Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „Moesgård“

Daggers from the Middle AgesOn entering the front door to Moesgård’s 226 year old main building, some of the first objects to meet one’s eyes are two magnificent white mineral cabinets in Louis XVI style. These beautiful cabinets are among the oldest pieces of furniture at Moesgård. They originate from Christian Frederik Güldencrone’s time (1741-88) and contain now – as then – a mineralogical collection (fig. 1). In a lower drawer of one of the cabinets there are, however, two daggers that have nothing to do with this collection and which must have been added on a later occasion.The types of dagger which will be dealt with here are the kidney dagger and the so-called lansquenet dagger mentioned below. They have their origins in the ­Middle Ages and they are, due to their form, closely linked with the military equipment, especially the plate armour, increasingly in vogue during the 14th century. When the dagger became part of the knight’s armament it was in order for it to be used in hand-to-hand fighting. With its strong and rigid blade, the dagger could be pushed between the plates of a fallen knight’s armour, enabling the final and decisive coup de grâce to be given (fig. 2). The military zenith of the dagger was in the 14th-15th centuries.Daggers are often difficult to date. Many have been recovered from bogs and lakes and a great number do not have any associated information about their origin. As a consequence, the typological chrono­logies that have been produced are rather coarse-grained and are mainly based on pictorial sources and collections of historical weapons (fig. 3).One of the daggers is a double-edged kidney dagger, listed as No. 6 in the catalogue (fig. 4). The length of the dagger is 30 cm, of which 10.5 cm comprises the grip and 19.5 cm the blade. The grip is made of root wood, while the blade is of iron. The blade is rather slender, no more than 1.4 cm at its widest. No smith’s stamp or mark is ­visible. Below each kidney, ­traces of a now missing quillon-plate can be seen; this was often curved or wing-shaped. The guard had been attached to the kidneys by way of two sprigs. At the end of the hilt, a knob or boss has been carved out of the root wood and between the boss and hilt runs a bead which is now somewhat effaced. X-­radiography reveals that the dagger has no real tang.The kidney dagger was quite often depicted in medieval times. An illustration in the so-called “Kristina Psalter”, thought to have been produced in Paris about AD 1230, is usually recognised as the oldest image of a kidney dagger. The dagger referred to is, however, very difficult to recognise as a kidney dagger; it is more probably of the high medieval dagger type – the cultellus. More certainty surrounds another rendition of a kidney dagger – that seen on Duke Christopher’s sepulchral monument from the AD 1360s in Roskilde Cathedral. This is usually regarded as Denmark’s oldest, securely dated kidney dagger (fig. 5). Another example to which attention is always drawn is the dagger shown at Valdemar Atterdag’s side on a fresco from about AD 1375 in St Peder’s Church in Næstved (fig. 6). The Moesgård dagger is dated to the period from the last quarter of the 14th century to the end of the 15th century.The kidney dagger has an interesting cultural history, not exclusively involving the art of war. Daggers become part of the rather dandified men’s fashion of the 15th century where the dagger was worn at front, hung on a belt. As can be imagined, it is no longer the kidneys one thinks about when seeing the dagger! This was also clear at the time; in England the dagger was referred to as the ballock dagger and in France dague á couilettes (fig. 7).The other dagger from the Moesgård cabinet is a so-called lansquenet dagger, listed as No. 17 in the catalogue. Like the kidney dagger this is a double-edged weapon (fig. 8). It is reminiscent of a small sword with short, straight or slightly bent quillons. The length of the dagger is 36.5 cm, of which the grip comprises 11 cm and the blade 25.5 cm. At the end of the tang a cone-shaped pommel with spiral grooves can be seen; this feature is repeated in the quillon terminals. Between quillon and tang, and between pommel and tang, narrow bronze casings can be seen – the last remnants of the lost grip. The double-edged blade, which has a maximum width of 2.1 cm, has a very strongly accentuated back; the cross-section between back and blade is almost concave.During the 15th century the composition and structure of armies gradually changed so that, with time, the heavily armoured cavalry were replaced by lighter infantry, armed with spears, swords and halberds. The infantry became more professional and in Germany, in the 15th century, were referred to as mercenaries; it is probably here that this type of dagger originated. There are several types of the so-called lansquenet dagger; variation is seen primarily in the shape and construction of the guard, but also the shape of the grip. Information from better preserved examples of the type, to which the Moesgård dagger belongs, suggests that the missing grip was probably of wood and was baluster-shaped. The sheath for a this type of dagger was often rather special, being made of wood and having a circular or oval cross-section and often several rows of horizontal beading. Some examples are iron-plated and heavy, and could be used as clubs in self-defence. The Moesgård dagger is dated to the 16th century, probably towards the end of the century.One further dagger, or rather the grip from a dagger, will also be dealt with here. This artefact was not, however, found in Dahl’s mineral cabinets but during an excavation alongside Århus Å in 2002. The degraded grip is made from a bovine metatarsal, carved to resemble twisted rope. It is listed in the catalogue as No. 7 (fig. 9). The grip is 10.3 cm long. The bone has been split lengthways and only the hint of one kidney is preserved. The artefact is dated to the latter half of the 15th century. The actual prototype for this piece is to be found among the magnificent daggers with grips fashioned from twisted bars of precious metal. In the earlier literature this type is dated to the 14th century but the ­evidence now indicates that it belongs to the latter half of the 15th century.Is a catalogue of the kidney and so-called lansquenet daggers from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which are either kept at museums in the Århus area or were found within Moesgård Museum’s area of archaeological responsibility. The main part of the collection is kept at Den Gamle By in Aarhus, and some of these daggers were previously published by A. Bruhn in 1950. Eighteen kidney and mercenary daggers are catalogued; further to these are six daggers, which cannot be assigned more precisely to type. Seven daggers are of unknown origin. It should be noted that 10 out of the remaining 17 daggers were found either in a lake, watercourse or bog. This significantly high proportion is probably not just due chance but no real investigation has ever been carried out into this phenomenon. Only two of the daggers were found during actual archaeological excavations.Lars Krants LarsenMoesgård Museum

Søren H. Andersen reaches 60Søren H. Andersen has always been full of go, whether he was lecturing the students, working in the field, or crossing the museum. yard. It is the research of the early Stone Age that has benefited from his g reat energy and effort, which also made him the most frequent contributor of articles to this yearbook.Since his first article in Kum 1965, Norslund. A coastal settlement from the early Iron Age, written together with C. Malmros, he has given us more than fifty scholaly articles in both a Danish and international contexts. As a guest professor and guest lecturer at universities all over the world, Søren Andersen has been invited to share his research and comprehensive knowledge of the longest prehistoric period in Denmark with students and colleagues.The early Stone Age was revived, clarified, and differentiated through Søren Andersen’s almost forty years of work, as it clearly emerges from the new edition of Sesam’s Danmarkshistorie, volume 1, about the early Stone Age, in which he gathers the threads. Localities such as Norsminde, Brovst, Ringkloster, and Tybrind Vig are som e of Søren Andersen’s large-scale investigations, which have already become early Stone Age research classics.A cohort of students has been trained in archaeology by Søren through his engaged lectures and as participants in some of his numerous excavations throughout the country. With great generosity he invited archaeology students to have their first field archaeology experiences on his excavations, which were always characterized by high spirit s and a firm work discipline.In the book Århus Arkæologi, which was published a couple of years ago, Søren Andersen writes that as a boy, he had only two things in his head: “either to become an airforce pilot, or to study archaeology”. It was a major gain to Danish archaeology that he chose the latter. Today he is leading The National Museums Centre for Maritime Archaeology in Roskilde, and is also there search chief at the National Museum – both jobs that demands a full-time commitment – and among other things a member of the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. However, he keeps up the speed and still finds time to visit Moesgård, preferably on Monday mornings on the way from his home in Skanderborg to his jobs on Zealand. Moesgård was his place of work from 1967. The first couple of years he was employed as a museum keeper. He was then attached as an assistant lecturer and later as a lecturer at the University of Aarhus until 1997, when he took up his office as a senior researcher at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology.From the beginning, Søren Andersen made his influence felt on the development at Moesgård, on the university part as well as the museum. Not only archaeology students, but also the public enjoyed his teaching abilities, as he was the driving force behind the museum’s exhibition on the early Danish Stone Age. His cooperation with amateur archaeologists across the country is legendary, and the Open University has enjoyed his fiery soul and narrative skills.In spite of the many work burdens, Søren is always read y to lend a hand – writing the preface of an exhibition catalogue or discus­sing future exhibition plans – and he is still an active member of the board of Jutland Ar­chaeological Society.Jan Skamby MadsenMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

In the Garden of EdenThe covers of the first three volumes of Kuml show photographs of fine Danish antiquities. Inside the volumes have articles on the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Jutland, which is to be expected as Kuml is published by the Jutland Archaeological Society. However, in 1954 the scene is moved to more southern skies. This year, the cover is dominated by a date palm with two huge burial mounds in the background. In side the book one reads no less than six articles on the results from the First Danish Archaeological Bahrain Expedition. P.V. Glob begins with: Bahrain – Island of the Hundred Thousand Burial Mounds, The Flint Sites of the Bahrain Desert, Temples at Barbar and The Ancient Capital of Bahrain, followed by Bibby’s Five among Bahrain’s Hundred Thousand Burial Mounds and The Well of the Bulls. The following years, reports on excavations on Bahrain and later in the sheikhdoms of Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi are on Kuml’s repertoire.However, it all ends wit h the festschrift to mark Glob’s 60th anniversary, Kuml 1970, which has three articles on Arab archaeology and a single article in 1972. For the past thirty years almost, the journal has not had a single article on Arabia. Why is that? Primarily because the character of the museum’s work in the Arabian Gulf changed completely. The pioneers’ years of large-scale reconnaissance and excavations were succeeded by labourous studies of the excavated material – the necessary work preceding the final publications. Only in Abu Dhabi and Oman, Karen Frifelt carried on the pioneer spirit through the 1970s and 1980s, but she mainly published her results in in ternational, Englishlanguage journals.Consequently, the immediate field reports ended, but the subsequent research into Arab archaeology – carried out at the writing desk and with the collections of finds– still crept into Kuml. From 1973 , the journal contained a list of the publications made by the Jutland Archaeological Society (abbreviated JASP), and here, the Arab monographs begin to make their entry. The first ones are Holger Kapel’s Atlas of the Stone Age Cultures of Qatar from 1967 and Geoffrey Bibby’s survey in eastern Saudi Arabia from 1973. Then comes the Hellenistic excavations on the Failaka island in Kuwait with Hans Erik Mathiesen’s treatise on the terracotta figurines (1982), Lise Hannestad’s work on the ceramics (1983) and Kristian Jeppesen’s presentation of the temple and the fortifications (1989). A similar series on the Bronze Age excavations on Failaka has started with Poul Kjærum’s first volume on the stamp and cylinder seals (1983) and Flemming Højlund’s presentation of the ceramics (1987). The excavations on the island of Umm an-Nar in Abu Dhabi was published by Karen Frifelt in two volumes on the settlement (1991) and the graves (1995), and the ancient capital of Bahrain was analysed by H. Hellmuth Andersen and Flemming Højlund in two volumes on the northern city wall and the Islamic fort (1994) and the central, monumental buildings (1997) respectively.More is on its way! A volume on Islamic finds made on Bahrain has just been made ready for printing, and the Bronze Age temples at the village of Barbar is being worked up. Danish and foreign scholars are preparing other volumes, but the most important results of the expeditions to the Arabian Gulf have by now been published in voluminous series.With this, an era has ended, and Moesgård Museum’s 50th anniversary in 1999 was a welcome opportunity of looking back at the Arabian Gulf effort through the exhibition Glob and the Garden ef Eden. The Danish Bahrain expeditions and to consider what will happen in the future.How then is the relation ship between Moesgård Museum and Bahrain today, twenty-three years after the last expedition – now that most of the old excavations have been published and the two originators of the expeditions, P.V. Glob and Geoffrey Bibby have both died?In Denmark we usually consider Bahrain an exotic country with an exciting past. However, in Bahrain there is a similar fascination of Denmark and of Moesgård Museum. The Bahrain people are wondering why Danish scholars have been interested in their small island for so many years. It was probably not a coincidence when in the 1980s archaeologist and ethnographers from Moesgård Museum were invited to take part in the furnishing of the exhibitions in the new national museum of Bahrain. Today, museum staff from Arab countries consider a trip to Moesgård a near-pilgrimage: our collection of Near East artefacts from all the Gulf countries is unique, and the ethnographic collections are unusual in that they were collected with thorough information on the use, the users and the origin of each item.The Bahrain fascination of Moesgård Museum. was also evident, when the Bahrain minister of education, Abdulaziz Al-Fadl, visited the museum in connection with the opening of the Bahrain exhibition in 1999.Al-Fadl visited the museum’s oriental department, and in the photo and film archive a book with photos taken by Danish members of the expeditions to the Arabian Gulf was handed over to him. Al-Fadl was absorbed by the photos of the Bahrain of his childhood – the 1950s and 1960s – an un spoilt society very different from the modern Bahrain. His enthusiasm was not lessened when he saw a photo of his father standing next to P.V. Glob and Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa taken at the opening of Glob’s first archaeological exhibition in Manama, the capital. At a banquet given by Elisabeth Gerner Nielsen, the Danish minister of culture, on the evening following the opening of the Glob exhibition at Moesgård, Al-Fadl revealed that as a child, he had been on a school trip to the Danish excavations where – on the edge of the excavation – he had his first lesson in Bahrain’s prehistory from a Danish archaeologist (fig. 1).Another example: When attending the opening of an art exhibition at Bahrain’s Art Centre in February 1999, I met an old Bahrain painter, Abdelkarim Al-Orrayed, who turned out to be a good friend of the Danish painter Karl Bovin, who took part in Glob’s expeditions. He told me, how in 1956, Bovin had exhibited his paintings in a school in Manama. He recalled Bovin sitting in his Arabian tunic in a corner of the room, playing a flute, which he had carved in Sheikh Ibrahim’s garden.In a letter, Al-Orrayed states: ”I remember very well the day in 1956, when I met Karl Bovin for the first time. He was drawin g some narrow roads in the residential area where I lived. I followed him closely with my friend Hussain As-Suni – we were twentythree and twenty-one years old respectively. When he had finished, I invited him to my house where I showed him my drawings. He looked at them closely and gave me good advice to follow if I wanted to become a skilful artist – such as focusing on lines, form, light, distance, and shadow. He encouraged me to practice outdoors and to use different models. It was a turning point in our young artists’ lives when Hussein and I decided to follow Bovin’s instructions. We went everywhere – to the teahouses, the markets, the streets, and the countryside – and practised there, but the sea was the most fascinating phenomenon to us. In my book, An Introduction to Modern Art in Bahrain, I wrote about Bovin’s exhibitions in the 1950s and his great influence on me as an artist. Bovin’s talent inspired us greatly in rediscovering the nature and landscape on Bahrain and gave us the feeling that we had much strength to invest in art. Bovin contributed to a new start to us young painters, who had chosen the nature as our main motif.”Abdelkarim Al-Orrayed was the first Bahrain painter to live of his art, and around 1960 he opened a studio from which he sold his paintings. Two of his landscape watercolours are now at Moesgård.These two stories may have revealed that Bahrain and Moesgard Museum have a common history, which both parts value and wish to continue. The mutual fascination is a good foundation to build on and the close bonds and personal acquaintance between by now more generations is a valuable counterbalance to those tendencies that estrange people, cultures, and countries from one another.Already, more joint projects have been initiated: Danish archaeology students are taking part in excavations on Bahrain and elsewhere in the Arabic Gulf; an ethnography student is planning a long stay in a village on Bahrain for the study of parents’ expectations to their children on Bahrain as compared with the conditions in Denmark; P.V. Glob’s book, Al-Bahrain, has been translated into Arabic; Moesgård’s photos and films from the Gulf are to become universally accessible via the Internet; an exhibition on the Danish expeditions is being prepared at the National Museum of Bahrain, and so forth.Two projects are to be described in more detail here: New excavations on Bahrain that are to investigate how fresh water was exploited in the past, and the publication of a book and three CDs, Music in Bahrain, which will make Bahrain’s traditional music accessible not just to the population of Bahrain, but to the whole world.New excavations on BahrainFor millennia, Bahrain was famous for its abundance of fresh water springs, which made a belt of oases across the northern half of the island possible. Natural fertility combined with the favourable situation in the middle of the Arab Gulf made Bahrain a cultural and commercial centre that traded with the cities of Mesopotamia and the IndusValley already in the third millennium BC.Fresh water also played an important part in Bahrain’s ancient religion, as seen from ar chaeological excavations and Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets: A magnificent temple of light limestone was built over a spring, and according to old texts, water was the gods’ gift to Bahrain (Dilmun).Although fresh water had an overwhelming importance to a parched desert island, no studies have been directed towards the original ”taming” of the water on Bahrain. Therefore, Moesgård Museum is now beginning to look into the earliest irrigation techniques on the island and their significance to Bahrain’s development.Near the Bahrain village of Barbar, P.V. Glob in 1954 discovered a rise in the landscape, which was excavated during the following years. It turned out that the mound covered three different temples, built on top of and around each other. The Barbar temple was built of whitish ashlars and must have been an impressive structure. It has also gained a special importance in Near East research, as this is the first and only time that the holy spring chamber, the abzu, where the god Enki lived, has been un earthed (fig. 2).On the western side of the Barbar temple a monumental flight of steps, flank ed on both sides by cult figures, was leading through a portal to an underground chamber with a fresh water spring. In the beautiful ashlar walls of this chamber were three openings, through which water flowed. Only the eastern out flow was investigated, as the outside of an underground stonebuilt aqueduct was found a few metres from the spring chamber.East of the temple another underground aqueduct was followed along a 16-m distance. It was excavated at two points and turned out almost to have the height of a man. The floor was covered with large stones with a carved canal and the ceiling was built of equally large stones (fig. 3).No doubt the spring chamber was a central part of the temple, charge d with great importance. However, the function of the aqueducts is still unknown. It seems obvious that they were to lead the fresh water away from the source chamber, but was this part of a completely ritual arrangement, or was the purpose to transport the water to the gardens to be used for irrigation?To clarify these questions we will try to trace the continuations of the aqueducts using different tracing techniques such as georadar and magnetometer. As the sur roundings of Barbar temple are covered by several metres of shifting sand, the possibilities of following the aqueducts are fine, if necessary even across a great distance, and if they turn out to lead to old gardens, then these may be exposed under the sand.Underground water canals of a similar construction, drawing water from springs or subsoil water, have been used until modern times on Bahrain, and they are still in use in Iran and on the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Oman, where they supply the gardens with water for irrigation. They are called qanats and are usually considered built by the Persians during periods when the Achaemenid or Sassanid kings controlled Arabia (c. 500 BC-c. 600 AD). However, new excavation results from the Oman peninsula indicate that at least some canal systems date from c. 1000 BC. It is therefore of utmost interest if similar sophisticated transportation systems for water on Bahrain may be proven to date from the time of the erection of the Barbar temple, i.e. c. 2000 BC.The finds suggest that around this time Bahrain underwent dramatic changes. From being a thinly inhabited island during most of the 3rd millennium BC, the northern part of the island suddenly had extensive burial grounds, showing a rapid increase in population. At the same time the major settlement on the northern coast was fortified, temples like the one at Barbar were built, and gigantic ”royal mounds” were built in the middle of the island – all pointing at a hierarchic society coming into existence.This fast social development of Dilmun must have parallelled efficiency in the exploitation of fresh water resources for farm ing to supply a growing population with the basic food, and perhaps this explains the aqueducts by Barbar?The planned excavatio ns will be carried out in close cooperation between the National Museum of Bahrain and Aarhus University, and they are supported financially by the Carlsberg Foundation and Bahrain’s Cabinet and Information Ministry.The music of BahrainThe composer Poul Rovsing Olsen (1922-1982) was inspired by Arab and Indian music, and he spent a large part of his life studying traditional music in the countries along the Arabian Gulf. In 1958 and 1962-63 he took part in P.V. Glob’s expeditions to Arabia as a music ethnologist and in the 1970s he organised stays of long duration here (fig. 4).The background for his musical fieldwork was the rapid development, which the oil finds in the Gulf countries had started. The local folk music would clearly disappear with the trades and traditions with which they were connected.” If no one goes pearl fishing anymore, then no one will need the work songs connected to this work. And if no one marries according to tradition with festivity lasting three or sometimes five days, then no one will need the old wedding songs anymore’’.It was thus in the last moment that Rovsing Olsen recorded the pearl fishers’ concerts, the seamen’s shanties, the bedouin war songs, the wedding music, the festival music etc. on his tape recorder. By doing this he saved a unique collection of song and music, which is now stored in the Dansk Folkemindesamling in Copenhagen. It comprises around 150 tapes and more than 700 pieces of music. The instruments are to be found at the Musikhistorisk Museum and Moesgård Museum (fig. 5).During the 1960s and 1970s Rovsing Olsen published a number of smaller studies on music from the Arabian Gulf, which established his name as the greatest connoisseur of music from this area – a reputation, which the twenty years that have passed since his death have not shaken. Rovsing Olsen also published an LP record with pearl fisher music, and with the music ethnologist Jean Jenkins from the Horniman Museum in London he published six LP records, Music in the World of Islam with seven numbers from the Arabian Gulf, and the book Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London 1976).Shortly before his death, Rovsing Olsen finished a comprehensive manuscript in English, Music in Bahrain, where he summed up nearly twenty-five years of studies into folk music along the Arabian Gulf, with the main emphasis on Bahrain. The manuscript has eleven chapters, and after a short introduction Rovsing Olsen deals with musical instruments, lute music, war and honour songs of the bedouins, festivity dance, working songs and concerts of the pearl fishers, music influenced front Africa, double clarinet and bag pipe music, religious songs and women’s songs. Of these, eighty-four selected pieces of music are reproduced with notes and commented in the text. A large selection of this music will be published on three CDs to go with the book.This work has been anticipated with great expectation by music ethnologists and connoisseurs of Arabic folk music, and in agreement with Rovsing Olsen’s widow, Louise Lerche-Lerchenborg and Dansk Folkemindesamling, Moesgård Museum is presently working on publishing the work.The publication is managed by the Jutland Archaeological Society and Aarhus University Press will manage the distribution. The Carlsberg Foundation and Bahrain’s Cabinet and Information Ministry will cover the editing and printing expenses.The publication of the book and the CDs on the music of Bahrain will be celebrated at a festivity on Bahrain, at the next annual cultural festival, the theme of which will be ”mutual inspiration across cultural borders” with a focus on Rovsing Olsen. In this context, Den Danske Trio Anette Slaato will perform A Dream in Violet, a music piece influenced by Arabic music. On the same occasion singers and musicians will present the traditional pearl fishers’ music from Bahrain. In connection with the concert on Bahrain, a major tour has been planned in cooperation with The Danish Institute in Damascus, where the Danish musicians will also perform in Damascus and Beirut and give ”masterclasses” in chamber music on the local music academies. The concert tour is being organised by Louise Lerche-Lerchenborg, who initiated one of the most important Danish musical events, the Lerchenborg Musical Days,in 1963 and organised them for thirty years.ConclusionPride of concerted effort is not a special Danish national sport. However,the achievements in the Arabian Gulf made by the Danish expeditions from the Århus museum are recognised everywhere. It is only fair to use this jubilee volume for drawing attention to the fact that the journal Kuml and the publications of the Jutland Archaeological Society were the instruments through which the epoch-making investigations in the Gulf were nude public nationally and internationally.Finally, the cooperationon interesting tasks between Moesgård Museum and the countries along the Arabian Gulf will continue. In the future, Kuml will again be reporting on new excavations in the palm shadows and eventually, larger investigation s will no doubt find their way to the society’s comprehensive volumes.Flemming HøjlundMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

