Northmen: The Viking Saga AD 793-1241 Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t known how many of them escaped. It is clear, at least, that raiding by sea was already a serious business in early Iron Age Scandinavia.
    It was not only weapons and boats that were sacrificed in bogs, people were too. No bog bodies have been found in Norway or Sweden but over 200 have been found in Denmark and neighbouring areas of northern Germany. Though the acidic conditions in the bogs have often completely dissolved the victims’ bones, in many cases their hair, skin and internal organs are so well-preserved that post mortem examinations have revealed much about their health, diet and causes of death. One surprise is that seafood appears not to have been an important part of the Danish diet in early Iron Age times. Most bog bodies show signs of a violent death, like Tollund Man, killed c. 400 BC by hanging, and Grauballe Man, whose throat was cut from ear to ear around 100 years later. Some of the victims were found pinned down in the bogs by heavy branches. In Germania , a treatise on the Germanic peoples written in AD 98, the Roman historian Tacitus says that this was one of the methods used by the German tribes to execute criminals.
    The warlike character of Scandinavian society intensified in the course of the Roman Iron Age. Many Roman weapons have been found in votive hoards, especially in Denmark, suggesting that Scandinavians frequently fought with their German neighbours to the south, who had direct access to Roman weaponry. The increasing importance of war in society is indicated by the appearance of warrior graves furnished with weapons, evidence that a warrior elite now dominated Scandinavian society. A small number of these graves are furnished with imported luxury goods, such as Roman silverware, jewellery and glass, indicating the rise within this elite of a class of chieftains or petty kings. Everyday Roman goods, like pottery and coins have also been found in some quantity in Scandinavia, show that trade with the Roman Empire was not confined to luxuries. There may have been direct trade with the empire by sea, but it is perhaps more likely that Roman goods reached Scandinavia through intermediaries in Germany. Not surprisingly, Roman artefacts are most common in Denmark, but they are not evenly distributed over the country. One remarkable concentration of Roman goods is found in the Stevns area of the island of Sjælland, suggesting that this was the centre of a powerful chiefdom or small kingdom, which could control trade over a wide area. Another striking site from the later part of the period is Gudme on the island of Fyn, where evidence for a 154-foot (47 m) long hall has been found: the largest known in Scandinavia from this period, it has been called ‘the King’s Hall’ and, certainly, a hall of such size implies the existence of a strong central authority. Over 1,000 Roman coins, including twenty gold denarii, have also been found at the site. Gudme means ‘god’s home’, so the place may have been a cult centre. Closely associated with Gudme is a seasonal port and trading place at Lundeborg, where Roman coins and other imports have been found, along with evidence of shipbuilding. This close association between religion and trade is also seen at the Iron Age trading place at Uppåkra near Lund in southern Sweden, where the remains of a wooden temple have been found. It is likely that trade fairs were held during religious festivals when plenty of visitors could be expected.
    Sacrifices in Nydam Moss
    No single place has provided more spectacular evidence of the warlike character of Scandinavia in the Roman Iron Age than Nydam Moss in southern Jutland. Now just north of the Danish-German border, in the Iron Age Nydam was probably in the territory of the Angles, the Germanic tribe from whom the English get their name. The moss is now a rather soggy meadow but in Roman times it was a reed-fringed lake. In the 1830s, local farmers digging peat from the by then silted up lake began to