In many areas of Scandinavia, a wide variety of items were deposited in lakes and bogs from the Mesolithic period through to the Middle Ages. Such items include earthenware, decorative metalwork, weapons, and human corpses, known as bog bodies. As Kaul noted, "we cannot get away from the fact that the depositions in the bogs were connected with the ritual/religious sphere."
The earliest examples of wetland deposits from Scandinavia come from the Mesolithic, including elk bones and earthenware vessels. In the Neolithic, earthenware vessels and flint axes were deposited in the wetlands, with a number of wooden platforms being constructed to allow greater access to the wetlands themselves. In the Bronze Age, a wide variety of different items were placed into bogs, although the levels of deposition fluctuated throughout the period. It also witnessed the deposition of several high-value metal items, including the Trundholm sun chariot and a number of lurs and shields. The Pre-Roman Iron Age witnessed the continued deposition of these high-status item, including decorated metal cauldrons, most notably the Gundestrup cauldron. It also saw the deposition of increasingly complex assemblages, which often brought together animal and human bones with stones, sticks, and wooden equipment.
Many of the items deposited in bogs were highly valuable. It is possible that some artefacts also ended up in bogs and lakes without deliberate human intent, for instance if they were lost by accident or produced in settlements that existed adjacent to such wetland areas.
Terminology
Given that these items are typically interpreted as having a religious or cultic purpose, terms such as "offerings", "sacrifices" and "votive deposits" have been used to refer to them, however "depositions" is sometimes favoured as being more neutral. Kaul noted that "in many cases it can be difficult to tell whether the deposition had a practical function or was related to religion and ritual."
Bogs and wetland areas were widespread in much of southern Scandinavia in the past, although many have been destroyed since the Middle Ages due to drainage and agricultural use. Archaeological evidence makes it clear that they were not always remote or inaccessible places in prehistoric contexts, and in various cases were located close to human settlements. Kaul suggested that "the bogs can be regarded as uncultivated areas that were closer to the forces of nature, where people felt closer to divine beings." In some cases, it appears that items were not actually deposited into the water or bog itself, but were placed on dry-land adjacent to the water.
The majority of artefacts from bogs and other wetland contexts in Scandinavia were not discovered through archaeological investigation, but have been discovered by accident, particularly by individuals engaged in peat cutting.
Mesolithic
A number of items have been discovered in wetland places that were deposited during the Mesolithic, or "Middle Stone Age" period of Scandinavian prehistory. A number of deposits of elk bones dating to c.9500 BCE have been found in Lundby Bog in South Sealand, while several others dated to c.8500 BCE and associated with the Maglemosian culture have been found at Skottemarke on Lolland and at Favrbo in West Sealand. Parallels have been drawn with some of the hunting rituals which have been ethnographically recorded among the Sami people in northern Scandinavia.
A number of artefacts associated with the Late Ertebølle culture have also been found in bogs, among them earthenware vessels, flint-core axes, and imported shoe-last celts. At Mosegaard Bog in Åmosen, Central Sealand, a collection of 21 pierced animal teeth were found together in a wetland context, with Kaul suggesting that these could probably be considered "a Mesolithic ritual deposition".
Neolithic
In a number of cases, it has been shown that Neolithic settlements were located very close to the edge of a bog or lake, in some instances where items from the same period had been deposited. These settlements were likely inhabited on a seasonal basis, from where people hunted and fished but also brought domestic animals with them. For instance, at Storelyng IV, a site in the Central Sealand Åmose which is dated to c.3400 BCE, archaeological evidence indicates that a community arrived there in mid-May, where they hunted, fished, and gathered shellfish in the adjacent lake, before slaughtering a number of goats that they had brought with them and departing in mid-August.
A characteristic of Early Neolithic depositions is the placing of earthenware vessels near to the banks of a lake, something which may have parallels in the latter part of the preceding Mesolithic Ertebølle culture. This tradition was carried out for around a thousand years, from c.4000 BCE to shortly before 3000 BCE, when the practice largely died out. Archaeological analysis of burnt remains of food on the inside of some of the earthenware funnel beakers from this period reveals that they contained a fish soup, although traces of acorn have also been identified. It is unclear whether these earthenware items were actually deposited in the water with food in them, or whether this had been consumed or otherwise removed beforehand.
In many cases, animal bones have also been deposited alongside the earthenware. Zooarchaeological analysis of the bones have revealed that sheep or goats are well represented in the assemblages, with domestic ox also being common, although both pig and wild animals like red deer and roe deer have also been found. The bones have often been split, so as to allow bone marrow extraction, suggesting that the animals had been eaten prior to the deposition of the bones. These assemblages are often interpreted as the result of a ritual meals consumed communally, with sheep or goats being of particular symbolic importance at these events, given that their remains are far less common in debris from settlement sites.
