662 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



lections. They have felt it a duty that our country should he dignitiedly represented 

 at Paris, where is reunited this year the International Congress of Archaeology and 

 Anthropology, and they were pleased to offer to the comniitteo their hest and most 

 precious objects. Tue number of objects ottered were even so great that it would 

 itself form a small museum. But the space which had been reserved for us by the 

 committee of the Exposition was too limited and it would have been an impossibility 

 that all could be accepted. For this cause the objects exposed were much too many; 

 but on the other side, what we lost in quantity we made up in quality. It shows 

 that our country possesses the best and the most interesting objects belonging to pre- 

 historic archaeology. 



The age of stone in Denmark, indeed in Scandinavia, is divided by 

 the scientists of those countries into two parts. The earliest was that 

 of the Kjoekkenmoeddings, where the implements were rough and rude, 

 small, and comparatively insignificant. But it was the age of polished 

 stone. The second epoch of the age of stone comprised those magnifi- 

 cent and beautiful examples of flint chipping found in that country. 

 The paleolithic age is not represented in Scandinavia. No objects be- 

 longing to that period have been found there, and it is believed by all 

 that it was uninhabited during that period. But in the implements of 

 the neolithic period that country was especially rich. There were the 

 polished hatchets, the large tranchets of flint, again the small ones, 

 the scrapers, the perforators, and the hatchets of deer horn. These 

 have all been found in, and are supposed to belong to, the Kjoekken- 

 moeddings, and represent the first stage of polished stone in that 

 country. I can scarcely attempt to describe the beauty and gran- 

 deur of the display of the second period of the age of stone. One 

 must have seen the magnificent specimens of that country in order to 

 appreciate or even understand what is meant by their grand display. 

 I can only name at hazard, without attempting to describe the dis- 

 play. There were nucleii and the hammer stones, the long blades and 

 flakes of flint, the exceedingly large and long stone hatchets shown 

 in all the stages of their manufacture, from the first flake struck 

 from the rock to the fiuely polished and finished hatchet of extraordi- 

 nary length. The finely chipped poignards, with the ridges in their 

 handles worked herring-bone fashion, blades long, thin, sharp ; spear 

 and lance heads of the same style, the flint flaked almost like shavings, 

 from the edge to the center, and done with a regularity which would 

 seem impossible but for the specimens now before our eyes. Arrow- 

 heads in profusion and of every possible form, shape, and style of 

 manufacture. Each one of these particular forms, where there was 

 anything peculiar about it, was represented by three examples, one of 

 which was chipped ready for polishing; another, polished, which was 

 new and had never served, and a third, a specimen which was more or 

 less used. There were other series arranged in the same manner; 

 scrapers, knives, chisels, club-heads, all the sort of implements and 

 weapons belonging to that same age; scrapers, and pottery of various 

 forms and ornamentation. 



