The Sun Chariot
The Sun Chariot was found in September 1902, when the former bog Trundholm Mose in northwestern Zealand was ploughed for the first time. The Sun Chariot was made in the Early Bronze Age around 1400 BC. The elegant spiral ornamentation that graces the golden sun disc reveals its Nordic origin. The Sun Chariot illustrates the idea that the sun was drawn on its eternal journey by a divine horse. A sun image and the horse have been placed on wheels to symbolize the motion of the sun.
The Sun Chariot was made in Denmark, most likely in northern or northwestern Zealand, not far from its finding place in Trundholm Mose. The image of the horse pulling the sun across the sky was familiar to most Scandinavians in the Bronze Age, but the complicated spirals seen on the disc of the Sun Chariot are very characteristic of the Danish area. The most beautiful and well-made spiral patterns are found on women's belt ornaments in northern Zealand - a fine example is the belt plate from Langstrup.
You can see the Sun Chariot in Danish Prehistory.
The Sun Chariot video
Curator Flemming Kaul tells the story of The Sun Chariot
The Sun Chariot is the motive on the 1000-krone banknote
Read more about the 1000-krone banknote at the Danish Government Borrowing and Debt website.
- The Sun Chariot was found in Trundholm Bog in north-western Zealand.
- You can see the Sun Chariot in room 12 of the exhibition.
Other sun chariots?
- The Sun Chariot from Trundholm Mose was probably not the only one of its kind. Parts of a golden sun disc are amongst the finds from Jægersborg Hegn in northern Zealand. Perhaps it originally was part of a sun chariot?
