Roman Reflections

Iron Age to Viking Age in Northern Europe

Klavs Randsborg

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781350001503
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781472579546
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Roman Reflections uses a series of detailed and deeply researched case studies to explore how Roman society connected with and influenced Northern Europe during the Iron and Viking Ages. In an original way, the book brings late prehistoric Denmark – best known for its so-called 'bog bodies' – into a world dominated by textual histories, principally that of Tacitus.

The studies include a new examination of the bog-bodies of the late first millennium BC, a classical archaeological puzzle: men, women and children murdered yet respected in death and adorned with items of fine clothing. A second essay challenges traditionally held ideas about the Cimbri by exploring the textual and archaeological evidence, including the startling and famous European artefact, the Gundestrup silver cauldron. The other studies comprise an archaeologically founded modernist discussion of the ethnography of Tacitus' Germania, in particular considering the character of ancient Germanic Bronze and Iron Age societies; a linguistic exploration of the Latin inheritance in northern European names and places, much of which seems to have been invented by the Romans; and an analysis of the origins of the Danes.

Throughout, traditional sources and history are presented in conjunction with new archaeological observations and interpretations. In an accessible way, Roman Reflections assesses Denmark's part on a larger stage, showing how foundations were laid for its zenith in Viking times.

1

Hostages and Bog Bodies

New Interpretations

Adeo ut efficacius obligentur animi civitatum quibus inter obsides puellae quoque nobiles imperantur.

Tacitus’ Germania, Book 8

Introduction

The bog bodies of the Early Iron Age in northern Europe, in particular the centuries BC, constitute one of the most fascinating classes of archaeological finds of the era and region. Very particular conditions of preservation in oxygen-starved wet environments have secured stunning data (van der Sanden 1996; Lund 2002; Asingh & Lynnerup 2007; etc.) (Fig. 1.1 and 1.2; Table 1.1). Human parts and even entire human bodies in the flesh are also known from bogs in other prehistoric periods, but the cited chronological and geographical concentration in the Early Iron Age of Denmark and northwestern Europe calls for one particular set of explanation, or rather several.

In an age and a region otherwise dominated by cremations, the bog bodies are evidence of a very different norm of burial. In Denmark, for instance, the bog bodies constitute the only uncremated human beings in the entire first millennium BC. Most of the bodies – men, women and even children – are naked and were obviously killed, often by hanging, although other methods of killing are also recorded. There have been occasional claims that the dead body carries evidence that suggests the use of unnecessary violence or ‘overkill’, more than would have been needed to kill the person, but this seems uncertain. Male and female bog bodies occur in about equal numbers in Denmark while males dominate the material found elsewhere, such as in northern Germany, and also in Ireland, England, and the Netherlands (van der Sanden 1996, 189f. with map). A number of the bog bodies from England and elsewhere belong to the Neolithic period and Bronze Age.

Figure 1.1 The Tollund Man, found in a bog in Central Jylland/Jutland, c. 300 BC

Photo: National Museum/Silkeborg Museum

Figure 1.2 Sum diagram for carbon-14 dates of bog bodies, clothing and plaits of human hair found in bogs

Some of the best finds have more than one date. Some of the older dates are probably less reliable. The most recent high-quality carbon-14 dates are the most reliable; these are all marked with an asterisk.

After Ebbesen 2008 (plaits); Mannering et al. 2009 (bog bodies and clothing); cf. Ravn 2010

Interpretations

Based on various observations drawn from the Germania by Publius Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56–117), tradition would have it that the bog bodies were criminals who had been killed (Much 1937). The ‘punishment of criminals’ theory was partly modified after the First World War by the suggestion that the culprits were sacrificed to the god whose rules they had violated. In the latter half of the twentieth century a ‘pure’ sacrificial hypothesis gained ground, based on the many particular, even luxurious, finds in the prehistory of Denmark that came from bogs and seemed to be votive ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Hostages and Bog Bodies: New Interpretations
• 2 The Cimbri: Death · Resurrection · Death
• 3 Nations and Alliances: The Ethnography of Tacitus’ Germania
• 4 Romans in the North: Deconstruction of Names and Identities
• 5 Origins of the Danes: From Tacitus to King Harald
• 6 Epilogue: The First Millennium AD in Denmark: Words and Things
• Index
• Copyright