Fig. 525.—Leaf-shaped pendant, sheet gold.
Fig. 526.—Rectangular pendant of sheet gold, with embossed human figure.
Fig. 527.—Semi-spherical gold ornamentation of unknown use.
CHAPTER XIV.
DESCRIPTION OF SOME REMARKABLE GRAVES AND THEIR CONTENTS.
Sepulchral chambers containing skeletons—The objects in these graves not destroyed—Numerous Roman and Greek objects—The Vallöby grave—The Bavenhöi grave—The Varpelev graveyard.
Fig. 528.—Mound, about 13 feet above the ground, showing sepulchral chamber five feet below the surface. The body had been placed upon woollen pillows filled with down. Six oak logs supported the side planks forming the sepulchral chamber, which had an oak floor. The space between the timbers had been filled with tresses of wool and other hair of animals. The chamber had been carefully covered with clay.—Bjerring, near Viborg, Northern Jutland.
To return to the subject of graves, we will now speak of the sepulchral chambers containing skeletons. They generally vary in size, from the length of a man upwards, being about four feet wide and two or three feet high. Sometimes the corpse had been laid upon woollen stuff, cattle-hair, or birch-bark, the head turned southwards, and the feet towards the north. The inside lining is often of planks, between which and the outer stone wall bark has been placed, the seams between the timber being filled with pitch. Above the burial-chamber, which was sometimes below the level of the ground, a mound or cairn was often raised.