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Notes with icons from The National Museum |
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New notes with icons from the National Museum
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Unique pottery on the 50 krone note |
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When the passage graves were built around 3200 BC, the art of pottery had reached a peak. Beautiful pottery was produced with complex patterns that required great skill and experience. The earthenware bowl from Skarpsalling in northern Jutland is one of the finest examples of ceramic design and decoration known from Stone Age Denmark. The earthenware pottery was used for burials, as sacrificial gifts to the dead or the higher powers.
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Flint dagger on the 100 krone note |
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The finest example of the flint technique of the Dagger Period is the 29.5 cm long flint dagger found around 1867 on the island of Fanø in the Little Belt. The type is called a ‘fishtail’ dagger because of the shape of the hilt. The dagger is from the end of the Stone Age, c. 1900-1700 BC, and imitates metal daggers. The outstanding flintworking technique shows the great effort made by the flint-knapper to compete with the new metal goods that were soon to outstrip the ancient flint craftsmanship.
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Large belt plate on the 200 krone note |
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It must have been a prosperous woman who wore the unusually large belt plate from Langstrup in northern Zealand (where it lay in a bog along with two spiral bracelets and a knife of bronze). With its diameter of 28 cm – the same size as a pizza – it is the largest complete belt plate ever found from the Early Bronze Age, more specifically from c. 1400 BC. The incredibly accurate circle and spiral patterns on the plate are typical motifs on the shining surfaces of the Bronze Age.
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Bronze pail with Greek motifs on the 500 krone note |
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The bronze pail from Keldby on the island of Møn was found during ploughing at the beginning of the 1800s. It is elegantly shaped and was probably made in the fourth or the early third century BC. It must have been on a long journey, probably by ancient routes through Europe. The exotic ornamentation and form have clear Greek models, so the pail may have been made in Macedonia or by the Black Sea.
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The Sun Chariot on the 1000 krone note |
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In September 1902, when the earth was ploughed for the first time at Trundholm Bog in western Zealand, the plough bumped into something. Out of the ground emerged a sun disc and a horse, both mounted on wheels. The Sun Chariot was made in the Early Bronze Age, c. 1400 BC. The fine spiral ornamentation that graces the golden sun disc reveals its Nordic origin (the Sun Chariot represents the idea that the sun was pulled along on its eternal journey by a divine horse). The Sun Chariot is the hallmark of the National Museum and has become a symbol of the whole prehistory of Denmark.
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