Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae

“ But the Cromlechs and Giants' chambers are much larger and more splendid monuments than the barrows which contain the objects of bronze; one would therefore be driven to the conclusion that the rich were buried in a mere mound of earth, thrown up over an unimportant heap of stones, while the poor, on the other hand, were interred in chambers of stone, which from their size and their careful style of building, often excite the admiration of the present age. ”

“ It has been said, that it would be rendering little service to historical knowledge, to introduce such a nameless, and hitherto unknown, people into the history of Europe. A mere name is certainly of scarcely any importance. The principal thing is, that we have, by means of this people, discovered the way in which Europe was inhabited in the earliest time, a point upon which historical records do not furnish us with any account. ”

“ All facts, for instance, seem to shew that Europe was not peopled at once, by a race of mankind who bore in themselves the germ of all future progress, but that this race has gradually received the addition of others, who continually supplanted the former, and laid the foundation for a more advanced civilization. The first people who inhabited the north of Europe were without doubt nomadic races, of whom the Laplanders, or as they were formerly called, the Fins, are the remains. ”

“ It is quite evident that the circumstance of implements of stone, which bear great similarity to each other, having been discovered in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, by no means justifies us in concluding that such implements were used by the same people. For since implements of stone, which are perfectly similar, occur in Japan, in America, in the South Sea islands, and elsewhere, we must, in case we adopt that conclusion, necessarily assume that branches of the same race, which, ill ancient times, inhabited the northern parts of Europe, must also have reached as far as those countries. ”

“ The forms and patterns of the various weapons, implements, and ornaments are so much alike, because such forms and patterns are the most natural, and the most simple. As we saw in the stone-period, how people at the lowest stage of civilization, by a sort of instinct, made their stone implements in the same shape, so we see now in the first traces of a higher civilization, that they exhibit in the mode of working objects of bronze, a similar general resemblance. But it is quite clear that the civilization in the bronze-period was only preparatory. ”

“ The inhabitants of Denmark, during the bronze-period, were the people who first brought with them a peculiar degree of civilization. To them were owing the introduction of metals, the progress of agriculture and of navigation, not to mention that the previously uninhabited districts in the interior of the country were, by them, cleared of wood and rendered productive. This people stood therefore in the same degree of civilization as the Celts, and exercised as important an influence over the civilization of the north, as the Celts over that of the west of Europe. ”

“ Their love for freedom and for home, their truth and their bravery, which were the terror of the mightiest states in Europe, afford proofs of a nobleness of soul, and an energy, which are worthy of imitation at the present day. And, since it is certain, that the perusal of our glorious ancient traditions will powerfully contribute to excite the feeling for our independence of character, so, is it also certain, that antiquities and barrows, inasmuch as they explain these traditions, have also a deep importance for us, as national memorials. ”

“ But the civilization was sooner and more easily introduced into Mecklenburg by the new invading people than into Denmark; where evidently, the same people who lived there in the bronze-period continued to keep possession of the country, and maintain the old civilization; if they had been expelled by a new invading people, who first settled in Sweden and Norway, we should of course expect to find the same monuments of the iron-period in Denmark, as in Norway and Sweden, which as we have seen, is not at all the case. ”

“ We see our fore- fathers penetrating, for the first time, into Denmark; and armed with sharp weapons subduing the uncivilized people who then dwelt here; we see them diffuse the knowledge of metals, of agriculture, and a higher degree of general civilization. We hold in our hands the swords, with which they made the Danish name respected and feared; we can even shew the trinkets and ornaments, which they brought home as booty, from their expeditions to foreign lands. The remains of antiquity thus bind us more firmly to our native land ”

“ In the time of the aborigines, the stone-period as it is called, when Denmark was a rude and thickly wooded country, it was inhabited by a people who, for the most part, diffused themselves along the sea-coast. They occupied a low rank in civilization. The use of metals was unknown to them, and hence all their implements were made of stone, of bone, or of wood. With such tools the inhabitants could make no great progress in agriculture; on the contrary, hunting and fishing formed their chief sources of subsistence. ”

“ A greater developement of civilization, and in particular a more lively intercourse with other nations, might easily, during a more advanced period of paganism, have called forth a remarkable alteration both in the prevailing taste, and in the mode of interment. The most that we can say, at present, is that Denmark, during the iron-period may possibly, by small immigrations from the neighbouring countries, have received new constituent parts of its population. ”

“ A great number of years must pass away before a people, like the Celts, could spread themselves over the west of Europe, and render the land productive; it is therefore no exaggeration if we attribute to the stone-period an antiquity of, at least, three thousand years. There are also geological reasons for believing that the bronze-period must have prevailed in Denmark, five or six hundred years before the birth of Christ. ”

