Oxenstierna Eric Graf. The World of the Norsemen

Translated by Janet Sondheimer. — Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1967. — 163 p., illus., map. — (The World Ancient Cultures Series).The World of the Norsemen is the second book in a new series that dramatically brings to life the great civilizations of the past as they are revealed to us through archaeological research. Prepared by outstanding scholars and illustrated by a wealth of photographs, these volumes describe research methods and discoveries vividly and in nontechnical language. They offer readers a unique excursion into the worlds of ancient cultures.
The earth’s layers offer up mysteries far more tantalizing than the most ingenious whodunits. Why was a Danish Bronze Age barrow found lying beneath an earlier Stone Age settlement? What is the meaning of the early Iron Age warship found in a bog at Hjorstpring on the Danish island of Als? How can we account for the total absence of graves on the Scandinavian mainland for the period between 500-150 B.C.? In their quest to unravel nature’s puzzles and to reconstruct the lost worlds of prehistory, today’s archaeologists and prehistorians employ unequaled sleuthing skills and deductive powers. In this distinguished survey, Eric Graf Oxenstierna, a world-renowned archaeologist and the author of many books on ancient Scandinavian history, offers readers a unique opportunity to gain insights into archaeological detection methods and their often-astonishing results.
Northern Europe, Scandinavia in particular (long neglected because of the lure of the East), provides an unusually fertile ground for modern archaeological investigations. Prehistorians there are still struggling to uncover the secrets of the pre-documented cultures of northern Germanic peoples. Count Oxenstierna’s fully documented, lavishly illustrated history of the early Germanic cultures, from the Old Stone and Bronze Ages to the coming of the Vikings, captures all the excitement and mystery of archaeological research in this area.
“Our aim must be to penetrate the kingdoms of the dead to reach the living societies behind them,” explains the author, and in this animated history he succeeds in doing just that. He tells of farming methods, houses, food, iron-forging, burial customs, and other aspects of Iron Age life. He describes the encounter between German and Roman armies in A.D. 9 at Teutoburger Wald and traces the origin of the runic alphabet.
A full chapter details the startling relics unearthed in the peat bogs of Scandinavia: wooden idols, pottery, garments, weapons, a measuring stick with 6^1/2 inches as the unit of measurement, and other votive offerings. The author relates the astonishing story of Tollund man— a corpse found in a bog at Tollund, so remarkably well preserved that medical specialists were able to analyze the contents of his intestines... 1,800 years after his death.
Other chapters describe the migrations of the Visigoths, Vandals, and Huns; gold horns, medallions, bracteates, and other craft objects; the development of Germanic styles of drawing animals; ship burials and burials of kings; the construction of Viking ships; and Viking raids and journeys. The striking sixty-four pages of photographs, collected here for the first time, feature excavation sites and relics of ancient civilizations.
Filling a gap that has long been felt by students of ancient cultures, The World of the Norsemen is at once enticing and enjoyable for the layman; scholarly and informative for the specialist.