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Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (14 March 1821 – 15 August 1885) was a Danish
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, historian and politician, who was the second director of the
National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...
(1865–1874). He played a key role in the foundation of scientific archaeology. Worsaae was the first to excavate and use
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...
to prove C. J. Thomsen's sequence of the
Three-age system The three-age system is the periodization of human pre-history (with some overlap into the historical periods in a few regions) into three time-periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; although the concept may also refer to ...
:
Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
,
Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
,
Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in fro ...
. He was also a pioneer in the development of
paleobotany Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeo ...
through his excavation work in the
peat bogs A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; ...
of
Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
. Worsaae served as Kultus Minister of Denmark (the cultural and education minister) for
Christen Andreas Fonnesbech Christen Andreas Fonnesbech (7 July 1817 – 17 May 1880) was a Danish lawyer, landowner and politician. He was Council President of Denmark from 1874 to 1875. Biography Fonnesbech was born in Copenhagen, where his father was a dressmaker. ...
from 1874 to 1875.


Early life and education

Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae was born in
Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and t ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...
in 1821. He was the fifth of eleven children born into a wealthy, educated family. His father was a civil servant (a county treasurer) for the County of Vejle and also a member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities. Worsaae's archaeological interests began in 1832 when his father gave him two stone axes, one which had been found on his land and the other having been found in the dredging of Vejle harbour. Worsaae was inspired; he began to search in on the east coast of Jutland before expanding his search area to include central and southern Jutland as well. In 1835 whilst at school in Randers, Worsaae was invited to participate in an excavation of a grave at Bygholm, outside
Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 61,074 (1 January 2022) and the municipality's population is 94,443 (), making it the 8th largest city in D ...
. Worsaae was also included in excavations near Jellinge the following year. In 1838 he started studies at the
University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
, graduating in 1841. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1869. (Needs expansion and content of standard biographies)


Career and contributions

While in Copenhagen for college, Worsaae began to work as a volunteer with
Christian Jürgensen Thomsen Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (29 December 1788 – 21 May 1865) was a Danish antiquarian who developed early archaeological techniques and methods. In 1816 he was appointed head of 'antiquarian' collections which later developed into the Nat ...
, the first director of the National Museum of Denmark. He learned Thomsen's methods of dating artifacts and controlled archaeological excavation. Not wanting to continue working without pay, he found a patron in King Christian VIII. At the king's request, Worsaae wrote an overview of the antiquarian field: ''The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark'' (''Danmarks Oldtid oplyst ved Oldsager og Gravhøie''), which explicated archaeology and the three-age system, was first published in 1843 in Denmark, and became widely popular. More than Thomsen, Worsaae reacted against the then-prevalent view of prehistory in Denmark. The historian Suhm identified the proto-historic period as the "legendary age". He thought it could be studied from the
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
myths and legends. Suhm interpreted Norse gods and mythical figures as the kings and leaders of prehistoric peoples. Worsaae rejected this view of prehistory as
euhemerism Euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exagge ...
. He thought that prehistory was a period best studied not by historians, but by
archeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...
, who dealt with material goods. He believed that the knowledge that can be obtained about prehistory will necessarily be qualitatively different from the knowledge of historic periods, based on written texts. Worsaae was working in a context of nationalist striving. In the mid-19th century, amid Danish-German political tension, the Norwegian scholar and nationalist
Peter Andreas Munch Peter Andreas Munch (15 December 1810 – 25 May 1863), usually known as P. A. Munch, was a Norwegian historian, known for his work on the medieval history of Norway. Munch's scholarship included Norwegian archaeology, geography, ethnograph ...
provided the Germans with arguments for invading Denmark by suggesting that Denmark had originally been settled by Germans. But, Worsaae argued that the prehistoric peoples of the archaeological records could not be identified with any modern peoples because of the sheer timescale involved. Still, his work on Danish antiquities was taken to mean that natives had a long history in the area. Similarly, when the
Haraldskær Woman The Haraldskær Woman (or Haraldskjaer Woman) is the name given to a bog body of a woman preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BC (pre-Roman Iron Age). Workers found the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Harald ...
, a peat-bog mummy was found in southern Denmark in 1843, she was exhibited as the legendary Queen Gunhild of the early Mediaeval period. Worsaae disputed this view, arguing that the body was
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
in origin, like most from the bogs, and predated any historical persons of the chronicles by at least 500 years. King Christian sent him on a research trip to Britain and Ireland in 1846 and 1847, to study evidence of Vikings. He did research into antiquities and histories to develop an account of the culture around the North Sea. Worsaae wrote ''An Account of the Danes and the Norsemen in England, Scotland and Ireland'' (1852). In 1847 Worsaae was appointed the Inspector for the Conservation of Antiquarian Monuments. He worked to preserve areas and directed excavations across the country. By controlled excavation and analysis of
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...
, he found artifacts that supported Thomsen's Three-Age System, formerly based on the museum collection. Using Nilsson's studies of prehistoric subsistence and the Danish geologist
Johannes Japetus Steenstrup Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
's studies of changes in prehistoric
forestation Forestation is either growing existing forests ( proforestation) or establishing forest growth on areas that either had forest or lacked it naturally. In the first case, the process is called reforestation, or reafforestation while the second is c ...
, Worsaae began to explore the limits of what can be known about prehistory. In that period of scholarship, those who could grasp the concept of prehistory were hard pressed to imagine that cultural developments could be discerned within the three ages. Through excavations of stone-age sites, Worsaae saw that there were distinct trends of coöccurrence: a period with simple tools, signs of hunting and fishing, and with dog bones as the only evidence of domestic animals. This period was associated with the discovery of "
kitchen middens A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecof ...
": enormous piles of waste produced by oyster-eating foragers. The middens were sometimes as large as ten meters high and a hundred meters long. Worsaae commented in his diary that "these enormous piles of oyster shells must represent the remains of meals eaten by stone age people". Worsaae determined that a second subset of the Stone Age deposits, associated with
dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were some ...
burials, showed signs of animal husbandry and agriculture. Following Nilsson's analyses of prehistoric subsistence, Worsaae proposed that the Stone Age had a foraging period and an agricultural period, which could be demonstrated from artifacts. He also recognized that finds from caves in France predated even the Danish foraging stone-age period. He was perhaps the first to envision what became the division between
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...
,
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymousl ...
and
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several par ...
periods. These were classified and named by the British researcher
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, 4th Baronet, (30 April 183428 May 1913), known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his fa ...
in 1865. As director of the
National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...
(1865–1874), Worsaae became the mentor of a new generation of archaeologists: including Sophus Müller in Denmark. He was also a professor at the university. He supported archaeology as a science and influenced its study and excavation practices. He also influenced archaeologists in Sweden, where Nils G. Bruzelius, Hans Hildebrand and
Oscar Montelius Gustav Oscar August Montelius, known as Oscar Montelius (9September 18434November 1921) was a Swedish archaeologist who refined the concept of seriation, a relative chronological dating method. Biography Oscar Montelius refined the concept ...
followed his lead. They further developed methods for establishing chronologies through controlled excavations. It was during his directorship of the National Museum that Worsaae's large collection of antiquities from Denmark was purchased by the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...
. Worsaae's early work, ''The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark'' (''Danmarks Oldtid oplyst ved Oldsager og Gravhøie''), which explicated the three-age system, was first published in 1843 in Denmark, and in English in 1849. It strongly influenced researchers in Great Britain and the United States. For instance,
Lewis Henry Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evol ...
, a pioneering American
ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...
, developed his own three-stage system of prehistory in his book, ''Ancient Society'' (1877). He theorized that prehistoric peoples went through progressive stages of "savagery", "barbarism" and "civilization", to be traced by several criteria, including their
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says tha ...
and social structures, as well as tools and cultivation.


