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Roman Iron Age weapon deposits are intentional burials of large quantities of weapons from the Roman Iron Age of Scandinavia. The weapon deposits were intended for either sacrifice or burial and forms part of other Iron Age votive offerings from the period of bog deposits in Scandinavia. Almost all Scandinavian Iron Age bog deposits have been found in Denmark and southern Sweden, including Gotland.
The archaeology of a former lake at the Jutland site of Illerup Ådal is the best evidence [ citation needed ] for what are taken to be the sacrifice and destruction of the weapons and equipment captured from enemy soldiers (at Illerup, soldiers rather than tribesmen because a certain uniformity of equipment suggests professional organisation [1] ). The anoxic conditions of the mud or peat at the bottom of the lakes or bogs preserved many of such sacrificed artifacts in good, or excellent condition.
Among the offerings at Illerup are also items belonging to the personal equipment of members of the defeated army. Combs made from reindeer and moose bones together with the finds of Roman coins could indicate that the army originated from northern Scandinavia and was on its way home from plunder or auxiliary service in the Roman Empire when it met its fate at Illerup.
Bogs are known to preserve bog bodies and bog butter but no human bodies are known to accompany the weapon sacrifices. The main Illerup deposition, besides weapons, includes gold, silver, spear shafts, shield boards, ropes, cords, leather, textiles tools, wooden vessels, spoons, beads, four horses and a cow. [2] Dendrochronology of the shield boards shows that the deposition was soon after 205 AD, yet the last coin was minted in 187/8 AD. The shield bosses are taken, in the book, [3] to represent three levels of hierarchy in the small army. The ordinary soldiers were represented by 350 iron bosses. The next level up had 30 bronze bosses and six bronze or iron bosses with gilded pressed foil. Above these, there were 5–6 silver shield bosses. [4] Some Illerup objects have runes similar to those on the Vimose inscriptions.
A good number of deposit sites were in use for many centuries, with remains from several different sacrificial events, and they often includes many other types of offerings, such as animals, humans, boats, jewellery and food. The weapon sacrifices from the Roman Iron Age times usually dates from the period 200–500 AD, but earlier ones from the pre-Roman Iron Age are also known, such as the Hjortspring boat offering form around 350 BC, where more than 50 shields, 11 single-edged swords and 169 spearheads accompanied the boat. [5] [6]
The weapons were often burnt, broken or bent before deposition. The surviving boats were sunk in the lakes though other boats are known simply from clumps of burnt rivets. The Illerup deposit is known to have had at least three sacrificial events in the period around 200-500 AD. The bogs and lakes used appear to be surrounded by cultivated fields.
Roman Iron Age weapon deposits in Scandinavia allow for some changes in Germanic warfare to be monitored, e.g. the change from single edged swords at Hjortspring to double edged swords at Illerup. From grave finds of arrow heads, bows were significant war weapons in the Germanic area from about 200 AD. South of Denmark these are typically leaf shaped. In Denmark they are thinner and designed to penetrate the rings of mail armour. [7] This change of weaponry is assumed to account for the Illerup shields having a layer of gut stretched over the surface. Besides keeping the shields dry, experiments show the shields much more resistant to splitting and penetration by arrows. [8] [9]
The rarest find from these sacrifices is a complete coat of mail armor. Reconstruction shows it to have had 20–23,000 rings and weighed just under 10 kg. [10]
Perhaps even more interesting are the scabbards. A number have been recovered. Two of the more decorative from Nydam, one from the third century [11] and one from the fifth [12] had fur lining on the inside. We can reasonably speculate that this fur was oily and designed to keep the blade absolutely free from rust.[ citation needed ] The further speculation is that a pristine appearance of the blade would only have been so highly valued for pattern-welded blades.[ citation needed ] Classic sites includes Illerup Ådal and Kragehul.
The spatha was a type of straight and long sword, measuring between 0.5 and 1 metre, with a handle length of between 18 and 20 centimetres, in use in the territory of the Roman Empire during the 1st to 6th centuries AD. Later swords, from the 7th to 10th centuries, like the Viking swords, are recognizable derivatives and sometimes subsumed under the term spatha.
Knowledge about military technology of the Viking Age is based on relatively sparse archaeological finds, pictorial representations, and to some extent on the accounts in the Norse sagas and laws recorded in the 12th–14th centuries.
The Elder Futhark, also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period. Inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, plateware, tools, and weapons, as well as runestones, from the 1st to the 9th centuries.
