Favorite museum of the trip

We spent the morning in the Nationalmuseet (National Museum) with artifacts dating back to the stone age and moving forward through history to the present day.  I really enjoyed this museum.  The  bulk of the artifacts were from Scandinavia, so everything was laid out chronologically and you simply moved from room to room through the entire building, slowly moving forward in time.  There were some other exhibits from other regions, but they were much smaller and featured a rather electic mix of select artifacts.

I learned a lot more about earlier eras on earth.  Back around 6000 BC, much of Scandinavia was not islands, but was connected by land to the rest of Europe.  Below is a fishnet that was preserved in the sea sediment, dating back to 6000 BC.  This was one of the oldest artifacts in the museum, along with some skulls from cro-magnon man.  Each section and room of the museum had a special description that put the artifacts in the larger picture including how various early human ancestors developed (or not).

Stone battle axes dating to 3600 BC.  I really liked how they had well preserved artifacts that were nicely displayed.  They were easy to view and were not haphazardly placed in cases.  Instead of bits and pieces on display, they were nearly all whole pieces.

This mumified woman was amazingly well preserved.  Dating back to 1300 BC.  If you look closely, you can still see the fancy coifs of her braided hair.  She has on a wool shirt with embroidery on the sleeves.  The burial rites during this time were to create barrows (dirt mounds built up over oak coffins that were surrounded by cut peat with stone walls built around them.  The low oxygen meant there was no decay.

The horse pulling the chariot of the sun across the sky (dates back to 1300 BC).  Found in 1902

Gold bowls in beautiful conditions.

Locks of hair from Ilsa (from Frozen)...kidding.  These braids of hair were part of a sacrifice made in a peat bog and preserved (dating back to 350 BC)

We skipped a few rooms and jumped ahead a few years.  These are Viking runes (alphabet).  There are only 16, so some of them have several different sounds.

Christianity came to the region in the  Middle Ages and there were a lot of artifacts from early churches.  I liked this carved oak piece dating to 1250 AD.

These pitchers were fun - lions and dog shapes.

There were a number of carved ivory pieces.  This was about the size of my two hands.  Very detailed.

This is a woman's woolen garment dating to the 1400s.  I can't believe such common garments that are so old are so well preserved.  I've seen royal clothes in collections, but not a common woman's woolen dress. 

A  shield used in battle.  A triangular hole for the spear and a metal piece with holes poked in it to see through.  Men would advance in a line like a wall against the enemy.

We saw similar collections of "hoards" of coins buried in the ground in the British Museum. This urn has 16,000 coins in it.