Personal life

Worsaae married Severine Jacobine Grevencop-Castenschiold, a member of the prominent Grevencop-Castenschiold family. They had two daughters: Jacobine Cathrine Margrethe Worsaae (1869–1951), the elder of the two, married the politician and Governor of the
Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with ; Saint John ( da, St. Jan) with ; and Saint Croix with . The i ...
Henri Konow Henri Konow (7 February 1862 – 18 January 1939) was a Danish naval officer, vice-admiral, and the last governor of the Danish West Indies, overseeing the transfer of administration to the United States of America following the Treaty of the Dan ...
. Her younger sister, Caroline "Lilli" Alvilda Nini Worsaae, died when she was just 22 years old. Worsaae and his wife lived on his father-in-law's estate Hagestedgaard for extended periods of time. He died there in 1885.


See also

*
Stratification (archeology) Stratigraphy is a key concept to modern archaeological theory and practice. Modern excavation techniques are based on stratigraphic principles. The concept derives from the geological use of the idea that sedimentation takes place according t ...


Notes


Sources

*Gjerløff, Anne Katrine. (1999) "Syn for sagn: Dansk Arkæologi og Historie i 1800-tallet", ''Historisk Tidsskrift'' 99:2 *Gräslund, Bo. (1987) ''The Birth of Prehistoric Chronology. Dating Methods and Dating Systems in Nineteenth-Century Scandinavian Archeology'', Cambridge University Press. *Hermansen, V. (1934) ''En Oldgranskers Erindringer'', København. *Rowley-Conwy, Peter. (2006) "The Concept of Prehistory and the Invention of the Terms 'Prehistoric' and 'Prehistorian': the Scandinavian Origin, 1833–1850", ''European Journal of Archaeology'' 9:1 pp. 103–130


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen 1821 births 1885 deaths Danish archaeologists Danish Kultus Ministers Directors of museums in Denmark Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences People associated with the National Museum of Denmark People from Vejle Municipality Burials at Holmen Cemetery