A Germanic warrior Iron Age Grave A Look Back Bornholm

A Germanic warrior grave from Slusegård.
The warrior grave (grave 520) from Slusegård in Pedersker is from the early Roman Iron Age (ca. 100 AD) and can be seen at the Bornholm Museum.

In the Roman Iron Age cremation and burial were used side by side. During this period, it was common for grown men to have their weapons buried with them.

The person buried has been approx. 40 years. The sword is an imitation of a double-edged Roman short sword (gladius) and has been suspended in a bandolier using the bronze rings of the scabbard. Belt buckles and clay vessels, which are also seen in the tomb at the museum, are characteristic of the early Roman Iron Age.
Part of the grave with the lower part of the sword has been disturbed by the construction of a younger grave.
Out on the coast, where Øleå has its mouth, is Bornholm's largest known burial ground from the Iron Age, Slusegård. More than 1,400 graves have been found here, built over a 500-year period of the Iron Age from shortly before AD. b. and 500 years forward.

The burial ground contains a mixture of skeletal graves and cremated graves, completely similar to the picture from Rispebjerg. Many of the Slusegård graves were also built at the same time as the graves at Rispebjerg. This applies, among other things, to a group of skeleton graves with clear traces of violence. Several of the bodies have been decapitated and others have had limbs broken or other forms of mutilation have taken place. A single one of those buried had an iron spike through the skull. It is very likely to see these graves in connection with the Ringborgen on Rispebjerg. Slusegårdbygden has been part of the catchment area that, as a last resort, could seek refuge in the hinterland at Ringborgen.
The archeology at Slusegård
Queen Margrethe participated as a princess - and a young archeology student at Aarhus University - in two campaigns in Professor Ole Klindt-Jensen's excavations at Slusegård in Pedersker, 1962 and 1964. They

wanted to trace the settlement in the Bronze Age, but when they found an extensive burial ground from the earlier Iron Age , the excavation was to last six years. By then, 6,000 m2 of the burial area had been investigated for a total of 41 months.

The princess helped to find "warrior graves", one of which, from approx. year 100 AD, is on display at the Bornholm Museum.

The excavations at Slusegård lasted from 1958-1964.

In 1976, the first volume of the excavation results was published: "Slusegårdsgravpladsen" I, volume 2 came out in 1978. After Ole Klindt-Jensen's death, volume 3 was published in 1991 and volume 4 in 1996. (Ole Klindt-Jensen died in 1980).