Illerup – between the North Cape and the NileFor fifty years, Forhistorisk Museum in Århus and later Moesgård Museum has provided the base for the work with the finds from the river valley of Illerup, which were first published in Kuml 1951. The excavations are long since finished and in a few years the whole find will be published and accessible to the public in an exhibition.In the search for explanations and parallels to the army equipment we have covered much ground, and what might have become a catalogue of finds with selected illustrations has developed into a study of the ancient world in the centuries around the beginning of the Christian era. It is already obvious that the scholarly adaptation so far is merely the beginning of investigations to which the only limit is our imagination. Analyses of the numerous artefacts have for instance taken us to Rome, where triumphal arches and other monuments boast weapons and belt outfit corresponding to the artefacts from the wetland areas of Southern Scandinavia (figs. 1-4). Other items have their parallels in Syria, Africa, or Northern England, and an overall evaluation shows that the Illerup find holds elements that reflect the culture in vast areas, Roman and Teutonic (figs. 5-10).According to the plan, the presentation and discussion of the topics that are naturally connected with certain find groups will be finished within a few years, and only then will it be possible to tackle the investigations into the more delimited problems, which have so far arisen from the work in progress.One example of this could be the DNA analyses that have developed in such a way during the last few years that they can be used for biological material from the wetland finds. Also, metallurgic investigations of iron and precious metal analyses have been initiated. While working with the shields, the wood of both boards and handles were identified, and the results caused the planning of supplementary studies, using for instance dendrochronology. Investigation into the textile remains of the find are also expected to yield new information. The results of recent bog find research may be used successfully in new analyses of bog finds from the 19th century. Engelhardt’s publications – outstanding as they might be – are subjective in as far as Engelhardt, according to contemporary criteria chose the finds that were to be described or depicted. The selection is not representative and has led to wrong in terpretations of the find contents. These im balances should now be corrected and the old bog finds made accessible in a satisfying manner, i.e. published and republished according to modern standards. As it has also turned out that the knowledge of the preservation conditions of the same finds is limited, future work should include investigations into the present state of the find sites.To solve the tasks mentioned through international cooperation, we are now planning a centre for Iron Age research at Moesgård, where from 2003 we can exploit an established network of scholars involved in the study of the Iron Age.Jørgen IlkjærMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

Else Roesdahl reaches 60l first met Else Roesdahl in 1969, when, newly graduated, she was working as an assistant in the National Museum. This was the foun­dation of a friendship which spans her professional career.Else was born on Als and her sense of history and her fierce in dependence is based in the background of her family, which was deeply involved in the politics of Sønderjylland after 1864. Although she studied in Copenhagen, she returned to Jutl and with her husband, Erich Lange, in 1970, and soon became firmly established in Aarhus University.As a student (and later as a postgraduate) she took par t in P.V. Glob’s Bahrain expedi­tions .The three seasons she spent there deep­ly influenced her development as an archae­ologist and scholar. The dig excited her sense of adventure and stimulated her to travel in India, Afghanistan, Iran and Egypt, develop­ing an interest in pottery and glass originally in stilled by her father, a learned collector. At home she took part in many other excavations. She is, for example, proud of the fact that at Skuldelev she found the beautiful stem of Wreck 3.Concentrating on the Viking Age she became, through such outlets as the Viking Congress, party to an innovative critical interdisciplin ary approach to the period. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the annual and successful tværfaglige Vikingesymposium, of which she is one of the most influential organisers, or in the foundation of the Aarhus Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies. She excavated with Olaf Olsen at all the Trelleborg fortresses, and in 1970 joined him in the newly- founded department of medieval archaeology at Moesgård. Succeeding as head of department in 1981, she was promoted professor in 1996.Although engaged with the whole of the Middle Ages, her first enthusiasm was for the Viking Age. With Olaf Olsen and Holger Schmidt, she published the Fyrkat excava­tions in 1977, and it is a tribute to the academic integrity of both Olaf and Else that, though differing in their conclusions, they did not fall out – disproving the adage, ‘archaeology is not a discipline, it’s a vendetta’.Much in demand internationally, she was deeply in volved in the organisation of the Vikings in England exhibition in 1981-2, and was the coordinator of the magnificent exhibition Viking og Hvidechrist in 1992-3. The catalogue which she edited for this exhibition, together with her books Danmarks Vikingetid and Vikingernes Verden, are now central to any stud y of the Viking Age and have been translated into many languages. She has edited many other books, most recently Dagligliv i Danmarks middelalder, and,with Mogens Bencard, wrote the pionering Dansk middel­alderlertøj.She has many honours – among them the Dannebrog, a LittD from Dublin, a special professorship at Nottingham, and corresponding fellowships of learned bodies in Germany and England – but it is her friendship, scholarship and wit that we celebrate on her sixtieth birthday.David M .WilsonCastletown Isle of ManOversat til dansk af Annette Lerche Trolle

Adam af Bremens krønike. Oversat og kommenteret af Allan A. Lund.(Kurt Villads Jensen)Claus Ahrens: Die frühen Holzkirchen Europas. Tekst & Katalog. Schriften des archaologischen Landesmuseums, Band 7.(Jens Jeppesen)Michael Andersen og Goran Tegnér (red.): Middelalderlige seglstamper i Norden.(Per lngesman)Søren H. Andersen: Oldtiden i Danmark. Jægerstenalderen.(Lars Larsson)Mark Brisbane & David Gaimster (red.): Novgorod: the Archaeology of a Russian Medieval City and its Hinterland.(Michael Andersen)Anders Bæksted: Nordiske Guder og Helte. 3. udg.(Lotte Hedeager)Tom Christensen og Michael Andersen (red.): Civitas Roscald – fra byens begyndelse.(Connie Jantzen).Palle Ove Christiansen: Kulturhistorie som opposition – træk af forskellige fagtraditioner.(Henrik Hatt Jensen)Torben Dehn, Svend I. Hansen og Flemming Kaul: Klekkende høj og Jordehøj. Restaureringer og undersøgelser 1985-90.(Niels H. Andersen).Berit Valentin Eriksen (red.): Flintstudier. En håndbog i systematiske analyser af flintinventarer.(Esben Kannegaard)Per Ethelberg, Erik Jørgensen, Dirk Meier og David Robinson: Det Sønderjyske Landbrugs Historie. Sten- og bronzealder.(Helle Vandkilde)Jøgen Jensen: Rav. Nordens guld.(Helle Vandkilde)Jørgen Jensen: Danmarks Oldtid. Stenalder 13.000-2.000 f.Kr.(Lars Larsson)Jørgen Jensen: Danmarks Oldtid. Bronzealder.(Kristian Kristiansen)Jørgen Jensen: Oldtiden i Danmark. Bronzealderen.(Kristian Kristiansen)Ole Lass Jensen, Søren A. Sørensen og Keld Møller Hansen (red): Danmarks Jægerstenalder – Status og Perspektiver.(Helle Juel Jensen)Lutz Klassen: Frühes Kupfer im Norden. Unthersuchungen zu Chronologie, Herkunft und Bedeutung der Kupferfunde der Nordgruppe der Trichterbecherkultur.(Torsten Madsen)Inger-Lise Kolstrup (red.): Aspekter af dansk klostervæsen i middelalderen.(Susanne Nissen Gram)Hartvig Lüdtke & Kurt Schietzel (Hrsg.): Handbuch zur mittelalterlichen Keramik in Nordeuropa.(H.J. Madsen)Michael Müller-Wille, Valentin L. Janin, Evgenij N. Nosov & Elena A. Rybina (red.): Novgorod. Das mittelalderliche Zentrum und sein Umland im Norden Rußlands.(Michael Andersen)Poul Otto Nielsen: Oldtiden i Danmark. Bondestenalderen.(Lars LarssonViggo Nielsen: Oldtidsagre i Danmark. Bornholm.(Peter Hambro Mikkelsen)Per Persson og Karl-Göran Sjögren: Falbygdens gånggrifter. Del 1. Undersökningar 1985 till 1998.(Niels H. Andersen)Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen, Jørgen Steen Jensen og John Lund (red.): Christian VIII og National museet, Antikker, mønter, medailler.(Karen Løkkegaard Poulsen)Else Roesdahl: Vikingernes verden. Vikingerne hjemme og ude. 7. udgave.(Tom Christensen)Mats Roslund: Gäster i huset. Kulturell överföring mellan slaver och skandinaver 900 till 1300.(Per Kristian Madsen)Wijnand van der Sander & Torsten Capelle: Mosens Guder. Anthropomorfe træfigurer fra Nord- og Nordvesteuropas fortid.(Lotte Hedeager)Jens B. Skriver: Moesgård. Historien om en herregård.(Anders Myrtue)Gro Steinsland: Den Hellige Konge. Om religion og herskermakt fra vikinge tid til middelalder.(Lotte Hedeager)Bjarne Stoklund: Bondefiskere og strandsiddere. Studier over de store sæsonfiskerier 1350-1600.(Nils Engberg)Birger Storgaard (red.): Military aspects of the arisrocracy in Barbaricum in the Roman and Early Migration periods.(Ulf Nasman)Anne C. Sørensen: Ladby – A Danish Ship-Grave from the Viking Age.(Knut Paasche)Christopher Tilley: The Dolmen and Passage Graves of Sweden.(Niels H. Andersen)Stine Wiell: Kampen om oldtiden / Der Kampf um die Vorgeschichte.Jens Villiam Jensen)W. Haio Zimmermann, Dusanka Kucan, Karl-­Ernst Behre, Norbert Kühl & Erwin Strahl (red.): Probleme der Küstenforschung im südlichen Nordseegebiet.(Hans Skov)

The prehistory of Denmark – an historical perspectiveIn the introduction to “Danmarks Oldtid” (The Prehistory of Denmark), Jørgen Jensen aligns his work in continuation of a tradition comprising three preceding publications: Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae’s “Danmarks Oldtid – oplyst ved Oldsager og Gravhöie” from 1843, Sophus Otto Müller’s “Vor Oldtid. Danmarks forhistoriske Archæologi – almenfattelig fremstillet” from 1897 and Johannes Brøndsted’s “Danmarks Oldtid” from 1938-40. Jørgen Jensen’s “Danmarks Oldtid” was published as one volume per year between 2001 and 2004. All the above works were written by a centrally-placed archaeologist, based at the museum in Denmark where it is decided which finds should be elevated as expressions of national culture (contrary to regional) and, thereby, what should be included in a shaping of the Danish national identity. These four publications are all popular accounts with a focus on the national prehistory, presented as the being time between the first appearance of humans within the country’s borders and the introduction of Christianity. And all contribute in ways characteristic of their respective periods to an integration of this prehistory into the Danish national identity.The first works were published when romanticism’s particularistic view of the world, with a focus on people, culture, nation, history and spirit, was predominant in those circles within which the national identity was formulated. However, with time, modernity’s universal world view gradually imposed itself, a world perception which in many areas demystified romanticism and focussed instead on society, system and development.In this article, it is demonstrated how the above-mentioned works, within three different areas – prehistory’s morale, the origin of the Danish people and/or culture and history’s determinants, in the spirit of their respective times, linked prehistory to the contemporary especially romantically-inspired creation of a Danish identity. There is a focus on, for example, the ways in which the Danish people or the Danish culture are/is rendered unique; something central to a romantic perception in contrast to a modernistic one. How events are placed in the past on which we can look back with pride – otherwise prehistory would of course not be of much worth as an element of identity. How a shift occurs between the randomness of history and necessity of development, and much more which unfolds in the area between romanticism and modernity.With reference to the fact that these four works were all more or less directly linked to the production of new prehistoric exhibitions at the National Museum, this article concludes, on the occasion of Moesgård Museum’s new exhibition, with an attempt to reverse the relationship between the spirit of the times and the communication of information which formed the foundation for its first part. Some observations are made concerning the ways in which it is possible, in a museum context, to relate to a post-modern or post-industrial scenario. Where the project of development, so central to the communication of the past in books and by museums, is abolished as imperialistic and how, consequently, the point of departure has to be that any communication must challenge the post-modern, reflexive individual in the construction of its own narratives. Ole HøirisAfdeling for Antropologi og EtnografiAarhus Universitet

