GOO REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



The JiiOLind is located in a i)lain, gently rising from the beach and 

 permitting a liill view of the sea, from which it is sei)arated by a ter- 

 raced formation. It measures 120 by 102 feet. All around it is a ditch, 

 now 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep, which to the south and west is 

 traversed by a bridge-like dam. 



The interior of the monjid, an oval of 21 by 10 feet, presents two lay- 

 ers, one of bone sj)linters, intermixed with soil and cinders, and one 8 

 inches deep, consisting of cinders and burnt remains. Over this a num- 

 ber of objects were strewn, plainly indicating that here a. ship had been 

 hauled ashore and gayly decorated with shiehis around its bulwark, 

 and with arms and utensils of war piled up, had served as the funeral 

 pyre of its commander. 



The ship having been consumed, the remains were collected in a flat 

 bronze vessel, together with some personal i^roperty of the owner, con- 

 sisting of two combs, three dices, six chessmen of bone, a disk- 

 shaped bead of dark glass with white wavy lines, a number of broken 

 iron utensils, and an iron arrowhead. The vessel was then covered 

 with twelve shield bosses which, at the time of excavation, had, by in- 

 crustatioH, gradually solidified into one mass and had become attached 

 to the iron so firmly that in order to examine the contents without 

 destroying this uni<jue cover, it became necessary to remove the bottom 

 of the vessel. 



The ossuary was placed in an excavation at the bottom of the mound. 

 Above it were piled a horse's bit, spears, swords, shields, and bucklers, 

 all rusted together; eight arrowheads and other iron utensils, i)ossibly 

 coming from the shij^'s chest, and, wrapped in an untanned goatskin, 

 unburnt animal bones, possibly the portion assigned the dead for his 

 long journey fiom the funeral feast. The bottom of the mound was 

 strewn with hundreds of ship's nails, mountings, mast rings, anchor 

 hooks, forty-two shield bosses, and other things. 



The vessel of enameled bronze appears to be of foreign make. Its 

 ornamentation consists of ring (unaments inserted in and fastened to 

 the bottom by three rivets. The inside of the bottom furthermore shows 

 a three-leaved enameled star and the rim two four-cornered shields. 

 Lorange places it in the younger iron age and sees in it a captured piece 

 of northern French or Belgian make; but Mestorf, in view of the fact 

 that this enamel was not introduced in France until the twelfth cen- 

 tury, thinks that it might be considered the pioduct of Rhenish i)0st- 

 Koman manufacture. In point of make and color the enamel resembles 

 that of the Roman enamelled ornaments ' and also called " Barbarian 

 Grubenschmelz."-^ Enameled ornaments appear in the north at an 

 early date. They are represented in the museums at Kiel and Copen- 

 hagen.^ They have been found north as far as the Stavanger district. 



' Von Cohansen in Bd. 12 Schriften des Nassau' schen Altei'thmns Vereius. 

 " Buchiier: Geschiehte der Techniscbeu Kuiist. 

 ^Engelhardi, C: Aarb. f. Nord. Oldk. 1868. 



