The bronze age in Denmark has left us with a wealth of remains giving us a good insight into the tools, weapons, clothing and everyday objects used by these people.   We are particularly lucky in having a relatively good selection of clothes from the early Bronze Age (c. 1700-1000BC).

In the vicinity of many, or maybe even all, Danish Bronze age villages, where marshy ground, bogs or meadows came near the settlement, cult practices seem to have been carried out and offerings of precious bronze objects were made.   The exact nature of these practices is unknown, but has left a wealth of bronze artefacts.   However, it is the graves of this period which give us the clearest impression of the people of this period and their clothing.   Many bronze age people were buried in a coffin made by splitting and hollowing out a large oak trunk, and over this coffin a large burial mound was built.   Turf was removed from the surrounding surface and piled in a ring around the coffin, always turned so the grass side was downwards.   The building was carried out in several stages, and the mound became higher and higher with a flat top like a truncated cone.   Finally a kind of cap of turf was laid on top of the cone, and this gave the burial monument its characteristically rounded form.   When the earthwork was finished, a ring of large stones or a fence of stout posts was often placed around the mound.

Once the mound was finished it rapidly soaked up large quantities of water from rain and the damp air (Fig. 1).   It is because of this wetness that in some cases the oak coffins and their contents have been preserved for more than 3,000 years.   The burial mound became, in effect, a raised bog and around this bog-like area a cohesive layer of hard pan (i.e. ferruginous sandstone) would soon form, because of the high contents of iron and humous in the turf composing the mound.   This layer of hard pan was formed not just along the surface of the mound, but also at the bottom of it so that a core containing the grave (or graves) was encapsulated in a kind of pocket which retained the dampness of the soil (Fig. 2).   The water absorbing turf had the effect of preserving the wood, clothes and other organic material.

Rainwater constantly filtered down through the mound and this had n effect on the upper strip of hard pan.   Gradually as humic acid was released from the core of the mound, the upper layer of hard pan sank and began to be continually broken down and recreated.   When the hard pan had sunk so far down in the mound that it reached the coffin, putrefacation set in.   This is what happened in most cases, but fortunately it has happened that some mounds have been excavated in which the hard pan had not reached the coffin and it was still intact in its protective pocket (Fig. 3).

However many rituals there were surrounding the burial of the dead, there were nonetheless also people who desecrated the sacred: grave robbers.  In several cases traces have been found of activities of grave robbers in the Bronze Age.   Unseen by others they dug down into the mound until they reached the coffin.  They cut a hole in the lid and with a hooked stick they could then reach the grave goods and pull them up.

Luckily there are many other cases where the oak coffins have been preserved undisturbed by grave robbers.   Several of these are now on display in the National Museum of Denmark and from these and other graves it has been possible to build up an impression of the appearance of the dead people, and chiefly of the garments they wore when alive.
 
 

	Female Clothing Overview of female clothing of the Early Bronze age with specific examples and reconstructions.
	Male Clothing Overview of male clothing of the Early Bronze age with specific examples and reconstructions.
	Other Artefacts Examples of some other items from this period, showing the skill of the Bronze Age craftsmen and beauty of the items they created.

Main References
Prehistory of Denmark, Jørgen Jensen, Nationalmuseet, 1993
Skovlandets folk i bronzealderen, Jørgen Jensen, 1979
Guder og mennesker i bronzealderen, Jørgen Jensen, 1979
Oldtidens Ansigt, 1990
Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, Margrethe Hald, 1980