Jørgen Lund reaches 60Yet another junior archaeologist at Moesgård has matured: Jørgen Lund had his roots in the Jutlandic soil near the source of the Gudenå River, and having finished his schooling on Zealand, he returned to Jutland, first to study prehistoric archaeology under the dynamic absence of P.V. Glob, later under the inspiringly absent presence of Ole Klindt-Jensen. Already during his early university days, the world opened up to the young student, who was offered the opportunity of joining the Danish expeditions to the countries around the Arabian Gulf – educational journeys enjoyed by more than one generation of Danish archaeologists.As an archaeologist and university teacher, Jørgen Lund has mainly been engaged in the early Iron Age. Having investigated the complex house accumulations in the hills of Thy, even more complicated village excavations were undertaken in the eastern Limfjord area, involving houses dug into the soil. At Overbygaard, the young candidate succeeded in establishing a very different kind of Iron Age settlement. However, the leading archaeological settlement committee did not immediately accept his results. On top of this, it took hard labour to remove some 100 cubicmetres of earth by shovel from each house in this endless row of hell’s forecourts, always under a burning sun or in the lashing sand of a sand storm similar to that of an Ara­bian desert.Was it not for Jørgen Lund, who always walked ahead in a contagious devil-may-care fashion, and the friendly atmo­sphere morning and evening in the local inn, more than one student would have probably ran away screaming.Experimental archaeology is another of Jørgen Lund’s favourite disciplines. Few archaeologists have his practical and craftsmanlike in sight, understanding, and skill when reconstructions of Iron Age houses demand the handling of heavy timber, or when persistent efforts are made to penetrate the redhot mysteries of iron extraction.Other than that, Jørgen Lund – if not in merry company – has a quiet conduct.Without making a lot of fuss, he knows how to engage the students in his classes, and his teaching is a two-way rather than a one-way communication. As a supervisor, he is praised for his breadth of view, his thoroughness, and a behaviour that inspires confidence – all of which has led to many professional friendships. Jørgen Lund, therefore, still has a close contact to many of his former students, who are now working in museums throughout the country. He is one of the university people who understand the import ance of collaboration between the university world and the museum world in order to achieve the synergism so imperative for a scholarly environment. For this reason, he has also taken his turn in all sorts of professional boards and committees and been engaged in the comprehensive interdisciplinary Limfjord Pro­ject, which was carried out in close collaboration with the regional museums. Last, but not least, he is a frequent visitor to excavations all over the country, where his visits are always welcome – not only because he so readily shares his knowledge, but also because he has a way with people.Jesper LaursenMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

The Early Bronze Age Tombs of Jebel Hafit. By Bo Madsen. Aarhus: Jutland Archaeological Society and Moesgaard Museum, 2017. Pp. 245, illus. DKK 350. [Distributed by Aarhus University Press]

The magnate’s residence at Lisbjerg Church In 1989, Moesgård Museum excavated part of a magnate’s farm at Lisbjerg, seven kilometres north of Århus. The excavated farm buildings surrounding the present church had been enclosed with a fence. What made this find especially interesting was the fact that here it seemed to be possible to find traces of the builders of the first church in this area. The theory that there was a connection between the Viking Age farm and the church was confirmed in 1994, when the museum undertook an excavation inside the church, in collaboration with the National Museum, and found traces of a wooden predecessor of the present church.The excavations of 1989 did not establish the southern boundary of the farm. However, in 2002, new construction work immediately south of the church presented an opportunity to investigate this further (Fig. 1). As shown by Fig. 2, the fence surrounding the farm buildings had three phases. During the 2002-excavation, two phases of the fence were identified because of their similarity with the two later fence phases established during the 1989-excavation, and the southern boundary was thus established (fig. 2-3). Fence 2, with a 3-m wide gate, was found in the southernmost part of the uncovered area. Fence 3 could be followed across the whole of the building site as a line of distinct plank traces identical to those found during the 1989-excavation. In this way the parallel displacement which applied to the two fences of the northern farm boundary repeated itself to the south. Because of this, it was possible to conclude that the fenced-in Viking Age farm had measured 170 metres from north to south. Although only part of the fence was uncovered, the regularity of the identified fences has made it possible to estimate the outline of the farm area, and so to establish that the area within the fence probably measured c.19,000 square metres.The investigated area was divided in two. The two fences mentioned were found in the southern area. Fence BP (Figs. 3-4) was uncovered in the northern area as a distinct line of dressed planks, each 30-40-cm wide and around 7-cm thick (Fig. 5) and dug about one metre into the ground. The similarity with fence 3 was so striking that the two fences should be considered contemporary. Fence BP was situated in the middle of the farm area, and in order to understand this, we must return to the excavation undertaken in 1994 by the National Museum and Moesgård Museum inside Lisbjerg Church. As already mentioned, on that occasion a wooden predecessor to the present church was identified, but the archaeologists also found traces of an older building on the same spot. This house was interpreted as the main farmhouse. Other excavations of Viking Age farms have established that the main building had a central position, and that it was often provided with a special small fence (Fig. 6). It has been suggested that this area – the main farmhouse surrounded by a fence – may in fact be the “sheltered yard” mentioned in medieval laws from the time around 1200. Exactly what this term relates to is unknown today, but the fact that the old laws laid down punishments for any assault within this area shows that the “sheltered yard” had a special status. Waste pits found in the southern part of the excavation threw light on the activities that took place within the large yard (see Fig. 3). Pit AW was especially interesting, as it contained waste from metal crafts such as iron processing, bronze and silver casting, and glass making. This material has been analysed by Arne Jouttijärvi of Heimdal-archaeometry. The analyses show that around half the iron is of Danish origin, whereas the rest is imported. Waste from iron purification dominates the material, but there is also evidence of forging and welding, and so all the steps of a blacksmith’s work are represented. The waste from other metal crafts includes fragments of crucibles and moulds, and drops of bronze. There are fragments from several crucibles (Fig. 7), three of which contained metal remnants, in each case silver, except for one drop containing both silver and gold. Analyses of the other drops, however, showed no precious metals, just copper and bronze. A strange, oblong, almost boat-shaped crucible (?) contained the uncommon alloy of antimony bronze, a material characterized by its hardness. Only one other example of antimony bronze is known from the Viking Age, a piece of 10th century scrap metal found at Netherton in England. The crucible fragments amounted to around 100 pieces (Fig. 8). Analyses of these showed no evident metal remnants. The relatively poor occurrence of metal traces in both crucibles and moulds indicate that they were used for silver casting. The pit also contained a couple of minor bronze items (Fig. 9). One is a fragment of a plate with ring ornaments. It has been riveted onto some organic material, probably leather. The other piece also seems to have been used for decoration. It is a pyramid-shaped object with an unusually high tin content (22% as opposed to the normal 5-12% for bronze).A total of eight “glass pieces” and two bead fragments and a glass ball from pit AW were analysed. Four clear and faintly green glass pieces were all sodium glass. One fragment of a layered bead created from yellow and green glass is also made from sodium glass. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, glass of this type is thought to stem from the melting of Roman glass items. Viking Age sodium glass is primarily known from beakers found in England and Scandinavia. Most likely, the production of sodium glass continued to some extent in Byzantium, but Byzantine glass usually has a higher content of magnesium oxide (MgO). This particular glass of Eastern origin was identified in a blue glass ball. The glass ball in question (Fig. 10) has a diameter of a little less than two centimetres, and is made from clear greenish glass. The analysis showed that we are dealing with a very special type of glass with low sodium (Na2O) and potash (K2O) contents, but a rather large content of magnesium oxide (MgO). This glass type is unknown in the reference material used by Heimdal-archaeometry, which comprises 3000 analyses. Four reddish-brown “glass fragments” turned out to be garnet. The pottery finds from pit AW are all of Viking type pottery (Fig. 11-12). Pits AT and BA near AW contained iron slag. Pit J may also be connected to the Viking Age farm, as it contained a piece of pottery of the west Slav pottery type so popular in the Viking Age (Fig. 13). Earlier, it has been pointed out that the Viking Age farm may have had a special status. Not only was it involved in the first building of a church here; it also had an important situation within the main settle­ment of the district. As for traffic, Lis­bjerg had a strategically favourable position at the time, as it was situated close to the main north-south road in eastern Jutland. It is thus tempting to conclude that the large fenced-in farm was the local administration centre. A recent find may support this theory: in connection with the archaeological excavations of the planned motorway between Søften and Skødstrup, a moat running along the Egå River – the old district border – was identified in the valley just below Lisbjerg (Fig. 14). The 2-m wide and 1.5-m deep moat was followed across an almost two-kilometre long stretch (Fig. 15). There has thus been a very substantial blockade running across the old road to Lisbjerg (Fig. 16). The length of the moat points towards it being used to reinforce the traffic control by forcing travellers to use the river crossing just below Lisbjerg. The archaeologists did not succeed in dating the moat, but since its construction must have been a very significant undertaking it is tempting to connect it with the powerful Viking magnate residing on the Lisbjerg farm. Jens JeppesenMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

I visited the new Moesgaard Museum in January 2015 on a grey and rainy day, and five hours later I left empowered with an unexpected feeling of optimism at human potential, reacquainted with what Larkin (1974: 19) called “the million-petalled flower of being here”, and not least, conscious again of the privilege of being an archaeologist, lucky enough to spend my professional life doing something so marvellous. Is the museum really that good? Yes.

The age of Ravning Bridge.One of Denmark’s most reliable dendrochronological datings?The excavation of the large Viking Age bridge across the Vejle river valley began at the same time that the dendrochronological dating method came into use in Denmark. In 1977, Thorkild Ramskou, who excavated the bridge, announced that the tree ring dating of the timber showed that the bridge “was built in 979 or at least very close to that year”. In 1998, Mogens Schou Jørgensen, who continued the archaeological excavations of the bridge structure after Ramskou’s death, stated, “The dating of Ravning Bridge is one of the most reliable from the Danish Viking Age. Almost 100 dendrochronological datings of timber exist, and they point at 979 or 980 as the felling year of the oak trees”. In 2000 Steen Hvass gave an even more precise dating for the bridge: “The bridge across Ravning Enge was constructed between October 979 and April 980.”However, the dating is not nearly as scientifically based and precise as these quotations indicate. Around 100 samples from the bridge were taken for dating, but so far tree ring measurements have only been made on 25 of them, and of these only 18 could be dated (table1). Out of these 18, only four samples contained sapwood, and none definitely included the bark ring – i.e. the last tree ring just under the bark. In spite of the quoted statements, not a single investigated sample from the bridge gives a precise year for when the trees were felled and the bridge was built.The measuring of the tree rings and the dating of the samples was mostly carried out at the dendrochronological laboratory in Hamburg, and the results are completely reliable. The investigation showed that the latest preserved tree ring on the dated samples, which was found on post no. 26, was formed in the year 979, and that the bridge could therefore not have been built until the autumn of that year, or later (fig. 1). However, as no bark was preserved on this post, one or more missing tree rings cannot be excluded, and the tree may well have been felled later. As for the samples with preserved sapwood, the probable felling year of the trees may be determined (although with some uncertainty), since the number of tree rings in the sapwood varies only within a rather limited range. When calculating the year of felling, the Hamburg laboratory assumed that the trees had originally had 20 +/- 5 tree rings in the sapwood, as this was considered normal for 1-200 year-old oak trees. The report of the dating which the laboratory gave in 1975 specifies the felling time of the four trees with preserved sapwood as 979-988. This result accords well with Thorkild Ramskou’s first announcement about the dating, but it does not provide a basis for claiming that the timber for the bridge was definitely felled in 979 or 980. Later, a reconsideration of the dated samples has shown that the trees used for building the bridge were older than first assumed (fig. 2). The average age of the trees from which the dated samples stem is almost 300 years, and more trees were close to 500 years old at the time of felling. Consequently, the trees are likely to have had more tree rings in the sapwood than first thought and so they must have been felled later than has hitherto been assumed (as the felling year is found by adding the assumed number of sapwood years to the year of the last tree ring of the heartwood). Calculated from the sapwood statistics used at WM Trædateringslaboratoriet the felling years of the four samples with preserved sapwood lie within the period from 977 to 1009, whereas the fifth sample without sapwood is assumed to have been felled after 974-1006 (fig. 3). We may therefore conclude that using the available material the dating of Ravning Bridge cannot be determined more precisely than “after c.980 and before c.1010”, and the bridge may thus be of a later date than assumed so far. It hardly serves any purpose to argue for a probable felling year of the bridge timber on a basis that is still uncertain. However, thanks to the forethought of the excavators, a large number of not-yet-investigated wood samples from the bridge exist, including samples with sapwood and perhaps with bark. If this article results in a dendrochronological investigation of this material, it will have fulfilled its purpose. A note on the slanting posts: From the excavation reports it appears that the slanting posts on the outside of each bridge section owed their shape to the preserved natural curve of the wood. However, the samples of the slanting posts that were taken for dendrochronological dating show that the curve on the outside is not natural but results from the wood being hewn into a particular shape (fig. 4). The reason for this shaping of the posts is unknown. Kjeld ChristensenWM TrædateringslaboratorietWormianum – Moesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

New investigations of the magnificent cart from FredbjergThe magnificent carts of Dejbjerg type from the Pre-Roman Iron Age (fig. 6) appear to be related to the vehicles used by the elite in the Celtic oppidae in Late la Tène times. The Danish group of carts comprises six almost identical vehicles (fig. 3), presumably produced in Danish workshops during Martens’ phase IIB 2. Of these, two were deposited in graves (those from Langå and Kraghede) in phase IIB 2, two were abandoned on settlements in the Early Roman Iron Age and the final two were deposited in the bog at Dejbjerg, possibly late in the Early Roman Iron Age, as more than 100 year old antiquities.The Danish carts each included more than 300 metal fitting of iron or bronze, a similar number of nails and more than 100 wooden components. A replica was constructed using methods as near as possible to the original in collaboration between Odense Museums and the Iron Age Village of Næsby in 1983-88. The vehicle was built according to drawings and descriptions produced on the basis of investigations of the all the Danish examples. The project was then continued by the mus­eum in Skjern-Egvad in 1996-2002. It has given such extensive knowledge of the cart’s construction and its performance that it is now possible to interpret wear traces and repairs on the original cart components.In 1969, potsherds, quernstones and bronze fittings turned up on a newly ploughed moorland plot at Fredbjerg in Western Himmerland (fig. 1). The items were declared to be danefæ, i.e. treasure trove belonging to the Danish State, by the Keeper of National Antiquities and their discovery prompted the Prehistoric Museum at Moesgård to carry out an archaeological excavation. This revealed the remains of a longhouse with living quarters to the west and a sunken eastern end (fig. 2) in which the remains of a cart of Dej­bjerg type were found (figs. 4-8). North of the house – not far from the original find site for the bronze fittings, which probably derive from an ornamented yoke – were traces of smithing and bronze casting activities (figs. 11-12). The remains of the yoke and cart formed part of the metal depot from a workshop associated with the last phase of the house. This was dated on the basis of pottery to the first half of the Early Roman Iron Age. At least two further houses were located in the area but it is uncertain whether there was a village at the site. The best parallel to this find is seen in the cart fittings from the longhouse in the village at Dankirke, which burnt down in the first part of the Early Roman Iron Age.In addition to a number of iron fittings (figs. 4, 5, 8) the cart remains from Fred­bjerg comprise parts of the undercarriage and the body of the vehicle; these are of Dejbjerg I type. The boards of the undercarriage had fingered fittings with rectangular perforations (fig. 5). The very long axle bolts on the shafts indicate a heavy axle construction (fig. 4). A very long iron fitting probably derives from the cart’s front axle. The corner plates from the body of the vehicle were found together with an iron-reinforced handle (fig. 6). Fluted ornamental nails (fig. 7) show no evidence of the red enamel seen on corres­ponding nails from Dejbjerg II. In addition to above, there are the cast fittings for a pikestaff or goad (stimulus) (fig. 10) and two cast ring-headed pins of bronze (fig. 9); these presumably constitute parts of the harness. The remaining bronzes comprise animal figures, rods and punch-decorated sheet fittings (figs. 11-12) which probably plated a wooden yoke. There are no exact parallels to a yoke of this type but a number of leather decorated yokes from chariot burials dated to the Hallstatt period show a certain similarity to the punch-decorated fittings from Fredbjerg (fig. 13). The double ducks may have functioned as terrets (rein rings) on the yoke.The Fredbjerg cart has, therefore, both fittings and ornamentation in common with the other carts of Dejbjerg I type, as well as having a series of special, local feat­ures. This suggests that some of the cart’s cast and punch-decorated bronze fittings could have been based on the same models as the fittings seen on the other carts, whereas the other fittings may have been produced according to local models related to the zoomorphic ornaments such as fibulae, Holstein belts and North Jutish cast belts. Jens Martens links these to the first horizon of princely graves in his phase IIB 1 (fig. 15).As the Fredbjerg house was constructed in Martens’ phase IIB 2, and abandoned in the first part of the Early Roman Iron Age, the cart is slightly older than the house. The Fredbjerg cart was – like the other examples – produced in one or more Danish workshops by Celtic influenced craftsmen as a symbol demonstrating the power of the weapon-bearing elite, described by Tacitus in Germania (chapter 10) from 98 BC – perhaps on the basis of an older tradition. Shortly after the birth of Christ the elite came under the influence of Roman culture (and mythology) and the carts were broken up. Only a few were preserved and these apparently functioned in rites of the fertility cult (without weapons) associated with the cart cleansing cere­mony which Tacitus describes in the above-mentioned work (chapter 40), probably according to a later tradition. If it is true that Nerthus (Njord) and Freja/Frøj were linked with the cult’s rite, then it is possible that the carts discovered at Rappendam and Tranbær also resulted from fertility rites concerning pars-pro-toto cart sacrifices. In other words, the old fertility gods may have been worshipped from period II of the Pre-Roman Iron Age (like the Rappendam find) and onwards until the later part of the Early Roman Iron Age (like the Tranbær/Dejbjerg finds), when they were overcome and taken as hostages by the weapon-bearing Ases with Roman and Greek colleagues who were worshipped up into the Viking Age. Per Ole SchovsboNæstved

