Last Friday we began our visit of the Swedish History Museum with a detailed look at the Museum’s impressive Gold Room, which you read about at this link. Today we’ll briefly discuss some of the other features in the museum’s extensive collection of over 10,000,000 objects.
The Prehistory wing displays artifacts from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. One of these is the Barum woman, whose skeleton is shown in the top photo of the blog. This woman died about 9,000 years ago at Barum in Skåne. She was buried in a pit with her legs drawn up and her hands in front of her, as you see in the photo. She was excavated in 1939 and the presence of weapons and such buried with her indicate she had been an active hunter and fisher. This period of time is not as well understood as it might be, so the displays are quite interesting.
The History of Sweden wing walks you along a date line of a thousand years, with various displays highlighted at certain periods in the country’s history. There were tremendous changes that occurred a thousand years ago, with a switch from the old Norse gods to Christianity, and the evolution of industry and technology in modern times.
A somewhat gruesome display but one that bears witness to the barbarity of its era is the Massacre at Gotland in 1361.
The Danish army had arrived on 50 ships in 1361 and locals are aware of the invasion, farmers burying their treasures and preparing their armors and weapons to defend themselves and Gotland. The initial phases of the battle resulted in 1800 farmers being massacred outside the barricaded walls of Visby, a city which surrendered to the Danes the next day. It seems such a waste of life, but the times were brutal.
The dead soldiers and their equipment are buried in mass graves which were excavated in the 1920s. The displays include some of the actual remains of the battle, a gory mix of chain mail, armor and human remains, displayed with excavated maces, swords and crossbows.
I enjoyed the section displaying Medieval art. Most art of that era was religious in nature, created to honor God and displayed in Catholic churches. The wing features an extensive collection of art taken from Swedish churches, some of which is shown here.
(Madonna from Skanninge Church, Ostergotland, 1425)
(Shrine of Thomas Becket, from Skepptuna Church in Uppland, 1475. I was surprised to learn that there was a huge following of the martyred Becket in Sweden, including Swedish pilgrimages to his grave in Canterbury)
A section entitled Medieval Tones included a display of old pipe organs and church bells taken from Swedish churches. Bells and their ringing became important symbols of Christianity as the country transitioned from worshipping the Norse Gods to Christianity…
I exited the museum through a display of Baroque art, the wing about to be closed for a party that would be held here. I think it would be a lot of fun to have a social gathering in such a setting.
To remind you, I had visited the museum with the intention of seeing its spectacular collection of Viking artefacts but was disappointed to find that wing closed for renovation when I visited. If you stop by the museum today, you won’t share in my disappointment as that wing is open for your exploration and enjoyment. It really looks fantastic and worth seeing.
