Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press [1974]
Description
The Mound people were a Bronze Age people who ruled in Denmark before 1000 B.C. They were buried in oak coffins in their everyday clothes and were supplied with ornaments and weapons of gold and bronze buried under domes of the burial mounds in the highest hills throughout Denmark. Many of their remains began to emerge a couple hundred years ago, and this book discusses the findings that have been unearthed.
User reviews
LibraryThing member AgedPeasant
Professor Glob is better known for The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved , about bodies preserved in the acidic conditions of Denmark's peat bogs. These bodies were those of sacrificial victims. The people whose lives Glob reconstructs in "The Mound People" are from the Bronze Age, and were buried
Some of the mounds were excavated in the 19th century, others more recently. Glob describes the excavations and collates the finds, which include beautifully preserved clothing as well as the hair of the deceased, and puts them together with metal ritual objects and Danish rock art to build a picture of the life and fertility-obsessed religion of the culture. The illustrations, though in black and white, are excellent, presented as a series of full-page "plates" distributed in a logical order through the text.
The book is fascinating both for this depiction of Bronze Age life, and for the tale it tells of archaeology in the infancy of the discipline. The writing is clear and easy to follow even through the technical detail. Glob writes with delicacy and humour and his humane spirit shines through at all times. A very enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in archaeology.
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with all their finery in oak coffins under burial mounds. The same acidic conditions which preserved Tollund Man and Grauballe Man preserved these older bodies, but less completely, so we are spared the unsettling and at times gruesome images which haunt one from the other book.Some of the mounds were excavated in the 19th century, others more recently. Glob describes the excavations and collates the finds, which include beautifully preserved clothing as well as the hair of the deceased, and puts them together with metal ritual objects and Danish rock art to build a picture of the life and fertility-obsessed religion of the culture. The illustrations, though in black and white, are excellent, presented as a series of full-page "plates" distributed in a logical order through the text.
The book is fascinating both for this depiction of Bronze Age life, and for the tale it tells of archaeology in the infancy of the discipline. The writing is clear and easy to follow even through the technical detail. Glob writes with delicacy and humour and his humane spirit shines through at all times. A very enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in archaeology.
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Physical description
184 p.; 26 cm
ISBN
0801408008 / 9780801408007
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