Emma Bentz: I stadens skugga. Den medeltida landsbygden som arkeologiskt forskningsfält(Mette Svart KristiansenLine Bjerg: Romerske Denarfund fra Jyske Jernalderbopladser – En Arkæologisk Kulegravning(Thomas Grane)Helen Clarke & Kristina Lamm (red.): Excavations at Helgö XVII(Margrethe Watt)Walter Dörfler & Johannes Müller (red.): Umwelt – Wirtschaft – Siedlungen im dritten vorchristlichen Jahrtausend Mitteleuropas und Südskandinaviens. Internationale Tagung Kiel 4.-6. November 2005(John Simonsen)Peter Gammeltoft, Søren Sindbæk & Jens Vellev (red.): Regionalitet i Danmark i vikingetid og middelalder. Tværfagligt symposium på Aarhus Universitet 26. januar 2007(Karl-Erik Frandsen)Annika Larsson: Klädd Krigare. Skifte i skandinaviskt dräktskick kring år 1000(Ulla Mannering)Henriette Lyngstrøm: Dansk Jern: en kulturhistorisk analyse af fremstilling, fordeling og forbrug(Jørgen A. Jacobsen)Søren Olsen: Udflugt til fortiden. Guide til 80 gådefulde fortidsminder i Danmark(Palle Eriksen)Ditlev L. Mahler: Sæteren ved Argisbrekka. Økonomiske forandringer på Færøerne i vikingetid og tidlig middelalder(Hans Skov) Peter Rowley-Conwy: From Genesis to Prehistory. The Archaeological Three Age System and its contested reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland(Anne Katrine Gjerløff)Henrik Skousen: Arkæologi i lange baner. Undersøgelser forud for anlæggelsen af motorvejennord om Århus 1998-2007(Lotte Hedeager)Dagfinn Skre (red.): Means of Exchange. Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age(Jens Christian Moesgaard)David M. Wilson: The Vikings in the Isle of Man(Ray Moore)

Tile production in the Danish Middle Ages and RenaissanceEveryday life in the Renaissance and Early Modern times has long been a neglected area in archaeology and much evidence has been lost. When the Department of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Aarhus, Moesgård added Renaissance Studies to the teaching curriculum in 2005, this provided an opportunity, together with new Danish museum legislation, to redress this situation.In the Renaissance, fundamental changes took place in housing, due in part to the introduction of the tile stove as a “bilægger”, i.e. a stove fed from an adjacent room. This provided an opportunity for the creation of a private, comfortable living room. In rural areas, however, the tile stove was also seen in direct association with a bread oven or as a smoke oven. Among the upper echelons of society – royalty, the Church and the aristocracy, with their strong links to European culture south of the Baltic – the tile stove became known as early as the 13th century. The earliest evidence of this is from the Cistercian Monastery at Sorø. Here, sherds have been found ofhandmoulded deep beaker-shaped vessel tiles. The outer surfaces of these were decorated with wavy lines and encircling grooves, as seen on typical 13th century Baltic-ware pottery from Zealand (fig. 1). When built into an oven, the decoration would not have been visible (fig. 2). From the episcopal/royal castles of Søborg and Gurre there are thrown, glazed beaker-shaped vessel tiles from the 14th century (fig. 3). The handmade, unglazed vessel tiles with a square rim from the royal castle ofVordingborg are broader and shallower (fig. 4); on some the base is rounded. Similar tiles were manufactured as late as the 19th century as “jydepotter”, i.e. black pots from Jutland (fig. 5). In the houses of wealthier citizens, such as Kragsnap’s House in Nykøbing Falster and Branda Huset in Helsingborg in Scania, there were stoves constructed of Late Gothic deep vessel tiles with specially formed openings (fig. 6). At the beginning of the 16th century, these developed into a green glazed, relatively shallow turned vessel tile with a reinforced rim, often with a flower or several concentric circles at the base. This type continued up into the 17th century (fig. 7). In terms of the skill needed in their firing and glazing, all these various vessel tiles were consistent with the abilities of a local potter and they are probably all of domestic origin, modelled on foreign examples.From Late Medieval times, there are imported concave panel and niche tiles, such as Den grønne sten fra Nielstrup and archaeological examples from Vridsløsemagle, Ribe and Gurre. Most of them carry a religious, Catholic message. However, two fragments of matrixes for concave panel tiles, dated to around 1500 and found in Aalborg, bear witness to an early production of moulded stove tiles in Denmark (fig. 8).With the Reformation, relations to Protestant Germany via Kings Christian III and Frederik II were strengthened. Danish students in Wittenberg and Greifswald and itinerant German craftsmen brought with them new furnishing traditions to Denmark. The tile stove became commonplace. The heyday of these stoves began around 1550 when domestic production became profitable. German potters settled in Denmark, bringing with them their moulds and their expertise, also as stove fitters. Production began of concave, quadrangular and rectangular panel tiles bearing images with a religious or political message. On the reverse they had a rumpe, a shallow funnel-shaped protrusion, which had an important function when fitting the tiles to form the stove.From around 1600, the tile stove was gradually replaced by the iron stove, although the latter did retain for some time an upper tower-like section clad in rectangular tiles. Initially, iron stoves were imported from Germany, but with the introduction of a Danish protectionist policy in the 1640s, production was started in Norway.Despite local production in the 16th century, imports of stove tiles and matrixes increased. Sometimes the origin of these can be determined on the basis of the ware; greyish-white Halle clay, for example, indicating Central Germany. Some polychrome stove tiles can be identified as imports from the Upper Weser area. No workshops producing polychrome stove tiles have been demonstrated in Denmark. Even though a workshop in Næstved was familiar with tin glaze and metallic-oxide colours, only polychrome floor tiles were produced there.Often the date of the stove tiles, or more correctly of the patrixes, can be determined on the basis of the motif and the graphic source on which it is modelled.For instance, the patrix for a matrix found in Copenhagen bearing the picture of HERSI HANS must have been carved after 1547, when he lost his title as Elector of Saxony, and prior to his death in 1554. On a stove tile modelled on a medal struck on his appointment in 1532 and attributed to Matthes Gebel, he is referred to as Johann Friedrich Kurfürst. Patrixes, and probably also most matrixes, were imported, but the origin of a patrix for the Fortuna stove tile from Næstved from 1585, attributed to Abel Schroder the Elder, is perhaps open to discussion (fig. 9). A patrix for a medallion tile from about 1550-80 from Århus (fig. 15), and patrix frames and a mould for patrix frames for arcade tiles from about 1600 from Flensburg (fig. 19), are the only definite indications we have oflocal production. Re-working of newly-made matrixes, pirate copies and potters’ botching also occurred (figs. 16, 17 and 21). On the basis of this, and inspired by Der Hafner from Jost Ammen’s Ständebuch (fig. 12), the author has experimented with the production of matrixes and stove tiles (figs. 10 and 11). Accounts are then given of seven localities where traces of stove-tile production have been found. Potters’ kilns have been excavated in Lund and Aalborg, (figs. 13 and 14). In Århus, there were layers containing rejects, kiln shelves and matrixes (fig. 15). In Næstved, deposits have been excavated containing rejects which include tiles bearing Fortuna and the West Zealand version of Judith (figs. 18.4 and 16). Clay pits backfilled with rejects from the workshop have also been discovered there. In Slagelse, an area has been excavated containing workshop refuse in the form of old or broken matrixes, reject stove tiles, kiln shelves and tools (figs. l7 and 18). In Flensburg, a potter’s workshop was excavated, revealing a great number of tiles, a few patrix frames and more than 90 matrixes, of which several are clear evidence of potters’ botching (figs. 19, 20 and 21). Impressions of matrixes from this workshop were used by the bell-caster Michel Bibler as ornamentation on bronze fonts for churches in Flensburg and Eckernförde (fig. 22). In Holbæk, layers containing rejects and matrixes from a potter’s workshop in the neighbourhood have been located. A rectangular stowe tile from 1611, showing the upper body of a lute-playing prince, was produced in a matrix trixwith a two-piece picture area. The upper part of this was used for a stove tile in Slagelse, but in a different frame (fig. 18.6). All the workshops investigated proved to belong to the second half of the 16th century, with the main weight of activity around 1600. From Køge, however, there are matrixes bearing the inscription 1662MB on the reverse. These indicate an active workshop there in the late 17th century, (fig. 23). Several of the workshops were located in association with a demolished ecclesiastical institution where the immediate area had apparently been assigned to workshops carrying out hazardous activities using fire, such as potteries and bell-casters. Finally, research results obtained over several years are presented and there is a discussion of the possibility of more detailed examination and recording to demonstrate the regionality of the individual stove-tile types and perhaps locate individual workshops. More recent scientific methods for the identification of clay types might make it possible to determine their provenance, which would be of crucial importance. Formal collaboration with countries south of and around the Baltic would probably be able to demonstrate trade routes and cultural links and the origin and distribution of stove tiles and matrixes. Closer collaboration between scientists, historians and archaeologists is strongly recommended.Ole KristiansenSlagelse

Abstract In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the status of forensic anthropology and forensic archeology in Denmark, as well as related information about education, research, and skeletal collections. Forensic anthropologists mainly deal with the examination of unidentified skeletal remains. Some special tasks include cranial trauma analysis of the recently deceased, advanced 3D visualization from CT scanning of homicide cases, and stature estimation of perpetrators using surveillance videos. Forensic anthropologists are employed at one of Denmark’s three departments of forensic medicine (in Copenhagen, Odense, and Aarhus) and have access to advanced imaging equipment (e.g., CT and MR scanning, surface scanners, and 3D printers) for use in both their requisitioned work and their research. Extensive research is conducted on different topics, such as the health and diseases of past populations, age estimation, and human morphology. Research is based on skeletal material from the archeological collections housed in Copenhagen and Odense or on CT data from the recently deceased. There is no full degree in forensic anthropology in Denmark, but elective courses and lectures are offered to students at different levels and to people from different professional backgrounds. Forensic archaeology is a relatively new field of expertise in Denmark, and relevant cases are rare, with only one or two cases per year. No forensic archeologists are officially employed in any of the departments of forensic medicine. Until recently, the Special Crime Unit of the police handled crime scene investigations involving excavations, but with the option of enlisting the help of outside specialists, such as archaeologists, anthropologists, and pathologists. An official excavation work group was established in 2015 under the lead of the Special Crime Unit of the police with the aim of refining the methods and procedures used in relevant criminal investigations. The group is represented by five police officers from the Special Crime Scene Unit, a police officer from the National Police Dog Training center, the two archaeologists from Moesgaard Museum, a forensic anthropologist from the Department of Forensic Medicine (University of Copenhagen), and a forensic pathologist from the Department of Forensic Medicine (University of Aarhus).

Shepherds, cattle farmers or pig breeders? A re-evaluation of Iron Age animal husbandryArchaeological finds from prehistoric settlements bear witness to the fact that crop and animal husbandry have constituted an omnipresent part of society since the intro­duction of agriculture. Agriculture must, therefore, have had a decisive influence on the overall organisation of society. This conclusion also applies to the Early Iron Age (c. 500 BC-AD 200), the period in focus here. Our picture of Iron Age animal husbandry is, however, generally uniform and is based, to a great extent, on sources other than the animals themselves.Stall partitions, bridles and tethers play, therefore, a great role in our understanding of domesticated livestock. The presence of agriculture in all aspects of daily life must, however, have been of significance for the composition of the livestock and animal husbandry must be presumed to have been much more dynamic than shown by our general picture. This appears confirmed by a review of a published and unpublished reports concerning animal bones found at settlements from the period. The evidence indicates that differences existed in the composition of the livestock at a local, regional and inter-regional level. Unfortunately, the collection of animal bones from these sites was often not comprehensive and the representativity of the finds can be questioned.The number of available analyses of animal bones from Early Iron Age settlements is modest and our knowledge of the composition of the livestock is therefore based on a limited number of finds. The main reason for the lack of exploitation of the animal bone evidence is first and foremost a lack of understanding of the potential and limitations of zoo-archaeology. The study of bones found in an archaeological context has to a great extent been left to non-archaeologists, and in doing so a gap has been created between zoo-­archaeology and traditional archaeology. ­Archaeologists’ understanding of the potential of bone remains is therefore limited and often results in material being collected without any clear aims and objectives.A review of the bone material from 14 settlements dated to the Early Iron Age indicates that there are overall geographical differences in the composition of the livestock (fig. 1 + appendix). Firstly, there is a dominance of sheep/goat at the Northern Jutish sites around the Limfjord. Secondly, there is marked difference in the proportion of pig in the material from settlements on the Jutish peninsula, and the islands to the west of it, respectively. Accordingly, pig bones make up less than 5% of the ­material at six of the seven Jutish sites, whereas they comprise at least 10% at the Eastern Danish sites from Als, Funen, Zealand, Falster and Bornholm. If the site of Dalshøj on Bornholm is excluded, then pig comprises between 15% and 28% of the investigated material from the Eastern Danish islands. Furthermore, there is a marked difference in the proportion of cattle between Northern Jutland and the rest of Denmark. With the exception of the material from the three Northern ­Jutish tell sites (Nørre Smedegård, Nørre Hedegård and Nørre Tranders), cattle make up just less than half of the identified animal bones from settlements of the period (figs. 2-3).At the same time, the material from the three Northern Jutish sites suggests that, despite the great similarities in the overall composition of the material, there could have been differences in the primary purpose of keeping the animals. At Nørre Tranders, which lies in the Eastern Lim­fjord area, more than 4000 bones have been identified to species (table 1). An analysis shows that sheep (and goat) were the primary domesticated animals, followed by cattle. Horse was relatively common, whereas pig only constituted an insignificant proportion. Hunting of wild mammals and birds was limited, whereas the collection of molluscs, together with fishing, could have constituted a significant supplement. The significance of fishing is, however, uncertain as the material was collected without the use of sieves. Throughout the tell’s period of use of about 500 years, the composition of the livestock varied, although the overall purpose of keeping, respectively, sheep, cattle and pigs does not appear to have changed significantly (figs. 4-6 + table 2). The dominant role of sheep can also be recognised in the material from the two other tell sites in Northern Jutland (fig. 7). Des­pite large inconsistencies between the material from the three localities, the age estimates for the postcranial bones and lower jaws of cattle and sheep suggest that the primary purpose of keeping animals could have varied. Accordingly, a very large number of slaughtered young cattle are seen at Smedegård, whereas this is not the case at Nørre Hedegård and Nørre Tranders.The material used was chosen by way of a review of published articles, unpublished undergraduate theses and PhD theses, as well as unpublished reports by the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen University and Moesgård Museum’s Department of Conservation and Environmental Archaeology. The requirements of the material were that it could be dated to the Early Iron Age without any mixing with other periods. It had to be quantified by recording the number of fragments (NISP) and must be from sites interpreted as ordinary rural settlements. A detailed examination of the Quaternary Zoological Central Register would undoubtedly increase the amount of usable material. It was, however, not the intention to provide a complete overview of all bones from settlement sites of the Early Iron Age, but to identify and elucidate possible differences in the composition of the livestock. The same applies to material from the Late Roman Iron Age, 3rd-4th centuries AD, as there are indications here of an increased differentiation of the settlements whereby some individual sites acquire a more central character. Therefore, the degree to which these were self-sufficient is unknown.The material used is very varied – both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is therefore only of limited suitability for comparative analyses. With the exception of the material from Smedegård and, in part, that from Nørre Hedegård, the representativity of the material used can be questioned. This is due to the fact that most of it was collected without prior sieving and that several of the assemblages used are of limited size. During the last 35 years, a long series of experiments indicates more-or-less unanimously that a lack of sieving gives a distorted picture of the composition of the zoo-archaeological material – the largest species and the largest bone elements are favoured (fig. 8). Accordingly, the degree to which the composition of the material used reflects the original material or the method of recovering is uncertain.Cattle occupy a central role in our picture of Iron Age animal husbandry and also appear to be dominant in most of the analysed assemblages. However, in the light of the way in which the material was collected, it is likely that the proportion of cattle in the total livestock was less marked than the bone material and the agrarian historical literature suggest. Houses with a byre and stall partitions have traditionally been used as a basis for calculating the size of the cattle herd and have, in this way, unconsciously emphasised the importance of cattle. However, the composition of the livestock seen in a series of cases where long-houses have burnt down, killing their occupants, shows that sheep, pigs, dogs, cattle and horses all have had a place in the byres (fig. 10). The size of the byres and the number of stall partitions can therefore not be used uncritically to estimate the farmstead’s or the village’s total number of cattle.It has previously been suggested that the primary role of cattle was of a social or religious character in connection with the demonstration of status, the giving of gifts, as a dowry etc. The role of cattle in the subsistence economy could therefore have been secondary relative to sheep and pigs. The establishment of a cattle herd was therefore associated with great expense, and the farmer’s prestige and status could, accordingly, be read in his ability to maintain as large a cattle herd as possible. At Smedegård, from where we have the best investigated material from the Early Iron Age, the relative proportion of cattle is down at 25%, which is markedly lower than most of the settlements used in this study. Perhaps this indicates an overestimate of the role of cattle in general?Despite the uncertainty concerning the representativity of the material, the subordinate role of pigs in the bone material from the Jutish sites appears real and can probably be traced back to the Early Bronze Age in Northern Jutland. The demonstrated differences between sites at a local, regional and inter-regional level can therefore not be explained away as being due solely to the lack of sieving. They are probably an expression of an unspecified diversity in the composition of the livestock – dependant on culturally and ­ecologically determined factors. If we are to have any expectations of obtaining a more detailed picture of animal husbandry in the Early Iron Age and other periods of prehistory it is, however, necessary to improve the recovery methods employed and to integrate the bone material into the ­archaeological analysis to the same extent as the other archaeological source materials. Only in this way will the potential of the material be exploited optimally as a source of information on Iron Age society.Jacob KveiborgMoesgård Museum

Refshøjgård. An extraordinary burial-find from the Single Grave Culture Towards the end of 2000, Moesgård Museum excavated a grave mound at Refshøjgård in Folby parish, approx. 15 km NW of Århus in Eastern Jutland (Fig. 1). After the topsoil was removed, it became obvious that the original grave mound had been destroyed completely by ploughing. The mound had been placed on a natural circular elevation consisting of clay. In the periphery of this elevation, seven secondary burials from the Late Roman Iron Age were discovered, while the centre of the mound contained two superimposed burials of the Single Grave Culture (SGC) (Figs. 2-3). These burials are described in the following.The plough had already destroyed most traces of the upper grave. Due to the collapse of the coffin in the grave underneath, part of the fill of the burial mound had sunk down into the resulting depression. Due to this, the grave goods – a typical thick-butted flint axe of SGC type (Fig. 9) and a battle axe of Glob’s type B1 (Fig. 8) – had been preserved in the depression (Figs. 4-5). The remnants of the original mound fill also held eight small pieces of SGC settlement ceramics (Fig. 14), all undecorated belly sherds. Twenty centimetres below, the primary burial showed up. It consisted of a coffin that was open in the eastern end. It was approx. 2 metres long, 85 centimetres wide, orientated E-W and built of planks approx. seven centimetres wide. In the southern side, an upper plank had fallen down and now rested next to a lower plank. The whole construction was obviously made in a provisional way. It was supported by a foundation made from stones up to the size of a human head, which had survived to a height of approx. 30 centimetres (Fig. 6-7). One of the stones turned out to be a quern stone, which had been deliberately placed in the southeastern corner (Fig. 13). There were no supporting stones in the open eastern side of the coffin. Within the coffin, traces of the deceased were clearly visible as dark marks in the earth. It was possible to recognize feet, legs, stomach, back, and part of the head, whereas the arms could not be determined with certainty. The legs were strongly bent under the dead, who was thus resting in a hocker-position. The body was lying on its right side, with the head towards the west and facing south – the typical position of men in burials from the SGC. It was closely surrounded by a thin line of greasy material, probably the remains of a cow hide or the likes. The dead therefore seemed to have been buried in some sort of leather bag. At the back and top of the head, the form of the greasy line suggested that the deceased was buried with some kind of hat. The grave goods consisted of a thick-butted flint axe placed front of the face (Fig. 10), a beaker in the southwest corner of the coffin (Fig. 11) and a rather large, symmetrically formed object of organic material, probably wood, that had only survived as a dark trace in the earth between the beaker and the head of the dead. Both grave finds can be dated to the very early SGC. In the upper grave, this dating is further indicated by the battle axe of type B1, which is characteristic of the very early SGC. It is unusual to find an SGC grave in a stratigraphic position underneath a battle-axe of this type. The lower grave must therefore be considered one of the very earliest finds known from the SGC. Two 14C-dates, obtained from charcoal, confirm this assumption (AAR- 7028, 4140 ± 50 BP = 2855-2680 BC cal and AAR-7029, 4175 ± 50 BP = 2865- 2705 BC cal).The flint axe from the lower burial is of a special nature as it shows typological traits similar to both the A-axes of the Late Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) and the thick-butted flint axes of the SGC. It thus confirms the dating of the grave to the very early SGC. The beaker from the lower grave is clearly of local origin. It does, however, have some unusual traits, especially regarding the neck, which is higher and more cylindrical than usual. Parallels are known from the Corded Ware Culture south of the Harz in Eastern Germany. The person who manufactured the beaker in Jutland had probably seen beakers in this area of central Europe. Maybe it was someone who had traveled there, or a woman from that region who had moved up north. A thin brown crust was preserved inside the beaker (Fig. 12). It was investigated using both pollen analysis and microscopy. The crust turned out to not contain any pollen, although a pollen analysis of the sand contained in the beaker when it was found (mound fill that fell down) showed pollen in abundance and thus revealed good preservation conditions. The contents of the beaker thus probably did not consist of any drink made of honey (mead) as known from several Late Neolithic/Bronze Age finds in Scotland and Denmark. Investigation in a microscope with polarized light revealed that the crust contained large amounts of starch grains – a strong indicator of some form of beer. An attempt was made to confirm this theory by investigating the starch grains with a scanning electron microscope. Under good preservation conditions, starch grains from beer remnants can be shown to be affected by amylacous pitting due to the malting of cereal grains. This was done successfully with finds from ancient Egypt, but unfortunately the starch grains from Refshøjgård were too badly preserved (Fig. 15). However, in the best-preserved examples, form and size corresponded to starch grains from barley, which was almost the only type of cereal grown in the SGC. It is therefore concluded that the beaker from the lower grave at Refshøjgård once contained a form of beer brewed from barley. It may well be the oldest beer demonstrated in Europe so far. No traces of possible additives survived due to the insufficient preservation conditions.The pollen analysis of the sand from the beaker showed numerous pollen grains from barley (Table 1). The amount is several times higher than what is normal for barley fields, and it is therefore possibly the result of threshing, rather than of natural pollen dispersal. A review of other pollen analyses from barrows of the SGC and FBC showed that in both cultures, the threshing of cereals may have been part of the rituals performed during the building of the mounds or the burials. This phenomenon might then constitute an example of ritual continuity between the two cultures, which are otherwise clearly different in all aspects of material culture, settlement structure, economic strategy, etc. Another example is constituted by the sherds of settlement ceramic found in the remains of the mound fill. Comparable finds are often noted in the literature on the excavation of SGC mounds. This is even the case with the old excavations, which merely consisted of shafts dug in the center of the mounds. It appears that the sherds were deposited just above the graves. This is unlikely to have been the case if the finds merely represented ordi- nary settlement debris, which would normally include other types of materials, such as flint artifacts, charcoal, etc. Another aspect indicating deliberate deposition is the small size of the sherds, which are obviously fragmented as a result of deliberate destruction. The observed practice thus constitutes an apparent parallel to the deposition and smashing of pots that took place by the megalithic graves of the FBC.Several other finds from the earliest SGC are known from the area surrounding Refshøjgård. A distribution map shows that the Refshøjgård area constitutes an isolated settlement region and the easternmost closed distribution area of the SGC in Jutland (Fig. 16). The classical distribution area of the early SGC, Central and West Jutland, is characterized by poor sandy soils. The subsoil in the Refshøjgård area is also of a rather poor type, especially compared with the heavy clayey soils along the east coast of Jutland, where the settlements of the late FBC are found. The subsoil conditions thus may explain why the Refshøjgård area was settled by the early SGC. The emergence of Neolithic settlements in areas of poor soil indicates a remarkable intensification of farming, probably mainly herding, in South Scandinavia during the Neolithic.The flint axe from the earliest burial at Refshøjgård indicates that the deceased was originally related to the late FBC settlement on the coast. He then moved westward and may have been one of the first settlers in the Refshøjgård region. The agricultural symbolism (quern stone, threshing) connected to his burial may in fact indicate that he was the founder of the new settlement. It is interesting to note that quern stones appear in two other graves of the Corded Ware Culture (one from Jutland, and one from Poland) and that all graves are male burials with the quern stone always placed in the eastern end of the grave. This custom may well indicate founders’ graves, as all the known examples mark the earliest burials in the respective micro regions.The foreign typological traits of the Refshøjgård beaker are an important observation, as influences on the SGC from the area south of the Harz have been noted several times before. The origin of the SGC may in some way be connected to that area. According to older theories, the SGC were the result of massive ethnic migration. However, more recent research, including the study of the Refshøjgård burials, indicates that the local population constituted an important component in the transition from FBC to SGC. Migration from Central Europe may nevertheless have been part of the process, perhaps only in the form of translocation of single individuals or small groups.Lutz KlassenInstitut for Antropologi, Arkæologi ogLingvistik, Aarhus UniversitetTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

The Voldbæk cemeteryThe Late Iron Age, Viking and High Medieval periods by Brabrand SøThe Viking period cemetery at Voldbæk in Brabrand, about 6 km west of Århus, was investigated by Aarhus Museum in the period 1926-36, and the results of these investigations were published in 1936 in ­Johannes Brøndsted’s overview of Viking Age inhumation graves in Denmark. This site will be subjected here to a re-analysis on the basis of archival material from Aarhus Museum.The cemetery was discovered in 1926, during gravel extraction a short distance to the west of Brabrand. Up until 1931, 23 graves were examined as they appeared (fig. 1). It is these graves which were published by J. Brøndsted in 1936. The cemetery lay on a slope running down to the north shore of Brabrand Sø (Lake) (fig. 2). Across the cemetery as a whole, it is stated that the predominant orientation of the graves was east-west, and that the deceased were most commonly placed with their head to the west. The skeletons, of which some were well-preserved, lay most often in a supine position. Some were, however, laid in hocker position. No traces of coffins were found. Some graves were covered with large stones. Many of them were found to contain a single, worn iron knife and a whetstone, most commonly placed at the hip. Occasional graves contained richer and more diverse equipment. In addition to this general account, there is also a meticulous description of the graves, supplemented by numerous photographs and drawings that have not previously been made public. Collectively, this information forms the basis for the following account of the cemetery where reference is made to the revised site plan (fig. 3). In total, 26 graves were examined at the Voldbæk cemetery (figs. 12-43), but the actual number of graves was greater. In connection with graves 3 and 26, mention is made of remains of child graves, and close to grave 24 there was a further grave which was apparently not investigated. This brings the total up to 29 graves. Further to these, skeletons had been found prior to the museum being contacted. The cemetery was therefore at least 1/3 greater than the 23 graves presented by Brøndsted.The skeletal material from the Voldbæk cemetery was not retained, but on the basis of descriptions of the individual graves, together with the photos, a certain amount of information can be obtained concerning those interred. In connection with the accounts of the individual skeletons there is, repeatedly, an evaluation of sex and age (young or old) as well as a statement of height. The basis for this information is unknown – only in two cases (graves 20 and 26) is it mentioned that a doctor was present at their excavation. In five cases (graves 2, 8, 9, 13 and 24), the deceased is identified as being a man, whereas three graves (graves 3, 7 and 20) are said to be those of women. For three of the skeletons said to be men, their height is given, respectively, as 1.72 m (grave 2), 1.80 m (grave 8) and 1.73 m (grave 24). For one of the skeletons said to be a woman, her height is given as 1.55 m (grave 20). Grave 19 (height 1.40 m) should probably be assigned to the women’s graves as research in recent times has revealed that Thor’s hammers occur primarily in female graves. Even though the information should be taken with some reservation, it is apparent that the skeletons considered to be those of men are taller than those considered to be of women. This is consistent with the most recent investigations of Danish finds of skeletons from the Viking Age where the average height for men is given as 1.71 m, while that for women is 1.58 m. The information given on the dental state of the deceased is significant as it can be considered to be based on very reliable observations, in some cases confirmed by photographs. In six of the skeletons (graves 2, 3, 9, 20, 22 and 23), extensive tooth loss has been recorded as well as overgrown tooth alveoli. Conversely, in six other instances (graves 8, 13, 18, 19, 21 and 25) mention is made of a complete set of teeth which is, in several cases, described as “beautiful”. In a single case (grave 21), heavy tooth wear is mentioned. A nationwide investigation of skeletal material from the Viking period has shown that poor dental health with more or less expressed tooth loss was common. The toothlessness seen in some of the skeletons from the Voldbæk cemetery is therefore not remarkable.With regard to the dating of the Voldbæk cemetery, Brøndsted mentions a disc brooch in grave 3 as the only date-conferring find. This ornament in Jelling style is assigned by him to the end of the 10th century. More recent research, however, dates the Jelling style to most of the 10th century, with its beginning just prior to AD 900. This type of disc brooch also occurs in a coin-dated grave from Birka, with the latest coin being from AD 951-54. This date also corresponds to that of the Voldbæk cemetery’s grave 19, containing the Thor’s hammer. This amulet type is found primarily in graves from the 10th century. In addition to the above-mentioned examples from Birka and Brabrand, disc brooches of this kind have also been found at Haithabu and the Viking period cemetery at Stengade II on Langeland. Brøndsted believes that graves 21-23, with the deceased laid in hocker position, might be older than the Viking period. Two stray finds from the area are perhaps able to support this presumption. These comprise two fibulas from the 7th century (fig. 4). They were found immediately east of the Viking period cemetery, and they could belong to an earlier phase of the cemetery.The Voldbæk cemetery was probably sited in the vicinity of a settlement. If it does contain graves from both the Late Iron Age and the Viking period, as presumed, then there are a couple of settlement sites near Brabrand which could be of relevance (fig. 5). In 2005, two settlement pits from the Late Iron Age were discovered immediately NE of Brabrand Sø. One of them contained pottery (fig. 6) and a complete rotary quern (fig. 7). The other pit lay a few metres away and is interpreted as a well. The two pits undoubtedly reflect the presence of a settlement at this location and this settlement can, on the basis of the pottery, be assigned to the late 6th century. The distance from the Voldbæk cemetery is c. 3 km. This considerable distance, and the dating of the settlement, makes it seem unlikely that there was a direct link between cemetery and settlement. The settlement finds do demonstrate, however, that in the area immediately north of Brabrand Sø there was habitation during the Late Iron Age, and a later phase of this settlement perhaps lies closer to the cemetery.With respect to settlement traces that can be linked to the Viking period graves, the situation is very interesting. In connection with construction work in Brabrand in 1981, a large pit was partially uncovered. In this were found potsherds (fig. 8), a horse tooth and two small fragments of rib bones – probably of pig or sheep. The pottery dates the find to the Viking period. It could represent a refuse pit or a pit-house. Regardless of how the pit should be interpreted it reflects the presence of a Viking period settlement c. 500 m east of the Voldbæk cemetery (fig. 2). A distance of this order between the settlement and cemetery appears very likely if a comparison is made with the results of Moesgård Museum’s investigations at Randlev, SE of Odder. Here, a Viking period settlement and its cemetery were excavated in full and the settlement lies a few hundred metres from the cemetery. The settlement comprises a single farmstead dated to the 9th-10th century, and the associated cemetery contains rather more than 100 graves. Seen against this background, the Voldbæk cemetery, with its c. 30 burials, must undoubtedly also represent a single farmstead and it must have existed at least until the Late Viking period, 10th century. The sparsely equipped graves say nothing of the status of this farmstead. The cemetery at Rand­lev was generally very sparsely equipped, and here the settlement itself demonstrated a surprising richness in metal.The finds described above show that, perhaps in the Late Iron Age, and certainly in the Late Viking period, there was a settlement in the area lying immediately to the west of the village of Brabrand. The site’s possible relationship to the continuing settlement history in the area is interesting. Here, attention falls quite naturally on “Hovgaard” which lies detached directly on the north shore of Brabrand Sø, 300 m SW of the village and c. 450 m east of the Voldbæk cemetery (fig. 9). Historians have demonstrated that Hovgaard represents the remains of a village manor or home farm which belonged to a noble family in the Middle Ages. Excavations at Hovgaard in 1966 revealed foundations of granite boulders which, on the basis of pottery finds, can be dated to the 13th-14th century (fig. 10). The extent to which the site’s history extends further back in time cannot be determined on the basis of the excavation results. However, if this is the case, it is conceivable that this isolated farmstead on the north shore of Brabrand Sø is the successor to a farmstead which lay in this area, with its cemetery, in the Late Viking period. If Hovgaard’s special status has its origin in Viking times then it seems obvious to make comparisons with the situation at Lisbjerg, 7 km to the north of Århus. Excavations here have demonstrated that it was the site of the first church construction associated with a large isolated farmstead from the Late the Viking period. If the same were the case in Brabrand, this could explain the remarkably low-lying position of Brabrand Church relative to its village, being sited almost down on the shore of Brabrand Sø (figs. 2 and 11).The new analysis of the Voldbæk cemetery presented here shows that significant information can be added to this site. By involving evidence from settlement traces found around Brabrand, an attempt has been made to put the cemetery into a broader perspective. As a result, it seems likely that the medieval power centre, which historians have demonstrated in the area, could have its origins in the Viking Age. As a consequence, finds from the district become of interest relative to Viking Age Århus as the relationship between the town and its hinterland could have influenced development in both places.Jens JeppesenMoesgård Museum

