Vikings in modern design – Denmark’s ‘new’ prehistory

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The new exhibition puts Danish prehistory into a global context with lots of “windows” out to the surrounding world. It isn’t only in recent centuries that Denmark has had close links abroad. Sounds, belts and seas were the freeways of the distant past, so since the Stone Age Denmark has had particularly good access to the rest of Europe, and sometimes all the way to the Middle East. In fact several of the highlights of the exhibition have found their way over great distances – for example the great silver vessel, The Gundestrup Cauldron, comes from what is today Romania or Bulgaria.

The new exhibition puts Danish prehistory into a global context with lots of “windows” out to the surrounding world. It isn’t only in recent centuries that Denmark has had close links abroad. Sounds, belts and seas were the freeways of the distant past, so since the Stone Age Denmark has had particularly good access to the rest of Europe, and sometimes all the way to the Middle East. In fact several of the highlights of the exhibition have found their way over great distances – for example the great silver vessel, The Gundestrup Cauldron, comes from what is today Romania or Bulgaria.

There is nothing else like the Sun Chariot – at least nothing similar has appeared since it emerged from Trundholm Bog in 1902. It is the National Museum’s absolute highlight. The Sun Chariot was made in the Bronze Age, c. 1350 BC, and shows the sun on its eternal journey, drawn by a divine horse. The elegant spiral ornamentation on the golden sun disc reveals its Nordic origin. The Sun Chariot still holds an almost magical attraction. And its message is universal: it reflects existence in an eternal cycle of alternations between light and darkness.