Hello, I've been posting these past few weeks about a recent trip I took to visit Stockholm and Uppsala. If you'd like to keep up with these posts, please follow my page on Facebook. Next week it will be about partying in Sweden! (Dec. 10th, 2014). Thanks!
We tried to visit at least one museum when we went to Stockholm, and since I'm into Vikings, being psuedo-Swede myself, we took a trip to the Swedish History Museum (Historiska Museet). The Historiska Museet in Stockholm is an excellent look at the history of Sweden, starting from ancient times. First you go through a series of skeletons from prehistoric times, and the exhibit breaks down who they were from clues in the burial site.
We tried to visit at least one museum when we went to Stockholm, and since I'm into Vikings, being psuedo-Swede myself, we took a trip to the Swedish History Museum (Historiska Museet). The Historiska Museet in Stockholm is an excellent look at the history of Sweden, starting from ancient times. First you go through a series of skeletons from prehistoric times, and the exhibit breaks down who they were from clues in the burial site.
Axes and hammers were often important symbols for prehistoric Scandinavians, with a lot of them found at burial sites:
The axes and hammers became more intricate as time went on. Most of these were not useful as tools or weapons, but used as status symbols:
They also have a nice collection of runestones:
And plenty of jewelry:
As today, prehistoric scandinavian women liked big belt buckles:
There are many of these decorations made of gold:
They also have old weapons:
Here is a large family grave:
Being extremely Scandinavian, the exhibits are hilariously irreverent towards topics that are often taboo elsewhere. Here's a great entry on families:
Could this is be the skull of a sodomite? The hot ones are always gay, right girls?
Some more burial weapons:
Au trinkets-- pretty awesome design, I have to say!
More evidence of Sweden's progressive, open dialogue about social problems, here is an exhibit postulating that this woman was a sex-slave:
She had a hat originating from Lithuania, so obviously, she was kidnapped and turned into a salt-wife:
This is a moose or elk, very important to Scandinavians, even today.
They always say there is some religious purpose to these types of figures. You never hear an archeologist say, maybe this figurine was a cute decorative item?
Here's a pretty cool helmet:
Here's an entry about a Lapp or Sami, an ethnic group in northern Scandinavia. Scientists/racists used to believe you could tell intelligence features based on skull shape:
This skull was carefully characterized by some racist for their master's thesis:
See it says Lapp-cranium at the top:
They also have some great exhibits from the Viking era-- here's a headstone from a stone coffin showing Odin, Tor and Freyr on the bottom (spear hammer and scythe), the three top gods of 578, according to research by buzzfeed:
There's a large stone showing the big holy family:
I like Loki, who was at times a crossdressing, gender-bending, homosexual. So much for the moral collapse of society, eh?
They have a nice scale model of a Swedish village from the viking era, made for a TV show:
There's still a lot of these runestones throughout Scandinavia, mostly in Sweden, > 2000 by some counts:
They are often painted red:
They talk about the different ways Vikings have been portrayed for political reasons in the modern era, even discussing how Nazi's used their image for propaganda:
The upstairs of the museum discusses the modern era. Here is a hockey jersey:
Of course the Swedes are gloriously disrespectful to their monarchy:
You see some sad figurines, made from the time after Christianity ruined the country. This sad figurine represents someone who ran out of fermented fish:
Here's King Olaf, stepping on what looks to be like a world war I veteran:
This man is saying, "Owwww! One minute I was fighting in the great war, and the next, King Olaf is standing on me! Why am I here? This all seems rather anachronistic! Was I transported to this time and place by ancient aliens???" I think it's obvious, WWI man, yes, you were sent to the past by ancient aliens. Only ancient aliens could overcome the thermodynamic costs for going backwards in time, obviously.*
The axes and hammers became more intricate as time went on. Most of these were not useful as tools or weapons, but used as status symbols:
They also have a nice collection of runestones:
And plenty of jewelry:
As today, prehistoric scandinavian women liked big belt buckles:
There are many of these decorations made of gold:
They also have old weapons:
Here is a large family grave:
Being extremely Scandinavian, the exhibits are hilariously irreverent towards topics that are often taboo elsewhere. Here's a great entry on families:
Could this is be the skull of a sodomite? The hot ones are always gay, right girls?
Some more burial weapons:
Au trinkets-- pretty awesome design, I have to say!
More evidence of Sweden's progressive, open dialogue about social problems, here is an exhibit postulating that this woman was a sex-slave:
She had a hat originating from Lithuania, so obviously, she was kidnapped and turned into a salt-wife:
This is a moose or elk, very important to Scandinavians, even today.
They always say there is some religious purpose to these types of figures. You never hear an archeologist say, maybe this figurine was a cute decorative item?
Here's a pretty cool helmet:
Here's an entry about a Lapp or Sami, an ethnic group in northern Scandinavia. Scientists/racists used to believe you could tell intelligence features based on skull shape:
This skull was carefully characterized by some racist for their master's thesis:
See it says Lapp-cranium at the top:
They also have some great exhibits from the Viking era-- here's a headstone from a stone coffin showing Odin, Tor and Freyr on the bottom (spear hammer and scythe), the three top gods of 578, according to research by buzzfeed:
There's a large stone showing the big holy family:
I like Loki, who was at times a crossdressing, gender-bending, homosexual. So much for the moral collapse of society, eh?
They have a nice scale model of a Swedish village from the viking era, made for a TV show:
There's still a lot of these runestones throughout Scandinavia, mostly in Sweden, > 2000 by some counts:
They are often painted red:
They also found one in Minnesota, where many Scandinavians live today.
This stone is a recipe for Lutefisk:
The museum is once again practical and irreverent about their Viking heritage:They talk about the different ways Vikings have been portrayed for political reasons in the modern era, even discussing how Nazi's used their image for propaganda:
The upstairs of the museum discusses the modern era. Here is a hockey jersey:
Of course the Swedes are gloriously disrespectful to their monarchy:
You see some sad figurines, made from the time after Christianity ruined the country. This sad figurine represents someone who ran out of fermented fish:
Here's King Olaf, stepping on what looks to be like a world war I veteran:
This man is saying, "Owwww! One minute I was fighting in the great war, and the next, King Olaf is standing on me! Why am I here? This all seems rather anachronistic! Was I transported to this time and place by ancient aliens???" I think it's obvious, WWI man, yes, you were sent to the past by ancient aliens. Only ancient aliens could overcome the thermodynamic costs for going backwards in time, obviously.*
*I have been informed via reddit, that this may not be a time traveling WWI veteran:
Still, no one at the museum denied that it was an ancient alien.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed! If you did, and would like to keep up with my posts (once a week usually), please follow me on facebook! It would really make my day!
You can find more posts about Sweden from that time on my guide to Sweden, Sauce's Super Svenska Guide to Sweden - Skol! Next week, Dec. 10th, 2014, I'll be talking about eating, drinking and partying in good old Sverige!
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