The Hjortspring boat is a vessel designed as a large canoe, from the Scandinavian Pre-Roman Iron Age. It was built circa 400–300 BC. The hull and remains were rediscovered and excavated in 1921–1922 from the bog of Hjortspring Mose on the island of Als in Sønderjylland, southern Denmark. The boat is the oldest find of a wooden plank ship in Scandinavia and it closely resembles the thousands of petroglyph images of Nordic Bronze Age ships found throughout Scandinavia. The vessel is a planked wooden boat of more than 19 metres length overall, 13.6 metres long inside, and 2 metres wide. The planking is joined by sewing, using a bevelled lap joint similar to clinker construction. Ten thwarts that could have served as seats, span the boat with room for two persons each; this suggests space for a crew of at least 20 who propelled the boat with paddles. The boat would have weighed an estimated 530 kilograms, making it easily portable by its crew.
Kragehul I is a migration period lance-shaft found on Funen, Denmark. It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. The spear shaft was found in 1877 during the excavation of the classic war booty sacrificial site Kragehul on southern Funen. The site holds five deposits of military equipment from the period 200 to 475 AD. The spear shaft probably belongs to the latest deposit.
The archaeology of Northern Europe studies the prehistory of Scandinavia and the adjacent North European Plain, roughly corresponding to the territories of modern Sweden, Norway, Denmark, northern Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The Thorsberg moor near Süderbrarup in Anglia, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is a peat bog in which the Angles deposited votive offerings for approximately four centuries. It is the location of important Roman Iron Age finds, including early Elder Futhark runic inscriptions such as the Thorsberg chape, a Roman helmet, a shield buckle, and an early example of socks. The finds are of similar importance as the contemporaneous finds from Illerup and Vimose in Denmark.
The Migration Period sword was a type of sword popular during the Migration Period and the Merovingian period of European history, particularly among the Germanic peoples. It later gave rise to the Carolingian or Viking sword type of the 8th to 11th centuries AD.
The Nydam Mose, also known as Nydam Bog, is an archaeological site located at Øster Sottrup, a town located in Sundeved, eight kilometres (5 mi) from Sønderborg, Denmark.
Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) is a Danish regional museum dedicated to archaeology and ethnography. It is located in Beder, a suburb of Aarhus, Denmark.
The angon is a type of javelin that was used during the Early Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Goths, and other Germanic peoples. It was similar to, and probably derived from, the pilum used by the Roman army and had a barbed head and long narrow socket or shank made of iron mounted on a wooden haft.
Iron Age Scandinavia was the Iron Age, as it unfolded in Scandinavia. It was preceded by the Nordic Bronze Age.
The contact between Germanic tribes and Romans can be divided into four aspects as defined by archaeologist Are Kolberg: the military, the trade, the gift, and the plunder aspect. All these aspects give probable answers as to how and why Roman objects got into Germanic hands, and why a vast amount of Roman objects still can be found as far north as Norway. It is noteworthy to understand how Roman objects brought elements of Roman culture with them, and how they to some extent shaped Germanic culture and identity.
Illerup Ådal is a river valley and archeological site located near Skanderborg in East Jutland, Denmark.
Many different weapons were created and used in Anglo-Saxon England between the fifth and eleventh centuries. Spears, used for piercing and throwing, were the most common weapon. Other commonplace weapons included the sword, axe, and knife—however, bows and arrows, as well as slings, were not frequently used by the Anglo-Saxons. For defensive purposes, the shield was the most common item used by warriors, although sometimes mail and helmets were used.
The Dejbjerg wagon is a composite of two ceremonial wagons found in a peat bog in Dejbjerg near Ringkøbing in western Jutland, Denmark. These votive deposits were dismantled and ritually placed in the bog around 100 BCE. As of 2022, the wagon is on display at the National Museum of Denmark.
The Veksø helmets are a pair of Bronze Age ceremonial horned helmets found near Veksø in Zealand, Denmark.
In many areas of Scandinavia, a wide variety of items were deposited in lakes and bogs from the Mesolithic period through to the Middle Ages. Such items include earthenware, decorative metalwork, weapons, and human corpses, known as bog bodies. As Kaul noted, "we cannot get away from the fact that the depositions in the bogs were connected with the ritual/religious sphere."
A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally made to gain favor with supernatural forces.
A prominent position was held by wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism, as in other pagan European cultures, featuring as sites of religious practice and belief from the Nordic Bronze Age until the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples.