Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) is a Danish regional museum dedicated to

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

and ethnography. It is located in Beder, a suburb of Aarhus,

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 ...

. MOMU cooperates with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology and Anthropology at Aarhus University. The main part of the museum's archaeological collection is of Danish origin. In addition, the Ethnographical Collections contain almost 50,000 artifacts from all over the world. They are used both for research and exhibitions. The collection also contains photographic material, films and sound recordings. The museum's exhibitions presents several unrivaled archaeological findings from Denmark's ancient past, among others the

Grauballe Man The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evide ...

, the world's best preserved bog body and the large ritual weapon caches from

Illerup Ådal Illerup Ådal (English: ''Illerup River-valley'') is a river valley and archeological site located near Skanderborg in East Jutland, Denmark. Archaeological discoveries According to Forte, Oram, and Pedersen, "The Illerup Ådal site is one of ...

, testifying the power struggles and warfare of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. The collection also contains seven local

rune stones A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

. Temporary exhibitions at the museum also display examples of the world's cultural heritage.

Exhibitions

A large new museum building, designed by Henning Larsen Architects, housing both exhibitions for the public and headquarters for academic activities, was inaugurated in 2014. The museum building is constructed around a broad central staircase. The upper levels shows changing exhibits of history and culture from around the world, while the lower levels house the permanent exhibitions on Danish, Scandinavian and European history and culture. The permanent indoor exhibitions comprise the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking Age as it unfolded in Denmark and Scandinavia specifically and an exhibition on Medieval Denmark in c. 1050 to 1536. They are highly interactive in several languages, designed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, without losing academic depth and accuracy. The prehistoric exhibitions includes these notable artifacts: * Model of a large Bronze Age barrow, "'' Borum Eshøj''" * Thousands of items from the Iron-Age votive site at

* Copies of the

Golden horns of Gallehus The Golden Horns of Gallehus were two horns made of sheet gold, discovered in Gallehus, north of Møgeltønder in Southern Jutland, Denmark.Grauballe Man The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evide ...

, a bog body from Grauballe, Denmark * Various

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones d ...

s, including the Mask stone (''Maskestenen'') * Snaptun stone, often identified as a depiction of Loki * Hørning Church, a reconstructed early Danish

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts ar ...

The historical landscape

As an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

, the landscape surrounding Moesgaard Museum displays different epochs and eras of Denmark's past, from ancient to modern times. A larger part of the woodlands represents different prehistoric

climatic epochs Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

of the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

, and a number of reconstructed buildings are strewn across the landscape, stretching all the way to the beach and shores in the east. The buildings include several relocated

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

from the

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

and the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, houses from the early

and

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

, and several

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

buildings, some of which are still in use.

Stave-church and Viking houses

Just south of the new museum building, two houses and Hørning Church, a stave-church from the

Viking Period The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

have been built. First is a house from the Viking Age town of

Hedeby Hedeby (, Old Norse ''Heiðabýr'', German ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holst ...

near

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, Germany. It has been dated around 870 AD and is interpreted as the home of a craftsman's or trader's family. The other house is a reconstruction of a pit-house from Viking Age Aarhus, dated to about 900 AD. Pit-houses are small huts, dug half-way into the ground, used as dwellings, workshops or storerooms. On a small hill behind the houses, a

has been erected with a bell frame. None of the original stave churches in Denmark have survived, but the floor and post-holes from a Viking Age stave church were excavated under the present Hørning Church near

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Danish National Museum
On the outside, the

hammer-beam A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...

from Hørning was ornamented with writhing serpents, a characteristic of the Late Viking Period. On the basis of the growth-rings in the timber, the stave-church has been dated to about 1060, the transition from the Viking Age Period to the Middle Ages. At the excavation site in Hørning, traces of a bell frame were discovered. This has also been reconstructed just in front of the church entrance. The church bell has been cast at Moesgaard, following a 900-year-old description of bell casting. It is a replica of the almost 800-year-old bell from Smollerup church near Viborg.

Moesgaard Manor and surroundings

The estate of Moesgaard covers 100 hectares of park, forest, open fields and shoreline, and extends from the museum buildings down to the

Bay of Aarhus The Bay of Aarhus, or Aarhus Bay, is a Danish waterway by Aarhus in eastern Jutland. The Bay of Aarhus is bounded by Kalø Vig in the north, Sletterhage and Helgenæs in the east, Samsø and Tunø to the south and the east Jutland coast to the w ...

