Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Scandinavian Culture – Denmark
A walk through the Stone Age
By Heidi Kokborg | Photos: Anne Birgitte Gurlev
If you fancy taking a journey 7,000 years back in time, Vedbækfundene is for you. You can see skeletons from the Stone Age, a wild boar, and take a walk through the virgin forest. 20 kilometres north of Copenhagen you will find Vedbækfundene, one of three museums making up the Rudersdal Museums. Vedbækfundene is an archaeological museum about the Stone Age where, among other things, you can see one of the world’s most famous graves, belonging to an 18-year-old woman and her baby. The woman went into labour too early and both her and the baby died. “What is so special about the grave is that the baby was buried on a swan wing,” says Anne Birgitte Gurlev, curator of Vedbækfundene. “This shows how upset the community was about the death.”
Experience wildlife Vedbækfundene was founded in 1984, based on archaeological findings from the 1975 construction of a school. 17 graves
and 22 people who had been buried 7,000 years ago were found. “The skeletons were well preserved, so archaeologists could find out how the Stone Age hunter-gatherers lived,” explains Gurlev. The environment was very different 7,000 years ago. The temperature was higher, most of Vedbæk was covered in water, and where there was not water there was virgin forest – something the museum has incorporated into the exhibition. “When you walk into the museum, you walk straight into the virgin forest. You will see skeletons and wild animals, and the floor is curved so that it feels like you’re walking in the virgin forest. You can touch reconstructions of weapons and tools from the Stone Age in the museum, which makes Vedbækfundene particularly fun for kids,” says Gurlev.
Rudersdal Museums consists of the Local Historic Archive for Rudersdal Municipality and two cultural history museums: the cultural history museum Mothsgård in Søllerød and the archaeological museum Vedbækfundene.
For more information, please visit: www.museer.rudersdal.dk
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