580 SCANDINAVIAN ARCHAEOLOGY. 



NORWAY. 



In Norway it was the Royal Society for the good of Norway which 

 founded at Christiania the first collection of national antiquities; in 

 1811, it appointed a commission to form this collection. After the re- 

 establishment of the independence of Norway, by the separation from 

 Denmark in 1814, the society ceded the collection to the university 

 recently founded, where it became the basis of the prehistoric museum, 

 now the most considerable in the country. Tt was not until 1828, how- 

 ever, that a director of the museum was appointed, — Keyser, a professor 

 of history. Already, in 1825, Keyser, during a visit at the house of 

 Mr. Thomsen in Copenhagen, had learned of the classification into 

 three periods adopted by him in his museum; at Christiania the same 

 jirinciple was adopted from the beginning. This museum grew con- 

 stantly and rapidly in a subsequent period. To Mr. Keyser, in 1862, 

 succeeded Mr. O. Rygh, who is still the director. 



In 1825, another archaeological museum was founded in Norway. At 

 that time a number of private citizens, patriotic and interested in the 

 sciences, established at Bergen a museum for the west of Norway, 

 whose collections, especially the archaeological, iucrfeased rapidly. 

 There also, in 1833, was begun the first Norwegian archaeological jour- 

 nal, Urda, of which down to 184G, two volumes and a part of a third 

 were published. It was above all Christie, and the bishop Neumann, 

 who displayed the most activity in the founding and the development 

 of this museum of Bergen. 



In 1844, at Christiania, was created the Forening til norske fortidsmin 

 desmcerJcers hevaring (The Society for the Preservation of the Ancient 

 Remains of Norway), which formed a new centre for archaeological 

 labors. The society has affiliated members at Trondhjem and at Ber- 

 gen, and counts members throughout the country; it is subsidized by 

 the state, and its president is always the antiquary of the kingdom, ap- 

 pointed by the government, — at present Mr. Nicolaysen. The society 

 has done much for the preservation and description of the remains ; it 

 has undertaken explorations and excavations, and has published a series 

 of works. Since 1815, it has j^ublisbed Aarsberetninger (Annual Re- 

 ports), with plates; among its other publications must be named the 

 work of Mr. Nicolaysen, WorsJce fornlevninger (Norwegian Archaeolog- 

 ical Materials), 1866, containing information upon all the archaeological 

 remains and materials known up to that time in Norway. 



About 1870, at Trondhjem, a provincial museum was also organized by 

 Mr. K. Rygh, which has now acquired some importance. In the south 

 of the country Mr. Lorange has formed at Frederickshald a private col- 

 lection of special interest, because almost all the materials which are 

 there preserved come from his own excavations. 



The most important archaeological publications which appeared in 

 Norway from 1860 to 1870, are some memoirs of Mr. O. Rygh, especially 



