Bone point from Fogense Enge

Bone point from the Early Stone Age, c. 10,500 BC. This bone point is decorated like an adder and is the earliest example of ornamentation from Scandinavia. The bone point is now at Møntergården in Odense. Photo: René Riis.

Intro

This bone point from Fogense Enge is decorated like an adder. It is the earliest example of ornamentation from Scandinavia. It is likely to have been part of a religious world in which the adder and other snakes have occupied a natural position.

At the bidding of the gods Faith and rituals have shaped life on Funen since antiquity. In the hope of gaining the gods’ favour, Funen’s inhabitants dispatched grave goods to the kingdom of the dead, constructed churches and wore both Thor’s hammers and Christian crosses. Magical animals Nature and faith have been closely linked since the earliest Stone Age. Back then, people on Funen lived by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants. They were dependent on nature, which, therefore, became a central part of their religious world. But magical properties have also been attributed to nature much later in history.
This location is part of the exhibition 'Funen – at the centre of the universe', at Møntergården in Odense. Read more about the exhibition on our website.