Today was one of the rainiest days we have had so far in Norway. It was a free day, so we decided to visit the University Museum Of Bergen. The museum had hundreds of taxidermies of many different species, and some animals had even been preserved since the 1700’s. The museum took us on a journey through time to show the evolution of humans, starting at preserved single cell organisms, to modern humans. When entering the museum one of the first things you see Is a staircase with replicas of birds as seen below. As we walked through the museum we were surrounded by other similar perfect replicas and taxidermies of Animals, which made it a very immersive experience.
This picture that I took below shows an exact copy of a skull that belonged to a male human who lived at the western coast of Norway 8,500 years ago. According to the museum, he belonged to a group of hunter gatherers that have left few genetic traces in today’s population. Their skin was brown, eyes blue or green and their hair dark and smooth. They were a little more than 1.6 meters tall. A great deal of their diet was seal products.
The skull was replicated using a 3d printer, which made me think about the technological progress that humanity has made since this man was alive. Not only do we have 3d printers, but we now have the technology to also trace their DNA to modern humans. The second image below shows fossilized eggs of dinosaurs that hatched during the cretaceous period. Which was about 66 million years ago. Looking through every display case was like looking at the past through a window.
While there were a lot of interesting archeological findings in the museum, I chose these two because they were some of the oldest and most impressive findings. We learnt and saw so much and yet entry to the museum was free of charge, so I would highly recommend visiting if you ever step foot in Bergen! After visiting the museum, we stopped at the Holy Cow restaurant for lunch and I got their classic burger, which I highly recommend. After lunch I went back to the hotel in Montana and did some reading and homework. We ended the day by getting dinner in Bergen at the Hagelin Sisters seafood restaurant, and their fish soup was incredible.