A magnificent casket in a woman’s grave from the Viking AgeIn 2004 and 2006, Moesgård Museum excavated 21 Viking Age graves – 16 inhumation graves and five cremation graves – at Haldum Church, 20 km northwest of Århus in Eastern Jutland (fig. 1). All the graves with datable finds are from the 10th century; only one example will be presented here.The grave is a simple inhumation burial. The skeleton had completely disappeared and there were no signs of a coffin (fig. 2). About 40 cm from the western end of the grave base lay 16 glass beads scattered around over an area of about 20 x 30 cm. These comprised one red and one orange bead of opaque glass, one bead of white glass and 13 small beads of yellow glass. In the centre of the grave was a slate whetstone (fig. 3). At the eastern end was a concentration of iron fittings, and it soon became clear that these represented the remains of a casket.During excavation of the fittings a well-preserved lock turned up (fig. 4). One end of the lock’s cover plate terminates in a point with concave flared sides, while the other (broad) end divides into two prongs, between which a transverse, semicircular fitting has rusted fast. An iron band has been mounted across the pointed end; this is possibly a repair. The cover plate curves slightly along its length, which means that the lock must have been fitted on to a curved surface. The back of the lock is covered by a quadrangular plate. The distance between front and back plates is 15 mm, showing the thickness of the material within which the lock was fitted. On removing the back plate the lock construction can be seen; this is of well-known Viking Age type. It operates in such a way that the key – after having been placed into the keyhole – is pushed a little to the side so that it squeezes together the two springs of the bolt. The bolt is hereby disengaged and can be pulled back by means of a slide bar, which sits in continuation of the keyhole (fig. 5).The lock bolt is pushed into the above-mentioned, semicircular fitting. The latter comprises two plates separated by a c. 10 mm wide side piece, which gives the fitting the appearance of a small box. Three fittings of this type were found (fig. 6).Further to these components are edge and corner plates. The edge fittings all have the form of narrow, indented borders with small holes between the points. A fragment is shown lowermost on fig. 6. The corner plates have been bent back around the corner joints of the casket and are pointed at both sides.Certain other fittings were at first inexplicable. These mysterious pieces include three triangular fittings with small slide bars on their upper surface and 30 mm long bolts below (fig. 7). There are also fragments of some zip-like iron bands. These are slightly curved along their length and have a roof-shaped cross-section (fig. 8). Finally, there was a robust rivet with a square head, ingeniously worked with inwardly flared, tapered sides and crowned by a small boss.Wood imprints on the back of the fittings show that the casket was made of oak. The imprints were very useful when reconstructing the casket as they clearly show both the longitudinal direction of the wood and the depressions within it. There were imprints from a textile of coarse linen weave on the exterior of some of the edge fittings.It seems that the casket from Haldum had the same construction as the Bamberg casket (figs. 9 and 10). Each of the four sides of the Bamberg casket has, at its centre, a raised semicircular area covered by fittings. The exterior is decorated with a mask and there is a hole on the inside. The bolts of the lid presumably engaged with these holes when the casket was locked. Carved grooves in the wood under the ornamental plates of the lid lead out by way of the holes into the four semicircles. The semicircular fittings of the Haldum casket are, with regard to size and shape, completely identical to the mask fittings seen on the Bamberg casket. One of them is, as mentioned above, rusted to the lock, the bolt of which has been pushed into a hole on its inner surface. Consequently, its function is clear; it is also clear that the casket was locked when placed in the grave.The lid of the Bamberg casket is divided by ornamental bands into four triangular fields (fig. 11). In one of these fields (A), a T-shaped keyhole is apparent, and in continuation of this there is a slot for a slide bar. In the field opposite (C), there is a small hole and each of other fields (B and D) has a partly damaged slide-bar slot. We are so fortunate that the fittings surviving from the Haldum casket include slide bars, bolts and other lock parts that have been lost from the Bamberg casket.It is possible to place the lock and the various fittings from the Haldum casket in a square of the same dimensions as the lid of the Bamberg casket. In the fields created by arranging the zip-shaped fittings to form a diagonal cross, there is space for the lock and the three triangular fittings (fig. 11). The excavation photo in fig. 12 shows the three types of fittings in their original positions. In continuation of the keyhole, the lock has a small slide bar whereby the bolt was pushed into one of the semicircular fittings (side A). The forks of the lock plate extend down on either side of this fitting, demonstrating that there was a central depression in the four sides of lid in order to accommodate the semicircular fittings, as seen on the Bamberg casket. In the triangular fitting, which was located opposite the lock (side C), there is also a small slide bar but no slot in which it could move. Similarly, the wood imprint on the back shows that there was no depression to allow a bolt to be pushed back and forth. On the corresponding side of the lid of the Bamberg casket, the carved depression for the bolt is less marked than on the other sides. On the two remaining triangular fittings from the Haldum casket, the slide bars are located in 15 mm long slots (sides B and D). On the reverse, clear depressions are seen in the wood imprint in which the bolts were slid back and forth (fig. 13). If the fittings are arranged in this way, all the pieces show the same longitudinal direction of the wood imprints on their reverse. This indicates that the casket lid was made from one piece of wood.As is apparent from the carvings on the Bamberg casket, the slide bars of the closing mechanism were located close to the centre of the lid. The hidden grooves for the bolts run from here, under the ornamental plates, and emerge at the edge of the lid. Apparently, the Haldum casket did not have ornamental plates screening the grooves for the bolts. As a consequence, the triangular fittings with the slide bars were placed close to the edge of the lid so that they met the semicircular fittings. In this way it was only necessary to have short grooves for the bolts, and these were covered by the fittings.The way in which the lid and the casket are fitted to one another, together with the absence of hinges, indicates that the lid was loose and was lifted completely off in order to open the box. The bolt opposite the lock (side C) was permanently pushed forwards and was the first to be pushed into the matching semicircular fitting, after which the lid was tilted down into place. After this, the two bolts at the sides (B and D) were extended to keep the lid fastened. Finally, the lock’s bolt was pushed into place and the casket was then locked.By observing the curvature of the striker plate, the triangular fittings, the zip-shaped fittings and some of the edge fittings, which have a curved cross-section, it is possible to reconstruct the shape of the lid (see fig. 10). Its height was c. 45 mm. The rivet must have marked the centre of the lid, corresponding to the cruciform fitting on the lid of the Bamberg casket.The body of the Bamberg casket was assembled by pushing the end surface of one side against the side surface of the next. The wood imprints on the corner plates of the Haldum casket show that the same technique was also used here. It is apparent from these wood imprints, as well as the distance between front and back of the semicircular fittings, that the sides were about 10 mm thick. The wood imprints on the inner side of the semicircular fittings show that the tree rings on the side pieces ran vertically. Had they run horizontally, this would have rendered these curves a weak point.The surviving remains of the Haldum casket show a surprising similarity to the Bamberg casket. There is, however, nothing to indicate that the casket from Haldum was as magnificently decorated, but the now completely vanished oak wood casket may possibly have been decorated with both carvings and paintings. Furthermore, the casket originally had edge fittings greater than 3 mm in width which, in themselves, would also have constituted considerable ornamentation. This fact became evident from construction of the replica (fig. 14). The latter also confirmed the reconstruction of the Haldum casket and its complicated closing mechanism.The Haldum find shows that the Bamberg casket, with its special construction, is not unique, and two further finds kept at Danmark’s National Museum indicate that caskets of this type were perhaps more widespread than previously assumed. One is a cruciform fitting of gilt bronze (fig. 15). The four transepts end in stylised animal heads, and at the centre is a hemispherical raised area. At the centre of the lid of the Bamberg casket there is a cruciform fitting also with animal heads at the ends of the transepts, and in the middle sits a hemispherical rock crystal (fig. 16). The similarity to the former fitting is striking, and it seems likely that the artefact represents a lid fitting for a casket of Bamberg type. The other artefact is a cruciform fitting of sheet bronze with open-work sections between the limbs of the cross and a circular hole at its centre (fig. 17). The fitting is part-finished and of the same type as the first mentioned, but a somewhat different variant. The two fittings were found in an old ford across Halleby Å in Western Zealand near the rich Viking Age settlement at Tissø. They were recovered together with the remains of a tool chest.The grave in which the Haldum casket was found is presumed to be that of a woman because beads and small locked caskets are typical woman’s equipment in Viking Age graves. However, such grave goods have also been found in a few cases in men’s graves. The whetstone gives no indication of the sex of the deceased because this type of artefact was commonly included as grave goods in both men’s and women’s graves. The great similarity of Haldum casket to the Bamberg casket dates the grave to the second half of the 10th century.The style of the Bamberg casket indicates that it was produced in Denmark or Southern Scandinavia. Recently, however, attention has been drawn to the fact that the Mammen style also appears over a wider area. Finds from areas where the Vikings settled outside Scandinavia– from The British Isles to Russia – indicate that craft work in the Mammen style could also have been produced there. The finding of the Haldum casket does, however, add weight to the conclusion that the Bamberg casket was produced in Denmark. This is also the case for the two fittings from Halleby Å if the interpretation presented here is correct. However, whether boxes of this type were produced in one particular place or are the work of one or more travelling craftsmen remains to be ascertained.Jens JeppesenMarianne SchwartzMoesgård Museum

Charlotte Boje Andersen og Jytte Nielsen (red.): Metaldetektiverne. Detektorfund fra Thy og Mors.(Jens Jeppesen)Rainer Atzbach, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen & Leif Plith Lauritsen (red.): Castles at War.(Lars Krants)Thomas Bertelsen & Martin Wangsgaard Jürgensen (red.): hikuin 39. Sorø-Studier. Om kirkens og klosterets historie og brug.(Morten Larsen)Margareta Biörnstad: Kulturminnesvård i efterkrigstid – med Riksantikvarieämbetet i centrum.(Ulf Bertilsson)Anders Bøgh, Helle Henningsen og Kristian Dalsgaard (red.): Nørre Vosborg i tid og rum.(Rikke Agnete Olsen)Tom Christensen: Lejre bag myten. De arkæologiske udgravninger.(Lotte Hedeager)Daniel Dübner: Untersuchungen zur Ent­wiklung und Struktur der frühgeschichtlichen Siedlung Flögeln im Elbe-Weser Dreieck.(Torben Egeberg)Anton Englert: Large Cargo Ships in Danish Waters 1000-1250. Evidence of specialised merchant seafaring prior to the Hanseatic Period.(Otto Uldum)Pernille Foss og Niels Algreen Møller (red.): De dødes landskab. Grav og gravskik i ældre jernalder i Danmark.(Martin Winther Olesen)Catherine Frieman & Berit Valentin Eriksen (eds.): Flint daggers in prehistoric Europe.(Jan Apel)Julia Gräf: Lederfunde der Vorrömischen Eisenzeit und Römischen Kaiserzeit aus Nordwestdeutschland.(Ulla Mannering)Svend Illum Hansen: Jættestuebyggerne. Arkitektur i Danmarks stenalder.(Anne Birgitte Gebauer)Kristina Hegner: Aus Mecklenburgs Kirchen und Klöstern. Der Mittelalterbestand des Staatlichen Museums Schwerin.(Morten Larsen)Christofer Herrmann & Dethard von Winterfeld (Hrsg.): Mittelalterliche Architektur in Polen. Romanische und gotische Baukunst zwischen Oder und Weichsel, Bd. 1-2.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)Jesper Hjermind & Hugo Støttrup Jensen: Vitskøl Kloster. Den middelalderlige bygningshistorie.(Morten Larsen)Anne Nørgård Jørgensen & Hans Chr.H. Andersen: Ejsbøl Mose. Die Kriegsbeuteopfer im Moor von Ejsbøl aus dem späten 1. Jh.v.Chr. bis zum frühen 5. Jh.n.Chr.(Rasmus Birch Iversen)Hans Krongaard Kristensen: Franciskanerklostret i Horsens.(Martin Wangsgaard Jürgensen)Tenna R. Kristensen (red.): Haderslev – en købstad bliver til. Udgravninger ved Starup og Møllestrømmen.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)Mette Svart Kristiansen, Else Roesdahl and James Graham-Cambell (eds.): Medieval Archaeology in Scandinavia and Beyond. History, trends and tomorrow.(Axel Christophersen)Ulrik Langen: Tyven. Den utrolige historie om manden, der stjal guldhornene.(Jeanette Varberg)Nina Lau: Das Thorsberger Moor, Band 1: Die Pferdegeschirre. Germanische Zaumzeuge und Sattelgeschirre als Zeugnisse kriegerischer Reiterei im mittel- und nordeuropäischen Barbaricum.Ruth Blankenfeldt: Das Thorsberger Moor, Band 2: Die persönlichen Ausrüstungen. Susana Matešić: Das Thorsberger Moor, Band 3: Die militärische Ausrüstungen. Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur römishcen und germanischen Bewaffnung.Ruth Blankenfeldt, Claus von ­Carnap-Bornheim, Walter Dörfler, Julia Gräf, Klemens Kelm, Nina Lau & Susana Matešić: Das Thorsberger Moor, Band 4: Fund- und Forschungsgeschichte, naturwissenschaftliche und materialkundliche Untersuchungen. (Xenia Pauli Jensen)Jim Leary: The Remembered Land. Surviving Sea-level Rise after the Last Ice Age.(Peter Moe Astrup)Allan A. Lund: Tacitus – Germania.(Thomas Grane)Jens Christian Moesgaard: King Harold’s Cross Coinage. Christian Coins for the Merchants of Haithabu and the King’s Soldiers.(Jon Anders Risvaag)Viggo Nielsen og Niels-Chr. Clemmensen: Oldtidsagre i Danmark. Fyn og Langeland.(Mette Løvschal)Lis Helles Olesen og Esben Schlosser Mauritsen: Luftfotoarkæologi i Danmark.(Jens Andresen)Teresa Østergaard Pedersen: Sammenlignende vandalisme. Asger Jorn, den nordiske folkekunst og arkæologien.(Inger-Lise Kolstrup)Dalia Anna Pokutta: Population Dynamics, Diet and Migrations of the Unetice Culture in Poland.(Rune Iversen)Felix Riede (ed.): Past Vulnerability. Volcanic eruptions and human vulnerability in traditional societies past and present.(Mads Ravn)Christiane Ruhmann & Vera Brieske (red.): Dying Gods – Religious beliefs in northern and eastern Europe in the time of Christianisation.(Kent O. Laursen)Martin Rundkvist: In the Landscape and Between Worlds. Bronze Age Deposition Sites Around Lakes Mäleren and Hjälmaren in Sweden.(Lise Frost)Olaf Wagener (Hrsg): Arborte im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit. Bauforschung. Archäologie. Kulturgeschichte.(Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen)Rainer-Maria Weiss & Anne Klammt (Hrsg.): Mythos Hammaburg. Archäologische Entdeckungen zu den Anfängen Hamburgs.(Silke Eisenschmidt)

Zwischen Danemark und DeutschlandDie dänische und die norddeutsche Archäologie sind auf vielfältige Art und Weise mit einander verbunden, was durch historische, geographische und forschungsgeschichtliche Phänomene bedingt ist. Als zentrales grenzüberschreitendes Projekt deutscher und dänischer Archäologen muss das Publikationsvorhaben ”Die Funde der älteren Bronzezeit des nordischen Kreises in Dänemark, Schleswig-Holstein und Niedersachsen” betrachtet werden, das seit mehr als 40 Jahren betrieben wird. Bis heute sind insgesamt 12 Bande dieser Reihe erschienen, die ein wichtiges Werkzeug für die Erforschung der Bronzezeit im westlichen Ostsee-Gebiet darstellen. Die frühe Phase der archäologischen Forschung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Danemark und Deutschland bzw. Preußen ist im Landesteil Schleswig auf das engste mit der alten Flensburger Sammlung und dem Namen Conrad Engelhardt verbunden. Mit seinen Ausgrabungen in Thorsberg und Nydam gelangen ihm nicht nur Funde von größter historischer Bedeutung. Die Entdeckung des Nydam-Schiffes, seine schnelle, heute nicht mehr nachvollziehbare Konservierung und Ausstellung in Flensburg so wie die mustergültigen Publikationen zu den Moorfunden Schleswigs, gehören auch noch heute zu den Großtaten europäischer Vorgeschichtsforschung des 19. Jhs. Zwangsläufig geriet auch er in die politischen und militärischen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Preußen und Dänemark, die letztendlich das Schicksal der von ihm aufgebauten Sammlung bestimmten. Hier ist die Archäologie zum Spielball der großen historischen Prozesse und Ereignisse des 20. Jhs. geworden.Glücklicherweise sind wir heute in einer weitaus entspannteren Situation und diese stellt einen gerade zu idealen Hintergrund für die neuen Forschung in Nydam dar, was am Beispiel der als Relingbeschlage interpretierten Holzköpfe aus den neuen Grabungen im Nydam-Moor gezeigt wird (Fig. 1-2). So gelingt es, dieses Fahrzeug auch als Ausdruck militärischer Hierarchien zu interpretieren.Als dritter Bereich mit die frühmittelalterliche Geschichte der Zimbrischen Halbinsel und hier insbesondere Haithabu erwähnt werden. Dänische Könige residierten hier, 948 wurden die Bistümer Aarhus, Ribe und Haithabu gegründet, der Halbkreiswall und das mit ihm verbundene Danewerk stellen die südliche Grenze des frühmittelalterlichen Dänemarks dar. Seit mehr als 100 Jahren forschen hier dänische und deutsche Archaologen. Einen vorläufigen Abschluß fanden diese Unternehmungen in der Eröffnung des Wikinger Museums Haithabu im Jahre 1985. Dieses Museum fühlt sich in besonderer Weise der dänischen Landesgeschichte verpflichtet, so dass das Signet des Museums in rot und weiß gehalten ist (Fig. 3). Die enge Verknüpfung der dänischen Archaologie mit den Untersuchungen in Haitabu wird besonders eindrucksvoll durch die Tatsache dokumentiert, dass sich bis heute der einzige Nachbau eines Haithabu-Hauses auf Moesgaard befindet.lmmer wieder haben dänische Forscher den archaologisch und historisch hoch sensiblen Bereich der Schleswiger Landenge in das Zentrum ihrer Forschungen gestellt. So etwa H. Hellmuth Andersen das Danewerk und Ole Crumlin- Pedersen die frühmittelalterliche Schiffe aus Haithabu und Schleswig.Wichtige Foren, die imm er wieder wichtige Anstöße für die Archäologie der zimbrischen Halbinsel vermitteln sind das ”Sachsensymposium” sowie das ”Tværfaglige Vikingsymposium”. Dazu kommen verschiedene Publikationen wie zum Beispiel ”Archäologie in Schleswig / Arkæologi i Slesvig”.Kritisch muss in diesem Zusammenhang erwahnt werden, dass es sowohl nördlich als auch südlich der Grenze wichtige Projekte gibt, die bis heute nicht bearbeitet oder gar publiziert wurden; hier zu gehören die kaiserzeitlichen Siedlungen von Dankirke und Drengsted oder aber das reiche Fundmaterial aus dem Thorsberger Moor oder vom kaiserzeitlichen Gräberfeld Neudorf-Bornstein, Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernforde.Es muß allerdings auch erwähnt werden, dass sich heute nordlich und südlich der deutsch-danischen Grenze unt erschiedliche Forschungstraditionen und Ausrichtungen entwickeln, die in einzeln en Fällen zu unbefriedigenden Situationen gefohrten. Als eines der wichtigsten Beispiele sei bier der Zustand der submarinen Archaologie in Schleswig-Holstein erwahnt. Eine systematische Prospektion und eine dar auf aufbauende systematische Forschung findet in Schleswig-Holstein bislang leider nicht statt. Sporadisch werden unterschiedliche naturwissenschaftliche Methoden eingesetzt, die dann und wann zu interessanten Neufunden führen. Besonders bedauerlich ist die Tatsache, dass dänische Studierende der Ur- und Frühgeschichte nur recht selten grenzübergreifend arbeiten; möglicherweise ist dies auch in den fehlenden Deutschkenntnissen bedingt; negativ wirkt sich bier moglicherweise auch die eine gewisse Orientierung zur angelsächsischen Archäologie hin zu beobachten, die sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten intensiv mit theoretischen Fragen auseinandergesetzt hat. Diese Lücke wird gelegentlich von jungen deutschen Forschern genutzt, die grundlegende Arbeiten zum unserem Raum vorlegen konnten.Die Wikingerzeit ist sicherlich jene Epoche, die in der Öffentlichkeit auf das großte lnteresse stößt. Gerade im Landesteil Schleswig wird auf vielfaltige Art und Weise versucht, die ses Potential etwa für den Tourismus zu nutzen. Oftmals geschieht dies aber ohne fachliche Beratung. Entsprechende Tendenzen konnen meiner Meinung nach nur durch grenzüberschreitende touristische Konzepte neutralisiert werden, die von dänischen und deutschen Wissenschaftlern zusammen entwickelt werden.Vor dem Hintergrund des positiven Klimas zwischen der dänischen und deutschen Archäologie erscheint es nicht notwendig, besondere Perspektiven für die Zukunft zu entwickeln. Dennoch gibt es eine ganze Reihe von Moöglichkeiten, neue Ansätze zu bedenken. So bieten Programme der Europäischen Union immer wieder Finanzierungsgrundlagen für gemeinsame Projekte. Sicherlich gäbe es auch im Bereich der archäologischen Denkmalpflege Möglichkeiten grenzüberschreitender Kooperation; so etwa beim Einsatz moderner geophysikalischer Prospektionsmethoden oder aber der Luftbildarchaologie. Aus den verwandten naturräumlichen Bedingungen ergibt sich auch weiterhin die Notwendigkeit zum Informationsaustausch und zur Entwicklung gemeinsamer Strategien zum Schutz archäologischer Denkmaler.Zweifellos ist das Verhältnis zwischen der deutschen und dänischen Archäologie heute unkompliziert und von großer Kooperation geprägt. Dass dieser Bereich dennoch ein wenig sensibel ist, wird abschließend an einem kleinen Beispiel demonstriert.Claus von Carnap-BornheimArchäologisches LandesmuseumSchloß GottorfOversat til dansk af Karen Høilund Nielsen

