..The
North-mound. Thyra´s mound
Thyra´s
mound is the largest burialmound in Denmark. It meassures 8.5 meters
tall and 65 meters wide and is made of turf, stone and clay on top of an
old bronzeage-mound. In the old mound a hole was made as a burialchamber
meassuring 6.75m long, 1.45m high and 2.6m wide. The ground meassures
17.5m2 just like a large room in a house. It was built with
logs of oak, 35 cm thick. Surrounding the chamber was a layer of granite
boulders as protection from graverobbers.
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A view into the large
burialchamber
The "floor" of
the chamber is 1.75m above the surface of the earth outside the mound
and the longitudinal direction is east-west. The floor is covered with
boards. One errected board in the centre had the scientists convinced
that two people were buried here. The scanty grave goods does not prove
that two people were buried here. If the skeleton parts found below the
church – assumed to be the remains of Gorm the Old – have been moved
from the burialchamber to the church, then there was only one person in
the burialchamber.
There was a pond on top
of Thyra´s mound. In 1820 it was drying out and the people of Jelling
were determined to handle the situation. The thought they had to do with
a spring and that it had been blocked, so they dug a hole 5 meters into
the mound and found the wooden burialchamber. An opening was made down
to the chamber and it was discovered that others had beaten them to it.
The grave had apparently been robbed.
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The digging
set off rumours that gold had been found and was sold in
Vejle. Gradually more people from the museum were involved
and several things were discovered – among these the
"Jelling-cup".
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The Jelling cup |
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Belt furnishing
in bronze |
Pieces of bronze and fittings were
found, some carved wooden things and some silver nails.
There was a sort of chest in the chamber but it broke when it was
touched. It was narrow and was almost certainly not used as a
coffin but perhaps for grave goods. |
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Who emptied the mound.
The grave goods consisted of only
a few bits and pieces of great artistic value, but it was evident that
the chamber had been robbed. Graverobbers ? Some of the boards in the
ceiling of the chamber were broken into two and the pond on top of the
mound could be explained by the accumulation of the water after the
break-in, and the clay preventing the water from running away. The pond
can be seen in and old drawing from 1591.
But several things didn`t
match the theory of the mound being robbed. There is no doubt that the
burialchamber has been opened after the funeral; the hole in the ceiling
proves this. The lack of grave goods but also the lack of a body…?!
Would the graverobbers bring the body with them ? You can hardly rob a
grave like this in silence. After the finding of what is believed to be
the remains of king Gorm in 1978 it is presumed that king Harald –
following his own conversion – wanted to give his father a proper
christian funeral and therefore he opened the nort-mound and took king
Gorms body to the main burialchamber below the church in Jelling. This
would also explain why no human skeleton parts have been found in the
chamber. Other findings of clothes and wood shows that the skeleton
parts should be there, but if there was only one funeral in the mound
and it was a mans funeral, why is the mound called Thyra´s mound ? A
piece og wood with bark on it was placed in a ct-scanner and results
showed that the tree was cut during the winther of 958-959, and
presumably this is the time of the funeral of king Gorm.
The South-mound, Gorm`s mound
The two mounds on each
side of the church are very alike. The North mound contains a funeral
– probably that of king Gorm. The South mound is empty, consisting of
only earth and turf, and we don`t know for sure why it was built; maybe
as a memorial mound…? King Frederik VII wanted to find the
burialchamber of king Gorm in 1861 in the South mound, but nothing was
found apart from granite boulders and pieces of wood.
In 1941 the South mound
was excavated again, this time beginning at the top. A 39m x 39m square
with slanting walls down to the bottom meassuring 25m x 25m. On the top
of the mound a foundation to a building made with heavy posts of oak
tree was discovered. 10 posts almost 45 cm in diameter formed a square
meassuring 4.5m x 6m. The post have been dated to approximately 1150 so
the building is almost 200 years earlier than the buildings of king
Harald. It might have been used as a sort of watch tower since you would
have been able to keep an eye on a very big area.
From the excavation of
the mound
At the bottom of the
mound the single-stone monument was found that forms a ship. There were
no traces of a burial chamber in the mound. The mound is 11 meters tall
and 80 meters wide.
Some of the pieces of
wood found in the mound have been dated to approximately 965-970. Thus
the South-mound is built years later than the North-mound. Why this
enormous piece of work is carried out we don`t know. Perhaps the mound
was built in memory of a certain person…?
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