Fig. 84.—Bronze boats covered with gold.—Nors parish, North Jutland.
A perfectly unique find belonging to the bronze age is that discovered at Nors parish, Northern Jutland, in 1885. In an urn, greatly damaged, were about 100 small boats of bronze canoe-shaped, about four to five inches in length, placed one into another, all covered inside and outside with a thin sheet of gold; some have been found to be ornamented with concentric rings on the side. What was the meaning of the offering or find will always remain a mystery.
The curiously-shaped knives, which are found in very great numbers, seem to be peculiar to the North, and the North of Germany. What they were used for is hard to tell, possibly as sacrificial knives. It can hardly be doubted that the signs upon them are symbolical; some may be representations of the sun-ship, others are somewhat like minute representations of the rock-tracings, or designs upon Greek coins, while the heads of horses remind us of the gold vases represented in this chapter.
Fig. 85.—Bronze knife, with sun ship and fish. Real size. In a mound at Skjellerup, near Aarhus, North Jutland.
Fig. 86.—Bronze knife, without handle, with a serpent. Real size. In a mound, Jutland, with three stone coffins.
Fig. 87.—Bronze knife. Real size. Found in mound in Jutland.
