THE BRONZE AGE IN SWEDEN. 785 



is further made probable by the fact that the barrows of the 

 period so often lie thick together." 



While writing was unknown during the Bronze age, a sort of 

 picture-writing existed which is preserved in the rock-carvings 

 found quite often in different parts of the country. There can 

 hardly be a question of the age of these works, for the representa- 

 tions of swords and other known objects correspond closely with 

 the objects themselves that remain ; and the absence of Runic or 

 other inscriptions in connection with them forbids the presump- 

 tion of their belonging to a later age than that of bronze. The 

 pictures do not indicate much artistic power in the carvers, but 

 they furnish useful clews to the kind of life the people led and the 

 trend of their thoughts. Thus, besides illustrating the use of 

 horses and oxen, they tell us of the appearance and size of the 

 boats (Fig. 7), of which no actual specimens that can be certainly 

 assigned to the Bronze age have yet been found. These vessels 

 seem to have been usually, but not always, alike at the two ends- 

 " We often see the high and narrow stem terminating in an ani- 

 mal's head; sometimes the stern also is similarly decorated. 

 As no indisputable traces of masts and sails have been found 

 on the rock-carvings, the boats of the Bronze age would seem to 

 have been exclusively designed for rowing. The same is also the 

 case . . . with the remarkable boat found in the bog at Nydam, 

 in Denmark, which belongs to an early part of the Iron age. We 

 often find sea-fights described on the rock-carvings. We have 

 also proofs of peaceful intercourse by sea with other peoples in the 

 many things imported from foreign lands which occur in the finds 

 from the Bronze age. Chief among imported goods we must 

 reckon all the bronze used in Sweden at this time regarded as raw 

 material. Probably also most of the gold used there during the 

 Bronze age was brought from other countries. Besides these, we 

 ought also to set down as imports certain bronze works which are 

 undoubtedly of foreign origin, because they are very rare in 

 Scandinavia but common in other countries." 



The dead were buried unburned in the earlier and burned in the 

 later part of the Bronze age. The unburned bodies were usually 

 laid in cists composed of flat stones placed edgewise, and covered 

 with similar stones. Coffins made of oak trunks split and hollowed 

 out are not uncommon. The stone cists, which contain several 

 skeletons, and are often very large, appear to be the oldest ; others 

 are smaller, and contain a single extended skeleton. Sometimes 

 the bones do not lie immediately in the small stone cists, but in 

 an earthenware vessel, which may be closely surrounded by the 

 stones of the cist, or may be without a cist. Sometimes, again, 

 graves of the Bronze age are made up entirely of collections of 

 burned bones lying buried in the ground and only covered by a flat 



L. XXXV. — 50 



