Pottery vessels from Møllegårdsmarken

Pottery vessel from the cemetery at Møllegårdsmarken, c. AD 300. This pottery vessel is ornamented with pelican-like birds. The vessel is now at Møntergården in Odense. Photo: Jens Gregers Aagaard.

Intro

At the iron age burial ground at Møllegårdsmarken pottery vessels ornamented with pelican-like birds have been excavated. Pelicans were also exotic in Denmark in the Iron Age. Perhaps this is the reason they were seen as being magical.

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.