Wetland deposits in Scandinavia

[1] It is possible that some artefacts also ended up in bogs and lakes without deliberate human intent, for instance if they were lost by accident or produced in settlements that existed adjacent to such wetland areas.

[1] Archaeological evidence makes it clear that they were not always remote or inaccessible places in prehistoric contexts, and in various cases were located close to human settlements.

[6] A number of artefacts associated with the Late Ertebølle culture have also been found in bogs, among them earthenware vessels, flint-core axes, and imported shoe-last celts.

[6] At Mosegaard Bog in Åmosen, Central Sealand, a collection of 21 pierced animal teeth were found together in a wetland context, with Kaul suggesting that these could probably be considered "a Mesolithic ritual deposition".

[7] In a number of cases, it has been shown that Neolithic settlements were located very close to the edge of a bog or lake, in some instances where items from the same period had been deposited.

[9] For instance, at Storelyng IV, a site in the Central Sealand Åmose which is dated to c.3400 BCE, archaeological evidence indicates that a community arrived there in mid-May, where they hunted, fished, and gathered shellfish in the adjacent lake, before slaughtering a number of goats that they had brought with them and departing in mid-August.

[9] A characteristic of Early Neolithic depositions is the placing of earthenware vessels near to the banks of a lake, something which may have parallels in the latter part of the preceding Mesolithic Ertebølle culture.

[9] Archaeological analysis of burnt remains of food on the inside of some of the earthenware funnel beakers from this period reveals that they contained a fish soup, although traces of acorn have also been identified.

[9] These assemblages are often interpreted as the result of a ritual meals consumed communally, with sheep or goats being of particular symbolic importance at these events, given that their remains are far less common in debris from settlement sites.

[10] In various cases, multiple axes were deposited in the same place; one such example was found under controlled excavation conditions at Gamla Wärslätt in Billinge Parish, Scania.

[10] In a few instance, it is clear that simple copper axes, which had been imported into Scandinavia from southern Europe, were deposited in wetlands from the Early Neolithic onward.

[12] One Neolithic skeleton from Sigersdal in Veksø Bog, west of Copenhagen, was found to have a thin plant fibre cord wound repeatedly around its neck, suggesting the possibility that the individual was strangled before deposition.

[11] This Late Neolithic metalwork is extremely rare in graves of this period, although have been found buried as single finds or as hoards, both in wetland and dryland sites.

[16] Many everyday objects were placed into the wetlands during this period, in some cases as single finds and in others of assemblages containing a variety of different form of artifact.

[15] At Mariesminde on Funen, 11 golden bowls with horse-head handles were found inside a bronze amphora that had been imported into Scandinavia from Central Europe.

[15] Kaul suggested that such luxury items may have been used for a certain number of years, for specific ceremonial occasions, before they were removed from circulation by being deposited in the wetlands.

[15] Various explanations have been put forward to explain this rise; perhaps it represents the increasing importance of a female deity in the religious beliefs of the area, or it could indicate a growth in women's societal status in this period.

[22] At the same time, a number of new forms of neck rings that had developed in the Pre-Roman Iron Age were deposited, both the crown neck-rings and the ball torques.

It was found alongside a truss of flax, a heap of hand-sized stones, some worked pieces of wood, sherds of an earthenware vessels, and a few goat bones; these items were probably deposited in the wetland along with the statue.

Here, a wooden figure was surrounded with earthenware vessels, animal and human bones, and a number of shattered pots and two iron knives placed above it.

Around this layer were the complete skeletons of thirteen dogs, tied to two large stones, and nearby was a small collection of human skull and arm bones and a wooden phallic figurine.

Indeed, the latter part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age witnessed the largest number of such high prestige items deposited in these contexts at any point in Scandinavian prehistory.

[28] Lars Jørgensen commented that the archaeological material from the bogs that dates from the Roman Iron Age was "so extensive that one can write a fully adequate, exciting narrative about the period.

[32] Accounts of artifacts being sacrificed to the gods appear on various textual sources authored by Roman writers from this period; one of these appears in the Annals of Tacitus, which claims that after a battle in which the Hermunduri tribe defeated the Chatti in a battle of 58 CE, the victors devoted "the enemy's army to Mars and Mercury, a vow which consigns horses, men, everything indeed on the vanquished side to destruction.

"[34] An earlier source, the Historiae Adversum Paganos of Orosius, states that following the Battle of Arausio in 105 BCE, the victorious Cimbri tribe "destroyed all that had fallen into their hands in an unheard-of and hitherto unknown maledictory ritual; clothing was torn apart and thrown away, gold and silver were thrown in the river, the men's armour was cut to pieces, the breastplates of the horses were sunk in the waters, the people were hanged from trees with a rope around their necks".

[35] While this scenario provides the possibility for understanding more about conflict in Iron Age Scandinavia,[36] it also leaves open the question of whether the deposits were made by troops engaged in defensive or offensive warfare.

In 1857, the Danish archaeologist Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae suggested that they represented the detritus of nearby battles which had simply fallen into the wetlands.

[2] Gold bracteates from this period, most of which were created in Scandinavia, were also deposited in both wetlands and dryland sites; Kaul noted that with these items, "for the first time since the Bronze Age, objects with true, complex Scandinavian iconography were laid in bogs.

[41] There is a unique example of a well-sculpted wooden male figurine, dressed in Migration Period style costume, that has been found from Rude Eskildstrup in South Sealand.

[44] Kaul suggested that the decline in complex deposits associated with sacrificial practices, which had been present earlier in the Iron Age, indicated that in Migration Period Scandinavia, the locations for sacrifice had moved from the wetlands to areas controlled by the magnate, possibly in a building.