. The former manor house at Moesgaard Manor was constructed in 1780–84 by nobleman and diplomat Christian Frederik Gyldenkrone (1741–1788), based upon plans by architect Christian Joseph Zuber (1736–1802). Torkild Christian Dahl (1807–1872) took ownership of the manor in 1844. In 1960 Århus County bought the manor and estate. The former manor house now houses a department of the Institutes of Archaeology and Anthropology of Aarhus University. In the park is also a house from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

which was donated to Moesgaard Museum by the

Kingdom of Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

in 1975. The house is around 100 years old and originally from

Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to: * Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767 ** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom * Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...

, the old capital of

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, 200 km north of

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

. The house was once a part of a larger building complex. From the manor park, a 4 km long Prehistoric Track starts off, running through the estate all the way to the sea in the east. A short walk from the park, an

house has been reconstructed. It is a typical farmhouse from 200 to 300 AD, based on a settlement at Tofting near

Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home o ...

, just south of the Danish border. This house-type was common throughout Northern Europe in its day. The building is 16 m long and both humans and cattle lived under the same roof. The open fields and slopes below the manor are grazed by sheep, goats and horses, and present a handful of ancient tumuli. In the forest of Moesgaard Skov further east, it is possible to visit the old timber-framed Medieval

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

of Moesgård Forest Mill (''Skovmøllen''), powered by the stream of Giber Å. The first reference to the mill dates from 1590 but all the buildings were rebuilt and an overshot mill-wheel was installed in 1785. An extra story was added to the mill house in 1852. Production ceased in 1910, but the mill is still in full working order as both a saw and granary mill. The milling business was initiated again by a team of volunteers in 2000 and guided tours are held throughout the year. There is a restaurant in the attached buildings and Skovmøllen has a long history of recreational activities. Near Moesgaard Beach is a reconstruction of a Stone Age cult-building from the Funnel Beaker Period, around 2500 BC. The original house was located near two dolmens and a

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...

at Tustrup in Northern

Djursland Djursland () is a 44 km × 33 km hilly lowland peninsula in Denmark at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, between Denmark and Sweden in Northern Europe. Djursland protrudes into the Kattegat sea, as part of the larger peninsula of Jutland, ...

. It is believed that the building served religious ceremonies – perhaps as a resting place for the dead, until the flesh had decayed and the bones could be moved into surrounding graves. The original wooden building burnt to the ground at some point, and parts of the roof sheeting of birch-bark with turf cover collapsed inwards with the burnt wall planking. 26 richly decorated offering vessels and pottery ladles representing the golden age of pottery in Danish prehistory were found inside the collapsed building. The ceramics can be seen on display at the Moesgaard Museum. Further east, at the mouth of the Giber Å stream on the beach, is an old fisherman's house from 1856. The residents used to serve the estate until 1935, when Aarhus Municipality acquired the land. Moesgård beach is popular in the summer with people looking for a sunbath, recreational watersport activities or a place for picnics. Public toilets and a kiosk selling ice-cream and fast food can be found here. In 2019, the landscape around Moesgaard Museum was used for the IAAF 2019 Cross Country World Championships. The route included the museum buildings grass covered roof.

Prehistoric Trail

The Prehistoric Trail is a 4 km trail that runs from the Moesgaard Manor to the beach and back transecting most of the 100 hectare area of garden, park, forest, fields and beaches that is owned by the Moesgaard Museum. Along the route are several reconstructed prehistoric buildings and burial mounds. The trail also passes through the Prehistoric Forest, an area divided into sections representing the successive forest types of Denmark since the ice sheets of the last ice age retreated. Points of interests – both historical and biological – are explained on information boards. For the most part the trail is marked by large white stones adorned with a red dot. The Prehistoric Trail leads you through the baroque-styled Manor Park, laid out around the same time Moesgaard Manor was constructed (in the 1770s) down to the field shown on maps as "Jens Michelsens toft". Here are several stone burial chambers from various parts of Denmark illustrating how traditions of burial changed over time during the Stone and Bronze Ages. These were relocated here and carefully reconstructed when their original sites were lost to development. The field is grazed by Gotland sheep in the summer to keep the vegetation around the burial chambers down.Forhistorisk Museum Moesgård: Moesgaard : Oldtidsstien, 1973. The next points of interest along the trail include the old watermill, which today also houses a restaurant, and the ruin of a

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...

