5 101 x Wijster was a single homestead in the 1st century BC, growing into a village of perhaps 400 people by the 4th century AD. It contained many agricultural buildings including granaries, storage pits lined with basketry and 'grubhuts' which may have been workshops. It was abandoned in the migrations of the 5th century, around AD 425.
# Wijster
6 1 7 7
#IW Premigration northern Europe
7 19 7 1
#EW The Germani
8 101 x A major withdrawal of Roman troops from Germany provided an opportunity for the Germans to plot a revolt under Arminius, a high-born German and a former Roman cavalry officer. In AD 9, at a battle deep in the Teutoburg Forest, they wiped out three Roman legions: this was one of Rome's darkest hours.
# Teutoburg Forest
9 0 7 5
#IW Warrior societies
10 102 A Tollund Man was one of the first bog bodies to be identified and scientifically studied. Although naked over most of his body, he was still wearing a fine leather hood and a leather belt. Around his neck was the rope with which he had been strangled.
# Tollund, Bahn p.115
11 0 7 26
#IW Bog bodies
12 101 x Identified on its discovery as the body of 'Red Christian', a local peatcutter who had disappeared in 1887, the Grauballe corpse was later dated to around AD 300. He was a fine specimen of a 'bog body', presumably sacrificed as his throat had been cut and he had been hit on the head.
# Grauballe, Brothwell p.10-11
13 103 B An early ship offering, possibly to Wodan. This was one of the earliest known examples of a clinker-built ship. Other material deposited in this holy site included weapons and wooden shields.
# Hjortspring, Wooden shield
14 101 x A peatbog where late in the 4th century AD the weapons of some two hundred soldiers, including sixty heavily armed ones, was thrown in together: presumably this was a dedicatory offering of the equipment of a defeated enemy force in thanksgiving for victory.
# Ejsbol
15 0 7 16
#IW Pagan religion
16 1 7 24
#IW Nydam boat
17 102 G Thin gold plaques stamped with figures of male or female deities were frequent votive offerings in Scandinavian sites. A huge concentration of around 2,300 of them were found at Sorte Mulde on the island of Bornholm, which must have been the religious centre of the island, as well as the seat of the local chief.
# Sorte Mulde, Gold plaque
18 101 x A fine example of a noble burial in which imported Roman luxuries featured prominently. Inside a wooden coffin, a man was buried with a set of bronze and silver drinking vessels, and a quantity of personal ornaments such as brooches, rings and belt fittings.
# Hoby, imported silver cup
19 0 7 6
#IW Cemeteries and grave goods
20 101 x A 4th century AD cemetery in the Roman town of Venta Belgarum (Winchester) contained mostly burials of Romans with few grave goods. Some, however, were richly furnished with jewellery, pots and personal equipment. Similar material comes from Germanic areas of the continent. Quite probably these burials were of Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army.
# Lankhills, Germanic style burial
21 13 7 1
#CM Barrington cemetery
22 101 x In the Lysa GÛra area we have evidence for large-scale Germanic iron production, based on the substantial local iron ore deposits. Some fifty smelting sites, each consisting of kilns set in rows, were found here; they were designed to be used once only. The centre's products included agricultural tools such as ploughs and sickles.
# Lysa Gora
23 101 x A hoard of metalwork buried in a Roman bronze bucket of the 1st century AD. This included five other imported bronze vessels along with a superb gold torc (neck ring) which is not only one of the earliest objects of Germanic metalwork found but also one of the finest.
# Havor, torc
24 101 x The Germanic tribes dwelt mainly in the lands to the east of the Rhine and Danube, extending north and east into Scandinavia and eastern Europe. Other, non-Germanic, peoples also occupied part of these regions. It is difficult to identify the homeland of individual tribal groups. Wholesale migrations took place and there was also much raiding by groups of mixed tribal origin.
# PW Germanic Lands
25 101 x The Germanic peoples were ill defined in Classical times, partly because they were politically fluid. Culturally they had many similarities to the Celts. Farmers, particularly of livestock, living in small communities, loving warfare, feasting, brawling and fine jewellery, they were largely an egalitarian society, status coming from personal prowess rather than inherited position.
# PW The Germans
xx 101 x This settlement, which was occupied from the 4th century BC till 3rd century AD, shifted its location at least five times. Each time, it consisted of variety of houses: some had substantial provision for many animals, some for just for a few or none at all. The settlement was surrounded by a wooden palisade.