Forlev NymølleA sacrificial site from the late Pre-Roman Iron AgeForlev Nymølle is situated in a small stretch of boggy land in the northern part of the river valley of Illerup Å north of Skanderborg. During peat digging in 1947, eight small clay vessels from c. 400 AD and a few fashioned wooden items were found. However, it was not until 1960 that museum keeper Harald Andersen, Moesgard Museum, started a major and very careful excavation, which last ed until 1966. Twenry-four areas, making up 325 m2, were excavated along the southern edge of the present peat bog (fig. 1). Forlev Nymølle is still one of the largest and best documented finds off ertiliryrelated sacrificial finds in Northern Europe. The finds, which primaril y consist of potsherds, bones from domestic animals, wooden items, patches of charcoal, and – not the least – stones were concentrated in small heaps relatively close to the old lakeshore. Nine find concentrations (I-IX) were separated, excluding “concentration X”, which comprises the clay vessels found in 1947 (fig. 15).The individual find concentrations measure between 1.5 and 9 m2 , and although their contents vary greatly, they are all characterized by layers or small heaps of hand or head size stones (fig. 9, 16). Among these, a remarkable amount is light quart zite stones or flint, and their occurrence has made many scholars suggest that the throwing of stones were a central element of the sacrificial act. Potsherds and so me long ashwood sticks (fig. 6, 8, 12, 25, 26) form part of almost all stone heaps, whereas the depositing of bones from domestic animals seem to be more selective (fig. 31). Concentration I differs further by containing a simple anthropomorphic figure, which may have stood upright in the stone heap (fig. 2-3), and a bundle of flax (fig. 4). Most find concentrations seem to represent a single sacrifice, except for concentration I, which is interpreted with certainry as having been used more than once.Some heavy tree trunks foun d in the immediate viciniry of some of the find heaps are thought to have functioned as a trackway from which the sacrifices could be made.The form and appearance of the individual concentrations are thought to be the result of depositing (fig. 7) including ritual stone throwing.Most bones are intact, except for a few that are split (this is interpreted as evidence for the deliberate extraction of marrow) and are marked by fire.They were mainly found in concentration II and Ill and come chiefly from small, but harmoniously built domestic oxen. Bones from sheep and goats are also present, but only a few bones from dogs and horses and from a single hare were registered. A human bone, the fragment of a shoulder blade with cutting marks and polished edges – perhaps an amulet? – was also found.The pottery, which could be assembled to make more or less complete vessels, dates the activities to the late Pre-Roman Iron Age (fig. 5). Two sacrificial horizons may be isolated (fig. 17), one of which belongs to the time between c. 200 and 150 BC (fig. 13-1 4,19) and the other to the time between c. 100 and 50 BC (fig. l0a-b, 1la).The area does not seem to have been used during the final phase of the Pre- Roman Iron Age, from 50 to 0 BC.Among the more curious items is a wooden idol and some long ashwood sticks. The wooden idol, which lay in concentration I, was made from a forked oak branch. It has a length of 2.74 meters and a very simple form with out the obvious emphasizing of the sex, which characte rizes the idols from Braak and Wittemoor (fig. 23-24) and others. The branches make up the legs, and the upper part of these have been chopped in order to accentuate the swayed hips. The sex may be indicated by a small notch at the point of bifurcatio n (fig. 18). As both ethnographic and some prehistoric figures are decorated (fig. 20-22), the idol was carefully examined, but no traces of colour, lashing etc. were found. Pottery found with the idol dates from 200-150 BC.Ashwood sticks are a normal occurrence in Forlev, represented as it is by 17 or 18 sticks from at least seven of the nine concentrations, and they seem to play a central part in the sacrificial ceremonies. They are characterized by a systematic choice of wood type, form, fashion and method of sacrifice. All were made from ashwood, they have a length of up to two meters, and one end is always finished with a cut, cross-going, triangular part. They were made from the outermost part of the trunk , the curved, de-barked side of which makes up the outside, whereas the inside is carefully carved (fig . 25). They were often laid down in pairs as a “set” consisting of a slender and a more heavy stick. They were made for the purpose, as the axe cut s are completely fresh (fig. 26). No parallels are known, but they resemble some long plank idols found in bogs in Lower Saxony (fig. 27). The function is pure guesswork – were they percussion instruments or prinlitive figures? The sticks are accessories of both sacrificial horizons.The rest of the wooden items from Forlev are also difficult to interpret, but seem to belong to the household sphere (fig. 28). However, some – like the 2.62-cm long smoothed ashwood stick (fig. 29) and the hazelwood club (fig. 30) may have functioned as ceremonial accessories.It appears from a comparison with other comprehensive finds of fertility sacrifices, such as Hedelisker, Varbrogård, Bukkerup, and Valmose- Rislev in Denmark, Käringsjön from Western Sweden and Oberdorla in Thuringia, that this find group has several features in common. The sacrificial areas are often large and characterized by relatively long periods of use. Often each locality has many small depositing sites with pottery, bones,and carved wooden objects, which are usually thought to have been sacrificed in water. Layers or heaps of stones and different branch-work are other characteristics.It is impossible to decide whether these features express common ideas, and a closer stud of the in dividual localities seems to stress the variety, even between neighbouring and contemporary sites such as Forlev Nymølle and Hedelisker. Local traditions seem to play an important part.Fertility sacrifices could be expected to follow a certain, cyclical pattern , but it has been impossible to determine such a pattern at Forlev, where the sacrificial ceremonies are not assumed to have been very numerous either. Even if we assume that the whole lake shore was full of sacrificial offerings with the same density as concentration I-III, it would be difficult to reach a number corresponding to an annual sacrifice. As several of the separated deposits seem to represent the very same action, the activity level is reduced further. Hence, the sacrifices, which are assumed collective and made by a whole village or the inhabitants of a smaller area, should rather be linked with certain events. This assumption seems to be supported by the separation of two sacrificial horizons.Today, it is generally accepted that the religious aspect was strongly integrated into the daily life of prehistoric man, and seen in the light of our present knowledge of settlements, burial customs, etc. our knowledge of the religious manifestation s is still very limjted.That is why even today, Forlev Nymølle appears to be a unique find without any clear parallels.Jørgen LundAfdeling for ForhistoriskArkæologi Aarhus UniversitetMoesgårdGenstandstegninger: Jørgen Mührman-LundGenstandsfotos: Photolab, MoesgårdUdgravningsfotos: Harald AndersenTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

