Morten Axboe (born 1946) is a Danish archaeologist and till 30.4.2019 a curator at the National Museum of Denmark, notable for his study of bracteates. Axboe is also known for theorizing a connection between finds of 6th century Scandinavian gold hoards and the extreme weather events of 535–536, as a reaction to the 'dying' sun and the fimbulwinter-like climate of those years. Gold may have been buried, he suggested, as sacrifices intended to appease the gods.
Axboe has also published on the manufacture of the Torslunda plates and the making of Migration Period chip-carving ornament.
In 2007 he obtained his DPhil with his dissertation Brakteatstudier (Studies in Gold Bracteates). Like many of his papers, this book is accessible on Academia.edu.
Publications
Hauck, Karl; Axboe, Morten; Düwel, Klaus; von Padberg, Lutz; Smyra, Ulrike & Wypior, Cajus (1985–89). Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Axboe, Morten (1981). "The Scandinavian Gold Bracteates: Studies on their Manufacture and Regional Variations". Acta Archaeologica. LII: 1–100. ISSN0065-101X.
Axboe, Morten, "Odin og den romerske kejser" (kronik i Skalk 1990 nr. 4; pp. 18–27)
Axboe, Morten (1999). "The chronology of the Scandinavian gold bracteates". In Hines, John; Nielsen, Karen Høilund; Siegmund, Frank (eds.). The Pace of Change. Cardiff Studies in Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 126–147. ISBN978-1900188784.
Axboe, Morten, Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit: Herstellungsprobleme und Chronologie, Walter de Gruyter (2004), ISBN978-3-11-018145-6.