. The route then leads into the ancient woodland, the forest swamp, which is crossed on a footbridge. Among the

Red Alder ''Alnus rubra'', the red alder, is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana). Description Red alder is the largest species of alder in Nort ...

s are tussocks rich in herbs. The trail continues through The Prehistoric Forest, which the museum planted in 1964 to illustrate the ecological succession in the forests of Denmark from the Stone Age until today. Thus the forest is divided into the periods Birch and Pine period (9550–8250 BC), Hazel and Pine (8250–7500 BC), Early Lime (7000–3800 BC), Late Lime (3800–700 BC) og Beech (700 BC – today). The trail exits the Beech period close to the beach. From the beach the trail leads back west through the forest past reconstructed houses including The Tustrup House. The original house was located in the town of Tustrup on the peninsula of

north of Aarhus. This house was probably used for religious ceremonies and perhaps for storing dead bodies until all that remained was bones, which could then be placed in a

or stone barrow. The Prehistoric Trail ends back at the Manor, which nowadays houses the museum administration, Aarhus University offices and student facilities. There is no public access to these buildings. However just across the road is the last point of interest on The Prehistoric Trail, the reconstructed

from a town about 35 km to the north of Moesgaard.

Gallery

File:Moesgård hovedbygning.jpg, Moesgaard manor house File:Moesgård park.jpg, The park at the manor house. File:Moesgård Rostrupkisten.jpg, Stone cist from the Late Stone Age reconstructed in the field "Jens Michelsens toft." File:Karlstruphøjen hellekiste.jpg, Flag-stone cist from the Late Stone Age. File:Moesgård Skovmølle møllehus.jpg, The old water mill "Skovmøllen." File:Oldtidsskoven Moesgård.jpg, Information board in the Prehistoric Forest. File:Fiskerhuset Moesgård.jpg, Giber Å outlet at the Fisherman's House. File:Tustruphuset.jpg, The Tustrup House File:Oldtidsstien Giberå.jpg, The Prehistoric Trail by the Giber Å. File:Jernalderhuset.jpg, The Iron Age house File:Alle Moesgård.jpg, The trail is marked by large white rocks with a red dot. File:Moesgård Museum, Stavkirken2.JPG, The stave church File:Oldtidsstien rute.png, Route map

Gallery

Wiki P 20160803 20 06 21 Pro.jpg, Museum display case Baldric components, Moesgaard Museum.jpg, Baldric components Sheild boss detail, Moesgaard Museum.jpg, Shield boss detail Stone age clay pot, Moesgaard Museum.jpg, Stone age clay pot Maskesten, Moesgård.jpg, Aarhusstenen (The Aarhus Stone), a late Viking Age mask stone that inspired the Moesgaard Museum logo Lokistone.jpg, Snaptun stone, another mask stone depicting Loki File:Moesgård Manor elm avenue.jpg, Avenue in the manor park File:Moesgård park.jpg, The manor park Thaihuset Moesgård.jpg, Thai house File:Cattle Moesgaard.jpg, Grazing cattle File:Moesgård Skov (juli).jpg, Forest parh Giber å i Moesgård Skov.JPG, Giber Å stream Skovmøllen.JPG, Skovmøllen medieval water mill

Directors

Directors of Moesgaard Museum have included: * Peder Mortensen (1982–1996) * Jan Skamby Madsen (1996–2016) * Mads Kähler Holst (from 2016)

References

Other sources

*Skriver, Jens B. (2001) ''Moesgård – historien om en herregård'' (Moesgård Museum)

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moesgard Museum Archaeological museums in Denmark History museums in Denmark Viking Age museums Museums in Aarhus Tourist attractions in Aarhus Cross country running venues Museums established in 1970 1970 establishments in Denmark

Exhibitions

The historical landscape

Stave-church and Viking houses

Moesgaard Manor and surroundings

Prehistoric Trail

Gallery

Gallery

Directors

See also

References

Other sources

External links