“ Beside, we meet with fewer trinkets, and in particular far fewer large gold ornaments, with the bronze ornaments than with those of iron; with the bronze objects, silver trinkets, and Cufic, or East Roman, coins are never found. Again, if we assume that iron objects were the property of the rich, and those of bronze of persons less wealthy, in short, of the poor, this supposition is alike improbable, since in this case there can scarcely have been poor men in all Norway and Sweden! ”

“ As a farther proof, appeal is made to the circumstance that stone implements, of the same kind, are often found in all the three northern kingdoms of Scandinavia, consequently that the whole of Scandinavia has been inhabited by the same race, and what people could it be but the Fins, who have inhabited Sweden, and Norway, from the earliest times. ”

“ The knowledge of iron, and the higher civilization, which the Swedes and Norwegians brought to the South, and which enabled them both to cut down the immense woods, make roads over the mountains, cultivate the soil, and build large vessels, was, by degrees, through intercourse, marriage, and immigrations, spread over Götaland and Denmark. ”

“ But it is evident that a people, who leave a country for the sake of defending their independence and nationality, neither give up their usual way of earning their livelihood, nor their old peculiar national customs; except when obliged to emigrate to a country where they are compelled to alter their mode of living because they cannot find the same means for subsistence, or when frequent attacks of their enemies will not allow them to settle quietly, and continue the observance of their religious customs, &c. ”

“ The Göths were first, in a later period, about the eighth or ninth century, under the Swedish kings, but that they were neither expelled, nor completely subdued, appears from the circumstance, that in the middle ages, they still retained their own peculiar laws and customs, and regarded themselves altogether as a distinct people. Until nearly the fifteenth century, the Göths continued to contend with the Swedes, respecting their share in the election of the sovereign, &c. ”

“ Meantime, it is obvious, that most points of the present review of our subject can only receive their due explanation from future researches; for science is as yet too young to furnish us, at once, with all the explanations which we require. ”

“ By an examination and comparison of the different people, and the different regions of the earth, it has been found that the several races of men present remarkable varieties in their physical conformation, and that these varieties are most observable in the shape of the skull. Several men of science have, as already mentioned, commenced examining and describing the skulls and skeletons found in the Cromlechs, and Giants' chambers of the stone-period. ”

“ We therefore have no hesitation in proceeding to the further enquiry, whether it was one race only which in ancient times developed itself in a gradual manner, or whether several races have from time to time penetrated into the country, and occasioned these changes in its civilization. ”

“ In imitating the Roman patterns there have been added fantastic figures, and heads of animals, and men. In some of the large burying-places, as near Basle in Switzerland, the tombs were built of broken Roman tomb-stones; and in other tombs of the same period, both in Germany and England, there have frequently been found Roman coins, belonging to the first centuries after Christ, but none older. ”

“ It mil at once be seen that the stone-period must be of extraordinary antiquity. If the Celts possessed settled abodes in the west of Europe, more than two thousand years ago, how much more ancient must be the population which preceded the arrival of the Celts. ”

“ From these evidences it follows that the antiquities belonging to the bronze-period which are found in the different countries of Europe, can neither be attributed exclusively to the Celts, nor to the Greeks, Romans, Phœnicians, Sclavonians, nor to the Teutonic tribes. They do not belong exclusively to any one people, but have been used by the most different nations, at the same stage of civilization ”

“ The attention which the monuments of antiquity have already received, is therefore not without deep foundation. It is an omen that the Danish people, in their present advanced condition of improvement, will not seek to associate themselves with other nations ”

“ It is certainly very curious that the many weapons, implements, and ornaments of bronze, which have been discovered in Greece, Italy, Germany, France, England, and Scandinavia, have in many respects considerable resemblance to each other. ”

“ It was by them that agriculture, and its consequent civilization, were first regularly established. Among these races there were in the west the above-named Celts. The inhabitants of Denmark, and the west of Europe, in the stone-period, are therefore to be designated as forming the transition between the most ancient nomadic races, and the more recent agricultural and civilized nameless tribe. ”

“ In previous times they had undoubtedly occupied a much greater extent of the present country of Germany, particularly its middle and southern parts, where the names of localities, mountains, and rivers, are very frequently of Celtic origin; in which regions, however, the characteristic Cromlechs with unburnt bodies, instruments of flint, and ornaments of amber, have not as yet been found. ”

“ The many Gaulish and British coins which, there is no doubt, were originally imitations of the coins of Philip, and Alexander the Great of Macedon, shew a very early Greek influence, which most likely spread itself over Gaul and Britain, from the Greek colony at Marseilles. ”

“ It is quite true that tools and weapons of stone and bronze, and perhaps also of stone, bronze, and iron have, as has al- ready been remarked, been in use at the same time, in periods of transition, when bronze or iron was scarce in the country, and consequently very expensive ”