Fig. 218.—Danish Bronze Knife of the Bronze Epoch.
The same thing may, doubtless, be said of several razors (fig. 219) with straight blades, which appear even overloaded with ornaments; among these embellishments is an attempt to represent a sort of vessel.
Fig. 219.—Blade of a Danish Razor of the Bronze Epoch.
These designs evidently point to some very advanced period in the bronze epoch; and perhaps these objects may belong to the commencement of the iron age.
What, we may ask, was the wearing apparel of man during the period we are describing?
A very important discovery, made in 1861, in a tumulus in Jutland (Denmark), has lately supplied us with the most accurate data respecting the way in which the inhabitants of the north of Europe were clothed during the bronze epoch. In this tumulus MM. Worsaae, and Herbst found three wooden coffins, one of which was smaller than the two others, and was no doubt that of a child. One of the two larger coffins was minutely examined by these savants, and measured inside 7 feet in length and 20 inches in width. It was closed up by means of a movable lid. By an extremely rare chance the soft parts of the body had been to some extent preserved, and had become converted into a black greasy substance. The bones were decomposed, and had decayed into a kind of blue powder. The brain had preserved its normal conformation. They found it at one end of the coffin (where the head had lain); it was still covered with a woollen cap, about 6 inches high, to which several black hairs were adhering.
Several woollen garments, in which the body had been buried, were also found in different parts of the coffin. We add a description of these garments.