SCANDINAVIAN ARCHEOLOGY.* 



By M. Ingwald Unset. 



Curator of the Arcluvological Museum of Christiania. 

 Translated by Prof. L. D. Lodge.' 



Pre-historic studies made their appearance iu Scandiuavia before they 

 were broached in auy other country. That is easily explained. The 

 pre-historic times of Scandinavia are only separated by a few centuries 

 from present times and extend to the introduction of Christianity into 

 that country about the year 1000 of our era. The Roman legions never 

 set foot upon Scandinavian soil, and the ancient authors have only left 

 us some very enigmatical passages upon the countries of the north. Nor 

 do the Scandinavian traditions shed much light upon the epochs which 

 preceded the introduction of Christianity. On the other hand, Scan- 

 dinavia possesses an unusual number of pre-historic remains. It is then 

 easy to understand that there should have been developed a peculiar 

 science, founded upon empirical studies of the antiquities themselves, 

 in the north rather than in other countries. 



DENMARK. 



Passing in silence the unsuccessful attempts of past centuries, the 

 first decade of our century must be considered as the epoch of the birth 

 of a pre-historic science in the north, whose beginnings appear in Den- 

 mark. The study of national history received in that country a strong 

 impetus in consequence of the sentiment of nationality which awoke 

 at that epoch in all the Germanic world. It was then that men began 

 in Denmark to direct their attention to the national remains and to re- 

 gard them as things worthy of study. 



In the first rank in this road must be mentioned Prof. Rasmus Nyerup, 

 who published in 1800, an epitome of the national remains of antiquity 

 {Oversiijt over frndrelandeU mindesmcv7'Jxerfra oliltiden), in which he pro- 

 poses a plan for the establishment of a national museum. At the same 

 time he began to make a collection of national antiquities at the 

 library of the university of which he was the librarian. This was the 

 germ of the pre historic museum of Copenhagen, a museum now so vast 

 and so famous. The state itself a short time afterwards took charge 



* From the Eevue d' Anthropologie, May 15, 1887, 3(1 series, vol. ii, i)p. 311-33:^. 



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