Borum Eshøj

Facts

Barrow full of prehistoric costumes

By Flemming Kaul, Museumsinspektør, mag. art. (31 stories)

Borum Eshøj was once one of the country's largest barrows. In it, three Bronze Age graves were found dating back to about 1350 BC. The bodies lay in their coffins of hollowed out oak tree trunks in graves that are among the most important prehistoric finds. The oak coffin graves were excavated in the 1870s and are now on show at the National Museum of Denmark. The areas once had more than 40 barrows but most have now gone. The remains of Borum Eshøj are still visible, and recently Moesgård Museum excavated and reconstructed three more of the barrows. A copy of a Bronze Age house has also been built.

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Why are the graves so important?

Story written by Flemming Kaul

Time / Periode -1350

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The woollen costumes found in the graves were unusually well preserved and give a rare insight into Bronze Age clothing. The man at the centre of the barrow was about 50 years old when he died. He is wearing a loincloth, a cape around his shoulders, and a round-crowned cap on his head. The second coffin contained a young man in a loincloth covered by a cape with a bronze dagger in his belt. The third coffin contained a woman of about 45, wearing a short-sleeved blouse and large skirt. Her trove of equipment includes a bone comb, gold spiral rings, a large bronze belt plate decorated with spirals, a dagger, a neck ring, a clothes pin, arm rings and ornamental bronze plates.