The Danish Society of Antiquaries was founded in 1707; its members were mainly concerned with the material remains of the past, whether through archeology, works of art, manuscripts and books, or the built environment. This antiquarian tradition stood under the auspices of Ole Worm (1588–1654). Working under a royal mandate, Worm had collected reports from Norway and Denmark about ancient documents, runic inscriptions, legends and historical tales. He had published a book of runic facsimiles inventorized during a 1625 field trip as Danicorum Monumentorum (1643), and edited a history of the ancient Norse kings after Snorri Sturluson (1633), which contains all sorts of antiquarian information. At that time in history few people were interested in practical archeology. Worm’s private collection of artefacts was an early component of what would later become the Royal Collection.

The first proposal towards a systematic archeological method came from Professor Jens Bircherod (1658-1708); the Kongelige Danske Selskab for Fædrelandets Historie og Sprog (“The Royal Society of Danish History and Language”) was established in 1745, and in 1788 the historian Tyge Rothe (1731–1795) suggested the establishment of a state museum to bring together existing collections of antiquities (1788). This initiative was to be called the National Museum by Rasmus Nyerup, who saw its main function as a contribution to the country’s cultural lustre. In 1807 the National Museum of Denmark was founded.

Oldsagskommisionen (“The Commission of Antiquities”), also founded in 1807, began to create a collection of Nordic antiquities, which were exhibited the first time in 1819 under the name Oldnordisk Museeum. An important role was played by its director, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865), the first to make a systematic methodological distinction between history (the past as studied by means of written documentation) and archeology (the past as studied by means of material remains). Jürgensen Thomsen is also famous for proposing the division of pre-history into Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. His trainee and successor J.J. Worsaae (1821–1885) undertook expeditions and fieldwork, and published his popular Oldtid oplyst ved Gravhøje og Oldsager (“The past understood from burial sites and antiquities”) in 1843. Megalithic tombs (until then interpreted as ancient altars rather than graves) as a result became iconic landmarks and popular topics for literary and pictorial evocation. Meanwhile material remains had also begun to obtain an iconic national value, partly because of the notorious disappearance of the “Golden Horns” – an episode which had provoked Adam Oehlenschläger’s poetic manifesto of National Romanticism, Guldhornene.

The more writing-oriented Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab (“Royal Nordic Society of Ancient Texts”) was founded in 1825 (as yet without the “Royal” epithet in its name), and commenced its long and influential series of annuals and text editions under Carl Christian Rafn (1795–1864) and Rasmus Rask (1787–1832).