Flint axes were also placed in bogs during the Neolithic, with examples having been identified as belonging to the Early, Middle, and Late periods of this era. In some instances they are associated with earthenware deposits, although in others they are found alone; this is particularly evident in the Scania area, where earthenware deposits are scarce. In various cases, multiple axes were deposited in the same place; one such example was found under controlled excavation conditions at Gamla Wärslätt in Billinge Parish, Scania. Here, four Early Neolithic flint axes were found close to each other, in what had evidently been peat at the time of deposition, for one was found standing vertically, and the other horizontally. It was believed that they had not been deposited together in one event, but independently. In a few instance, it is clear that simple copper axes, which had been imported into Scandinavia from southern Europe, were deposited in wetlands from the Early Neolithic onward.
In various instances, amber beads were deposited in wetlands; such deposits are particularly in North and North West Jutland. In one case, at Mollerup in Salling, 13,000 small amber beads were found in an Early Neolithic earthenware vessel.
During the Early Neolithic, many human remains associated with the Funnelbeaker culture were deposited in Scandinavian wetlands. Both entire skeletons and singular skulls have been found; it is unclear if these latter remains were originally deposited without the rest of the body, or whether the rest of the body was simply not discovered. One Neolithic skeleton from Sigersdal in Veksø Bog, west of Copenhagen, was found to have a thin plant fibre cord wound repeatedly around its neck, suggesting the possibility that the individual was strangled before deposition. Similar cords around the neck were found on two other Neolithic bog skeletons, one from Stenstrup Bog in North West Sealand and the other from Bolkilde Bog in Als, South Jutland. Human remains appear to have declined greatly in the Late Neolithic.
A number of wooden platforms have been identified from Neolithic Scandinavia, and attributed to the Funnelbeaker culture. These would have permitted access to a specific part of the lake or bog, where deposits could then be made. An example found to be 10 metres wide and 22 metres long and constructed from branches and twigs was discovered in Saltpetermosen in Hillerød, North Sealand. At this specific site, deposits had been made throughout the Early Neolithic and into the early part of the Middle Neolithic, and included two funnel beakers, ox and lamb bones, and both a greenstone axe and slate axe. Another example of a wooden platform, believed to be c.50m long and c.10m wide was found at Veggerslev Bog in Djursland, East Jutland, where it had also served as a platform for depositional practices and which again stretched from the Early Neolithic into the Middle Neolithic.
The depositional practices changed during the Neolithic. Around 3000 BCE, the tradition of placing earthenware vessels, Funnelbeaker Culture battle-axes and amber into waterplaces rapidly declined, at the same time as the deposition of these items in front of the facades of megalithic tombs also declined. Conversely, the deposition of flint-axes continued unaffected, both in water-places and in front of the tombs. The Late Neolithic saw the arrival of metal technologies in Scandinavia, with both the development of bronze technologies and the arrival of items imported from elsewhere. This Late Neolithic metalwork is extremely rare in graves of this period, although have been found buried as single finds or as hoards, both in wetland and dryland sites. One of the most prominent examples was from Gallemose near Randers in East Jutland; here, nine flanged axes (of disparate origins; one is from Central Europe, another from the British Isles, and another from Scandinavia) were deposited alongside three large hooks and nine large rings, all of which appear to have been made somewhere south of the Baltic. The Late Neolithic also witnessed the arrival of gold artefacts into Scandinavia, although few of these appear to have been deposited into waterplaces.
Bronze Age
In Scandinavia, the Bronze Age is viewed as starting around 1700 BCE. The period is named after the rapid rise in the number of bronze artifacts which have been discovered from this period, many of which had been deposited in wetlands. Other however were deposited on dry land sites, with it appearing that these items were often treated in the same manner regardless of the place of deposition. Depositions in the Bronze Age of this area are often characterized by the general absence of wooden platforms, earthenware vessels, bones, and wooden figurines, which are present in other periods. Only in a few examples are earthenware vessels, bones and figurines present from this period, in what are typically highly isolated depositions.
Many everyday objects were placed into the wetlands during this period, in some cases as single finds and in others of assemblages containing a variety of different form of artifact. Such items include working tools such as sickles and axes, weapons (namely swords and spearheads), and decorative items, such as Late Bronze Age celts, neck ring, and belt ornaments.