last they were 

 only about a foot square. In these latter cists the ashes were fre- 

 quently placed in a vessel of clay. Finally, the cists disappeared, 

 and the clay urn containing the ashes might be simply covered 

 with a flat stone and buried in the ground. As cremation gained 

 and the grave cists diminished in size, the gifts placed with the 

 dead became fewer and less important ; real objects were replaced 

 by inferior ones or miniature make-believes. Had we only the 

 relics from the graves we would be 

 led to think that art degenerated 

 during the bronze age; but the 

 contrary was really true. The ob- 

 jects found in the peat bogs and 

 elsewhere show an improvement 

 and progress in artistic work. 



Certain grave mounds in Jut- 

 land have informed us as to the 

 dress of the people of the bronze 

 age. In them were found oaken 

 coffins such as we have described 

 above. In these, wrapped in cow- 

 skin shrouds, have been found the 

 remains of men and women, more 

 or less preserved, with garments and funereal objects almost in- 

 tact. High woolen caps, with knotted cords all over the outside 

 for ornamentation ; wide mantles cut round ; mantles of mixed 

 wool and hair ; waistbands bound around with a tasseled girdle ; 



Fig. 18. Gold Cdp. 



