588 SCANDINAVIAN ARCHEOLOGY. 



NORWAY. 



The archaeological society of this country, under the direction of Mr. 

 Nicolaysen, the antiquary of the kingdom, has continued since the year 

 1870, its investigations and its excavations, the reports of which are 

 found in the annals of the society. In 1875, was established at the Uni- 

 versity of Christiania a chair of prehistoric archaeology (perhaps the first 

 ordinary chair for this science in iiny university in Europe 1) to which was 

 appointed Mr. O. Rygh. The administration of the museum of Christiania 

 was attached to this chair. This period saw the most active Norwegian 

 archaeologists : First, those already mentioned, then Mr. Lorange, the 

 director of the museum of Bergen since 1874, Messrs. Bendixen and 

 Undset. Among the publications must be mentioned a memoir of Rygh 

 on the Deuxienie age du fer en JSforvege (Second age of iron in Norway), 

 which appeared in the Danish Aarhoger, 1877, and above all a large 

 and splendid atlas, which appeared in 1880-'85, Norslce Oldsager (Nor- 

 wegian antiquities), 732 wood cuts, with the text in Norwegian and in 

 French. 



.Among the publications of Mr. Lorange must be noticed, Om spor 

 af romersk Cultur i Norges celdre Jernalder, 1873 (The traces of Eoman 

 civilization in Norway during the first age of iron). A remarkable work, 

 Langshibei fra Golstad (The ship of Gokstad), by Mr. Nicolaysen, was 

 published in 1882, with a number of plates and figures, the text in Nor- 

 wegian and in English, in 4to. He there describes a large ship of the 

 epoch of the Normands (about the year 900) which he was able to dig 

 out of a tumulus and have transported to Christiania, where this unique 

 relic is now preserved in the archaeological museum, of which it con- 

 stitutes the i)rincipal ornament. jVIr, Undset, connected with the mu- 

 seum of Christiania, has for his iiart contributed to comparative archae- 

 ology by works founded upon studies made during extended travels. 

 Reference may be made to a memoir by him, Fra N'orges oldre Jernalder 

 (On the first age of iron in Norway, published in the Danish Aarhoger, 

 1880);* then a book entitled, Etudes sur Vage du bronze de la Hongrie 

 (Studies on the bronze age of Hungary), Christiania, 1880, in which he 

 has treated of the relations between the bronze age of central Europe 

 and that of the Scandinavian North. In 1881, appeared his great work : 

 Jernalderens Begyndelsei Nordeuropa (the beginnings of the iron age 

 in northern Europe. A German edition of it was published in 1882, 

 under the title. Das erste Anftreten des Eisens in Nordeuropa. In this 

 book he speaks of all the materials of central and especially northern 

 Europe, which date from the epoch of the transition from the bronze 

 age to the age of iron. 



I conclude this retrospective review of pre-historic archaeology in 



* The circumstance that Norwegian archtBologists often publish their memoirs in 

 a Danish periodical journal is explained by the fact that Denmark and Norway have 

 the same literary language. 



