The Dejbjerg wagon (Danish ''Dejbjergvognen'') is a composite of two ceremonial

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

s found in a

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

in Dejbjerg near

Ringkøbing Ringkøbing (older spelling ''Ringkjøbing'') is a town in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality in Region Midtjylland on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. It has a population of 9,894 (1 January 2022).Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. These

votive deposit A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

s were dismantled and ritually placed in the bog around 100 BCE. As of 2022, the wagon is on display at the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

Cultural context

Dejbjerg wagon, Nationalmuseet Copenhagen

The two wagons belong to a larger phenomenon of intentional placement of objects in bogs, generally interpreted as sacrifices to gods. The Dejbjerg Wagon was discovered during a period of intense peat bog extraction that occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, largely by non-archaeologists. These excavations yielded many items dating from the entirety of the prehistic period but especially from the Iron Age. Many of these objects include everyday items like ceramic vessels and wooden objects, but also more prestigious items, like war booty, the Dejbjerg Wagon, and the

Gundestrup Cauldron The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly decorated silver vessel, thought to date from between 200 BC and 300 AD,Nielsen, S; Andersen, J; Baker, J; Christensen, C; Glastrup, J; et al. (2005). "The Gundestrup cauldron: New scientific and technical ...

. In addition to ritually placed objects, bog deposits include

bog bodies A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between and the Second World War. Fischer ...

, preserved human remains.Mortensen, Christensen, Johannesen, Stidsing, & Olsen 2020: 1-2.

Dejbjerg folklore

Prior to the discovery of the Dejbjerg Wagon, local folklore "told of wagons filled with gold which were supposed to be lying in a bog near the local vicarage, an account which was verified (to some degree) when the two famous Dejbjerg wagons from the Early iron age were later found in the bog in question in 1881–82". Folklorist Terry Gunnell highlights that this account is not unique, and that comparable legends can be found associated with certain bogs and lakes in southern Sweden. Gunnell notes that, "The key value of the legend in question (in association with the archaeological finds) is thus not so much that it might be based on a ‘genuine’ memory related to that particular lake. More importantly, it suggests that the gold wagon legends in general would seem to have some basis in ancient truth and shared social memory." Gunnell compares this complex of legends the sword found underwater by Beowulf (in '' Beowulf''), and comments that "these accounts appear to have roots in faint memories of the ritual depositions of objects in water which took place during the Bronze and Iron Ages, activities for which the later storytellers had no evidence and no personal memory, but which have since been given substance by archaeological evidence. This is why modern archaeologists tend to collect local legends relating to sites that they are investigating: there is always a possibility that they may contain a kernel of truth."Gunnell 2020: 200-201.

Notes

References

* Gunnell, Terry. 2020. "Folklore" in ''The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures, Pre-Christian Religions of the North, Brepols Publishers'', vol. 1., p. 195-204. ISBN 978-2-503-57489-9 * Mortensen, M. F., Christensen, C., Johannesen, K., Stidsing, E., Fiedel, R., & Olsen, J. (2020). "Iron Age peat cutting and ritual depositions in bogs – new evidence from Fuglsøgaard Mose, Denmark". ''Danish Journal of Archaeology'', 9, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.7146/DJA.V9I0.116377
Viewable online

External links

{{commonscat, Dejbjerg wagon
The National Museum of Denmark's page on the wagons

The National Museum's page on ritual carriages, discussing the wagons and Tacitus's description of Nerthus

Images of the Dejbjerg wagon from the Danish National Museum's digital collections
Archaeological discoveries in Denmark Danish folklore Prehistoric objects in the National Museum of Denmark

Cultural context

Dejbjerg folklore

See also

Notes

References

External links