We’ll have trouble now!The Archaeological Society of Jutland was founded on Sunday, 11 March 1951. As with most projects with which P.V Glob was involved, this did not pass off without drama. Museum people and amateur archaeologists in large numbers appeared at the Museum of Natural History in Aarhus, which had placed rooms at our disposal. The notable dentist Holger Friis, the uncrowned king of Hjørring, was present, as was Dr Balslev from Aidt, Mr and Mrs Overgaard from Holstebro Museum, and the temperamental leader of Aalborg Historical Museum, Peter Riismøller, with a number of his disciples. The staff of the newly-founded Prehistoric Museum functioned as the hosts, except that one of them was missing: the instigator of the whole enterprise, Mr Glob. As the time for the meeting approached, a cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the people present. Finally, just one minute before the meeting was to start, he arrived and mounted the platform. Everything then went as expected. An executive committee was elected after some discussion, laws were passed, and then suddenly Glob vanished again, only to materialise later in the museum, where he confided to us that his family, which included four children, had been enlarged by a daughter.That’s how the society was founded, and there is not much to add about this. However, a few words concerning the background of the society and its place in a larger context may be appropriate. A small piece of museum history is about to be unfolded.The story begins at the National Museum in the years immediately after World War II, at a time when the German occupation and its incidents were still terribly fresh in everyone’s memory. Therkel Mathiassen was managing what was then called the First Department, which covered the prehistoric periods.Although not sparkling with humour, he was a reliable and benevolent person. Number two in the order of precedence was Hans Christian Broholm, a more colourful personality – awesome as he walked down the corridors, with his massive proportions and a voice that sounded like thunder when nothing seemed to be going his way, as quite often seemed to be the case. Glob, a relatively new museum keeper, was also quite loud at times – his hot-blooded artist’s nature manifested itself in peculiar ways, but his straight forward appearance made him popular with both the older and the younger generations. His somewhat younger colleague C.J. Becker was a scholar to his fingertips, and he sometimes acted as a welcome counterbalance to Glob. At the bottom of the hierarchy was the student group, to which I belonged. The older students handled various tasks, including periodic excavations. This was paid work, and although the salary was by no means princely, it did keep us alive. Student grants were non-existent at the time. Four of us made up a team: Olfert Voss, Mogens Ørsnes, Georg Kunwald and myself. Like young people in general, we were highly discontented with the way our profession was being run by its ”ruling” members, and we were full of ideas for improvement, some of which have later been – or are being – introduced.At the top of our wish list was a central register, of which Voss was the strongest advocate. During the well over one hundred years that archaeology had existed as a professional discipline, the number of artefacts had grown to enormous amounts. The picture was even worse if the collections of the provincial museums were taken into consideration. We imagined how it all could be registered in a card index and categorised according to groups to facilitate access to references in any particular situation. Electronic data processing was still unheard of in those days, but since the introduction of computers, such a comprehensive record has become more feasible.We were also sceptical of the excavation techniques used at the time – they were basically adequate, but they badly needed tightening up. As I mentioned before, we were often working in the field, and not just doing minor jobs but also more important tasks, so we had every opportunity to try out our ideas. Kunwald was the driving force in this respect, working with details, using sections – then a novelty – and proceeding as he did with a thoroughness that even his fellow students found a bit exaggerated at times, although we agreed with his principles. Therkel Mathiassen moaned that we youngsters were too expensive, but he put up with our excesses and so must have found us somewhat valuable. Very valuable indeed to everyon e was Ejnar Dyggve’s excavation of the Jelling mounds in the early 1940s. From a Danish point of view, it was way ahead of its time.Therkel Mathiassen justly complained about the economic situation of the National Museum. Following the German occupation, the country was impoverished and very little money was available for archaeological research: the total sum available for the year 1949 was 20,000 DKK, which corresponded to the annual income of a wealthy man, and was of course absolutely inadequate. Of course our small debating society wanted this sum to be increased, and for once we didn’t leave it at the theoretical level.Voss was lucky enough to know a member of the Folketing (parliament), and a party leader at that. He was brought into the picture, and between us we came up with a plan. An article was written – ”Preserve your heritage” (a quotation from Johannes V. Jensen’s Denmark Song) – which was sent to the newspaper Information. It was published, and with a little help on our part the rest of the media, including radio, picked up the story.We informed our superiors only at the last minute, when everything was arranged. They were taken by surprise but played their parts well, as expected, and everything went according to plan. The result was a considerable increase in excavation funds the following year.It should be added that our reform plans included the conduct of exhibitions. We found the traditional way of presenting the artefacts lined up in rows and series dull and outdated. However, we were not able to experiment within this field.Our visions expressed the natural collision with the established ways that comes with every new generation – almost as a law of nature, but most strongly when the time is ripe. And this was just after the war, when communication with foreign colleagues, having been discontinued for some years, was slowly picking up again. The Archaeological Society of Jutland was also a part of all this, so let us turn to what Hans Christian Andersen somewhat provocatively calls the ”main country”.Until 1949, only the University of Copenhagen provided a degree in prehistoric archaeology. However, in this year, the University of Aarhus founded a chair of archaeology, mainly at the instigation of the Lord Mayor, Svend Unmack Larsen, who was very in terested in archaeology. Glob applied for the position and obtained it, which encompassed responsibility for the old Aarhus Museum or, as it was to be renamed, the Prehistoric Museum (now Moesgaard Museum).These were landmark events to Glob – and to me, as it turned out. We had been working together for a number of years on the excavation of Galgebakken (”Callows Hill”) near Slots Bjergby, Glob as the excavation leader, and I as his assistant. He now offered me the job of museum curator at his new institution. This was somewhat surprising as I had not yet finished my education. The idea was that I was to finish my studies in remote Jutland – a plan that had to be given up rather quickly, though, for reasons which I will describe in the following. At the same time, Gunner Lange-Kornbak – also hand-picked from the National Museum – took up his office as a conservation officer.The three of us made up the permanent museum staff, quickly supplemented by Geoffrey Bibby, who turned out to be an invaluable colleague. He was English and had been stationed in the Faeroe Islands during the war, where he learned to speak Danish. After 1945 he worked for some years for an oil company in the Gulf of Persia, but after marrying Vibeke, he settled in her home town of Aarhus. As his academic background had involved prehistoric cultures he wanted to collaborate with the museum, which Glob readily permitted.This small initial flock governed by Glob was not permitted to indulge inidleness. Glob was a dynamic character, full of good and not so good ideas, but also possessing a good grasp of what was actually practicable. The boring but necessary daily work on the home front was not very interesting to him, so he willingly handed it over to others. He hardly noticed the lack of administrative machinery, a prerequisite for any scholarly museum. It was not easy to follow him on his flights of fancy and still build up the necessary support base. However, the fact that he in no way spared himself had an appeasing effect.Provincial museums at that time were of a mixed nature. A few had trained management, and the rest were run by interested locals. This was often excellently done, as in Esbjerg, where the master joiner Niels Thomsen and a staff of volunteers carried out excavations that were as good as professional investigations, and published them in well-written articles. Regrettably, there were also examples of the opposite. A museum curator in Jutland informed me that his predecessor had been an eager excavator but very rarely left any written documentation of his actions. The excavated items were left without labels in the museum store, often wrapped in newspapers. However, these gave a clue as to the time of unearthing, and with a bit of luck a look in the newspaper archive would then reveal where the excavation had taken place. Although somewhat exceptional, this is not the only such case.The Museum of Aarhus definitely belonged among the better ones in this respect. Founded in 1861, it was at first located at the then town hall, together with the local art collection. The rooms here soon became too cramped, and both collections were moved to a new building in the ”Mølleparken” park. There were skilful people here working as managers and assistants, such as Vilhelm Boye, who had received his archaeological training at the National Museum, and later the partners A. Reeh, a barrister, and G.V. Smith, a captain, who shared the honour of a number of skilfully performed excavations. Glob’s predecessor as curator was the librarian Ejler Haugsted, also a competent man of fine achievements. We did not, thus, take over a museum on its last legs. On the other hand, it did not meet the requirements of a modern scholarly museum. We were given the task of turning it into such a museum, as implied by the name change.The goal was to create a museum similar to the National Museum, but without the faults and shortcomings that that museum had developed over a period of time. In this respect our nightly conversations during our years in Copenhagen turned out to be useful, as our talk had focused on these imperfections and how to eradicate them.We now had the opportunity to put our theories into practice. We may not have succeeded in doing so, but two areas were essentially improved:The numerous independent numbering systems, which were familiar to us from the National Museum, were permeating archaeological excavation s not only in the field but also during later work at the museum. As far as possible this was boiled down to a single system, and a new type of report was born. (In this context, a ”report” is the paper following a field investigation, comprising drawings, photos etc. and describing the progress of the work and the observations made.) The instructions then followed by the National Museum staff regarding the conduct of excavations and report writing went back to a 19th-century protocol by the employee G.V. Blom. Although clear and rational – and a vast improvement at the time – this had become outdated. For instance, the excavation of a burial mound now involved not only the middle of the mound, containing the central grave and its surrounding artefacts, but the complete structure. A large number of details that no one had previously paid attention to thus had to be included in the report. It had become a comprehensive and time-consuming work to sum up the desultory notebook records in a clear and understandable description.The instructions resulting from the new approach determined a special records system that made it possible to transcribe the notebook almost directly into a report following the excavation. The transcription thus contained all the relevant information concerning the in vestigation, and included both relics and soil layers, the excavation method and practical matters, although in a random order. The report proper could then bereduced to a short account containing references to the numbers in the transcribed notebook, which gave more detailed information.As can be imagined, the work of reform was not a continuous process. On the contrary, it had to be done in our spare hours, which were few and far between with an employer like Glob. The assignments crowded in, and the large Jutland map that we had purchased was as studded with pins as a hedge hog’s spines. Each pin represented an inuninent survey, and many of these grew into small or large excavations. Glob himself had his lecture duties to perform, and although he by no means exaggerated his concern for the students, he rarely made it further than to the surveys. Bibby and I had to deal with the hard fieldwork. And the society, once it was established, did not make our lives any easier. Kuml demanded articles written at lightning speed. A perusal of my then diary has given me a vivid recollection of this hectic period, in which I had to make use of the evening and night hours, when the museum was quiet and I had a chance to collect my thoughts. Sometimes our faithful supporter, the Lord Mayor, popped in after an evening meeting. He was extremely interested in our problems, which were then solved according to our abilities over a cup of instant coffee.A large archaeological association already existed in Denmark. How ever, Glob found it necessary to establish another one which would be less oppressed by tradition. Det kongelige nordiske Oldsskriftselskab had been funded in 1825 and was still influenced by different peculiarities from back then. Membership was not open to everyone, as applications were subject to recommendation from two existing members and approval by a vote at one of the monthly lecture meetings. Most candidates were of course accepted, but unpopular persons were sometimes rejected. In addition, only men were admitted – women were banned – but after the war a proposal was brought forward to change this absurdity. It was rejected at first, so there was a considerable excitement at the January meeting in 1951, when the proposal was once again placed on the agenda. The poor lecturer (myself) did his best, although he was aware of the fact that just this once it was the present and not the past which was the focus of attention. The result of the voting was not very courteous as there were still many opponents, but the ladies were allowed in, even if they didn’t get the warmest welcome.In Glob’s society there were no such restrictions – everyone was welcome regardless of sex or age. If there was a model for the society, it was the younger and more progressive Norwegian Archaeological Society rather than the Danish one. The main purpose of both societies was to produce an annual publication, and from the start Glob’s Kuml had a closer resemblance to the Norwegian Viking than to the Danish Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie. The name of the publication caused careful consideration. For a long time I kept a slip of paper with different proposals, one of which was Kuml, which won after having been approved by the linguist Peter Skautrup.The name alone, however, was not enough, so now the task became to find so mething to fill Kuml with. To this end the finds came in handy, and as for those, Glob must have allied him self with the higher powers, since fortune smiled at him to a considerable extent. Just after entering upon his duties in Aarhus, an archaeological sensation landed at his feet. This happened in May 1950 when I was still living in the capital. A few of us had planned a trip to Aarhus, partly to look at the relics of th e past, and partly to visit our friend, the professor. He greeted us warmly and told us the exciting news that ten iron swords had been found during drainage work in the valley of lllerup Aadal north of the nearby town of Skanderborg. We took the news calmly as Glob rarely understated his affairs, but our scepticism was misplaced. When we visited the meadow the following day and carefully examined the dug-up soil, another sword appeared, as well as several spear and lance heads, and other iron artefacts. What the drainage trench diggers had found was nothing less than a place of sacrifice for war booty, like the four large finds from the 1800s. When I took up my post in Aarhus in September of that year I was granted responsibility for the lllerup excavation, which I worked on during the autumn and the following six summers. Some of my best memories are associated with this job – an interesting and happy time, with cheerful comradeship with a mixed bunch of helpers, who were mainly archaeology students. When we finished in 1956, it was not because the site had been fully investigated, but because the new owner of the bog plot had an aversion to archaeologists and their activities. Nineteen years later, in 1975, the work was resumed, this time under the leadership of Jørgen Ilkjær, and a large amount of weaponry was uncovered. The report from the find is presently being published.At short intervals, the year 1952 brought two finds of great importance: in Februar y the huge vessel from Braa near Horsens, and in April the Grauballe Man. The large Celtic bronze bowl with the bulls’ heads was found disassembled, buried in a hill and covered by a couple of large stones. Thanks to the finder, the farmer Søren Paaske, work was stopped early enough to leave areas untouched for the subsequent examination.The saga of the Grauballe Man, or the part of it that we know, began as a rumour on the 26th of April: a skeleton had been found in a bog near Silkeborg. On the following day, which happened to be a Sunday, Glob went off to have a look at the find. I had other business, but I arrived at the museum in the evening with an acquaintance. In my diary I wrote: ”When we came in we had a slight shock. On the floor was a peat block with a corpse – a proper, well-preserved bog body. Glob brought it. ”We’ll be in trouble now.” And so we were, and Glob was in high spirits. The find created a sensation, which was also thanks to the quick presentation that we mounted. I had purchased a tape recorder, which cost me a packet – not a small handy one like the ones you get nowadays, but a large monstrosity with a steel tape (it was, after all, early days for this device) – and assisted by several experts, we taped a number of short lectures for the benefit of the visitors. People flocked in; the queue meandered from the exhibition room, through the museum halls, and a long way down the street. It took a long wait to get there, but the visitors seemed to enjoy the experience. The bog man lay in his hastily – procured exhibition case, which people circled around while the talking machine repeatedly expressed its words of wisdom – unfortunately with quite a few interruptions as the tape broke and had to be assembled by hand. Luckily, the tape recorders now often used for exhibitions are more dependable than mine.When the waves had died down and the exhibition ended, the experts examined the bog man. He was x-rayed at several points, cut open, given a tooth inspection, even had his fingerprints taken. During the autopsy there was a small mishap, which we kept to ourselves. However, after almost fifty years I must be able to reveal it: Among the organs removed for investigation was the liver, which was supposedly suitable for a C-14 dating – which at the time was a new dating method, introduced to Denmark after the war. The liver was sent to the laboratory in Copenhagen, and from here we received a telephone call a few days later. What had been sent in for examination was not the liver, but the stomach. The unfortunate (and in all other respects highly competent) Aarhus doctor who had performed the dissection was cal1ed in again. During another visit to the bogman’s inner parts he brought out what he believed to be the real liver. None of us were capable of deciding th is question. It was sent to Copenhagen at great speed, and a while later the dating arrived: Roman Iron Age. This result was later revised as the dating method was improved. The Grauballe Man is now thought to have lived before the birth of Christ.The preservation of the Grauballe Man was to be conservation officer Kornbak’s masterpiece. There were no earlier cases available for reference, so he invented a new method, which was very successful. In the first volumes of Kuml, society members read about the exiting history of the bog body and of the glimpses of prehistoric sacrificial customs that this find gave. They also read about the Bahrain expeditions, which Glob initiated and which became the apple of his eye. Bibby played a central role in this, as it was he who – at an evening gathering at Glob’s and Harriet’s home in Risskov – described his stay on the Persian Gulf island and the numerous burial mounds there. Glob made a quick decision (one of his special abilities was to see possibilities that noone else did, and to carry them out successfully to everyone’s surprise) and in December 1952 he and Bibby left for the Gulf, unaware of the fact that they were thereby beginning a series of expeditions which would continue for decades. Again it was Glob’s special genius that was the decisive factor. He very quickly got on friendly terms with the rulers of the small sheikhdoms and interested them in their past. As everyone knows, oil is flowing plentifully in those parts. The rulers were thus financially powerful and some of this wealth was quickly diverted to the expeditions, which probably would not have survived for so long without this assistance. To those of us who took part in them from time to time, the Gulf expeditions were an unforgettable experience, not just because of the interesting work, but even more because of the contact with the local population, which gave us an insight into local manners and customs that helped to explain parts of our own country’s past which might otherwise be difficult to understand. For Glob and the rest of us did not just get close to the elite: in spite of language problems, our Arab workers became our good friends. Things livened up when we occasionally turned up in their palm huts.Still, co-operating with Glob was not always an easy task – the sparks sometimes flew. His talent of initiating things is of course undisputed, as are the lasting results. He was, however, most attractive when he was in luck. Attention normally focused on this magnificent person whose anecdotes were not taken too seriously, but if something went wrong or failed to work out, he could be grossly unreasonable and a little too willing to abdicate responsibility, even when it was in fact his. This might lead to violent arguments, but peace was always restored. In 1954, another museum curator was attached to the museum: Poul Kjærum, who was immediately given the important task of investigating the dolmen settlement near Tustrup on Northern Djursland. This gave important results, such as the discovery of a cult house, which was a new and hitherto unknown Stone Age feature.A task which had long been on our mind s was finally carried out in 1955: constructing a new display of the museum collections. The old exhibitio n type consisted of numerous artefacts lined up in cases, accompaied ony by a brief note of the place where it was found and the type – which was the standard then. This type of exhibition did not give much idea of life in prehistoric times.We wanted to allow the finds to speak for themselves via the way that they were arranged, and with the aid of models, photos and drawings. We couldn’t do without texts, but these could be short, as people would understand more by just looking at the exhibits. Glob was in the Gulf at the time, so Kjærum and I performed the task with little money but with competent practical help from conservator Kornbak. We shared the work, but in fairness I must add that my part, which included the new lllerup find, was more suitable for an untraditional display. In order to illustrate the confusion of the sacrificial site, the numerous bent swords and other weapons were scattered a.long the back wall of the exhibition hall, above a bog land scape painted by Emil Gregersen. A peat column with inlaid slides illustrated the gradual change from prehistoric lake to bog, while a free-standing exhibition case held a horse’s skeleton with a broken skull, accompanied by sacrificial offerings. A model of the Nydam boat with all its oars sticking out hung from the ceiling, as did the fine copy of the Gundestrup vessel, as the Braa vessel had not yet been preserved. The rich pictorial decoration of the vessel’s inner plates was exhibited in its own case underneath. This was an exhibition form that differed considerably from all other Danish exhibitions of the time, and it quickly set a fashion. We awaited Glob’s homecoming with anticipation – if it wasn’t his exhibition it was still made in his spirit. We hoped that he would be surprised – and he was.The museum was thus taking shape. Its few employees included Jytte Ræbild, who held a key position as a secretary, and a growing number of archaeology students who took part in the work in various ways during these first years. Later, the number of employees grew to include the aforementioned excavation pioneer Georg Kunwald, and Hellmuth Andersen and Hans Jørgen Madsen, whose research into the past of Aarhus, and later into Danevirke is known to many, and also the ethnographer Klaus Ferdinand. And now Moesgaard appeared on the horizon. It was of course Glob’s idea to move everything to a manor near Aarhus – he had been fantasising about this from his first Aarhus days, and no one had raised any objections. Now there was a chance of fulfilling the dream, although the actual realisation was still a difficult task.During all this, the Jutland Archaeological Society thrived and attracted more members than expected. Local branches were founded in several towns, summer trips were arranged and a ”Worsaae Medal” was occasionally donated to persons who had deserved it from an archaeological perspective. Kuml came out regularly with contributions from museum people and the like-minded. The publication had a form that appealed to an inner circle of people interested in archaeology. This was the intention, and this is how it should be. But in my opinion this was not quite enough. We also needed a publication that would cater to a wider public and that followed the same basic ideas as the new exhibition.I imagined a booklet, which – without over-popularsing – would address not only the professional and amateur archaeologist but also anyone else interested in the past. The result was Skalk, which (being a branch of the society) published its fir t issue in the spring of 1957. It was a somewhat daring venture, as the financial base was weak and I had no knowledge of how to run a magazine. However, both finances and experience grew with the number of subscribers – and faster than expected, too. Skalk must have met an unsatisfied need, and this we exploited to the best of our ability with various cheap advertisements. The original idea was to deal only with prehistoric and medieval archaeology, but the historians also wanted to contribute, and not just the digging kind. They were given permission, and so the topic of the magazine ended up being Denmark’s past from the time of its first inhabitant s until the times remembered by the oldest of us – with the odd sideways leap to other subjects. It would be impossible to claim that Skalk was at the top of Glob’s wish list, but he liked it and supported the idea in every way. The keeper of national antiquities, Johannes Brøndsted, did the same, and no doubt his unreserved approval of the magazine contributed to its quick growth. Not all authors found it easy to give up technical language and express themselves in everyday Danish, but the new style was quickly accepted. Ofcourse the obligations of the magazine work were also sometimes annoying. One example from the diary: ”S. had promised to write an article, but it was overdue. We agreed to a final deadline and when that was overdue I phoned again and was told that the author had gone to Switzerland. My hair turned grey overnight.” These things happened, but in this particular case there was a happy ending. Another academic promised me three pages about an excavation, but delivered ten. As it happened, I only shortened his production by a third.The 1960s brought great changes. After careful consideration, Glob left us to become the keeper of national antiquities. One important reason for his hesitation was of course Moesgaard, which he missed out on – the transfer was almost settled. This was a great loss to the Aarhus museum and perhaps to Glob, too, as life granted him much greater opportunities for development.” I am not the type to regret things,” he later stated, and hopefully this was true. And I had to choose between the museum and Skalk – the work with the magazine had become too timeconsuming for the two jobs to be combined. Skalk won, and I can truthfully say that I have never looked back. The magazine grew quickly, and happy years followed. My resignation from the museum also meant that Skalk was disengaged from the Jutland Archaeological Society, but a close connection remained with both the museum and the society.What has been described here all happened when the museum world was at the parting of the ways. It was a time of innovation, and it is my opinion that we at the Prehistoric Museum contributed to that change in various ways.The new Museum Act of 1958 gave impetus to the study of the past. The number of archaeology students in creased tremendously, and new techniques brought new possibilities that the discussion club of the 1940s had not even dreamt of, but which have helped to make some of the visions from back then come true. Public in terest in archaeology and history is still avid, although to my regret, the ahistorical 1960s and 1970s did put a damper on it.Glob is greatly missed; not many of his kind are born nowadays. He had, so to say, great virtues and great fault s, but could we have done without either? It is due to him that we have the Jutland Archaeological Society, which has no w existed for half a century. Congr tulat ion s to the Society, from your offspring Skalk.Harald AndersenSkalk MagazineTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

The Ormslev Dolmen – a free-standing dolmen?Free-standing dolmens in the Funnel Beaker CultureThe Ormslev dolmen – which has the appearance of a free-standing dolmen – is situated near Ormslev Stationsby, west of Aarhus in Jutland (fig. 1). The chamber was excavated for the first time around 1870. In 1975 a second excavation was carried out by Torsten Madsen from Moesgaard Museum, because of the threat from ploughing to the surrounding area. This excavation concentrated on the area east and south of the dolmen, where stones and pottery had been ploughed up. The area north and west of the dolmen was too disturbed – the stone packing around the chamber had totally disappeared. The Ormslev dolmen was erected on a terrace in a sloping piece of land adjacent to an area that lay under water, as part of the Brabrand Fjord, during the Stone Age.The dolmen is situated on a small hillock with its entrance to the east. The chamber consists of six orthostats and two capstones in addition to two, or possibly four, entrance stones (fig. 2). The orthostat furthest from the entrance is 1.5 m in width, the opening about 0.5 m across, and the length of the chamber is 2.4 m. The ground plan of the chamber is thus best described as slightly trapezoid.In front of the chamber entrance – at a distance from it of 3-4 m – a 2 m wide, curving stone packing consisting of one to two layers of hand-to-head sized stones was found (fig. 3). At the time of the excavation this layer was approximately 9 m long, but originally it presumably continued in both directions. No kerbstones or traces of a stone circle were found.Under the stone packing different sorts of pits were found; IA, IB and IC without finds, HY and HZ containing potsherds. Three cooking pits (HV, HW and HX) were also found (fig 2).When the chamber was excavated in the 19th century the finds included a small clay vessel and two flint daggers, all of which can be dated to the early Bronze Age. During the excavation in 1975 some flint artefacts dating to the late Mesolithic and Neolithic appeared in the area outside the chamber. Most of the finds, however, consisted of pottery. In all some 950 potsherds – probably representing 35-40 vessels – were found. The pottery is very fragmented. The surface is in many cases eroded and only a small number of sherds can be pieced together into larger parts or almost entire vessels.The pottery can be divided into an early group dating from the early Middle Neolithic (MNA I-MNA II B perhaps MNA III) i.e. 3300-3000 BC and a late group which primarily dates from the latest part of the Funnel Beaker Culture (MNA IV-V) i.e. 2900-2800 BC, but which also contains a few later potsherds.The early pottery is primarily represented by pedestal bowls, funnel beakers, and carinated vessels. The best preserved vessel is a carinated vessel ornamented with vertical stripes and different motives made of rows of chevrons (fig. 4d)The funnel beakers are of different types, the most remarkable being a very coarsely tempered beaker ornamented with deep circular impressions at the rim and vertical stripes on the belly and at least two thin ritual funnel beakers ornamented with finely incised vertical lines (fig. 4g). Other sherds are decorated with whipped cord, incised or impressed lines and rows of chevrons, and two sherds are decorated with indented impressions. One of the pedestal bowls is decorated with a pattern of cross-hatched rhomboids, and there is a carinated vessel with “hanging” triangles on the shoulder (fig. 4)The late Funnel Beaker pottery consists of funnel-necked bowls, simple bowls and bucket-shaped vessels. The vessels are in several cases very coarsely tempered and have a simple decoration consisting of finger and nail impressions normally placed under or on the rim, as well as finger grooves and horizontal rows of impressions (fig. 5a). In addition two vessels are ornamented with the characteristic “hanging” triangles made of small, fine impressions (fig 5c). All the pottery dates from the latest part of the Funnel Beaker Culture except a sherd with an unusual decoration probably dating from the transition to the Single Grave Culture (MNB, fig. 5d) and a vessel with a distinct foot dating from the Late Neolithic. Fragments of five clay discs, one of them perforated, were also found at the Ormslev dolmen. The discs can possibly be assigned to the late Funnel Beaker Culture, although the dating is somewhat uncertain because of the high degree of fragmentation.The late Funnel Beaker pottery, apart from the distinct-foot vessel and the MNB-sherds, was found spread under or near the stone packing in front of the chamber as well as in the pits HZ and HY. A few early sherds were also found in this area. Most of the early sherds, however, were concentrated in the area just south of the chamber entrance.The pottery found under the stone packing represents a clearing of the chamber which probably took place in the Late Neolithic. The early pottery found south of the entrance, however, represents the sacrificing of vessels during MNA I-II; a common ritual during this period of time. Sherds from the possible transitional MNB vessel and the distinct-foot vessel are found among the early vessels by the chamber entrance. Their appearance in this layer, on the original surface, is striking, and it indicates that no significant sedimentation can have taken place from the MNA I to the Late Neolithic. Another explanation could of course be that the layer covering the early pottery was somehow removed before the later sherds were deposited, but it was not possible to confirm this during the excavation.All traces of the primary burials were gone at the time of the second excavation and the erection of the dolmen can thus only be dated through the earliest pottery – MNA I – which gives an ante quem date of the structure. The megalithic grave was used several times during the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture, and as late as the early Bronze Age the dolmen was still used for burials. Most of the dolmens in Denmark have no visible traces, today, of having had barrows over them, and the earth around the chamber only covers the lowest part of the orthostats. Traditionally these dolmens have been explained as structures which have lost their covering mounds because of erosion caused by wind and weather, roots, animals and ploughing. However, the number of free-standing dolmens is much too high to be explained only by erosion or human interference. And as several other observations indicate that free-standing dolmens were in fact a regular type of grave during the Funnel Beaker Culture it is time to reconsider the previous general opinion. First of all the free-standing chambers are not evenly distributed over the country although there does not seem to be any reason for assuming regional differences in the process of barrow destruction. For instance in Djursland a large number of graves of this type can be seen in the landscape.Secondly, in Denmark only dolmens - primarily extended or polygonal ones - are free-standing while the passage graves are always found in barrows. It has been argued that if the destruction of barrows had been caused by natural processes it would be remarkable that it had not affected the passage graves. Although this argument carries conviction it must also be taken into consideration that a passage grave is a much more complex monument than a dolmen and that the differences in the degree of earth-covering therefore in part could be due to the differences in construction.Several dolmens today have absolutely no traces of earth-covering, and because of their situation and other circumstances it is reasonable to believe that they have always been free-standing. This is for instance the case regarding the largest round dolmen in Denmark, Poskær Stenhus, Djursland, and also Stenhuset at Strands, Djursland, which is placed on the top of a hill (fig. 6). Another example is the long-dolmen at Gunder­slev­holm, Sealand where the kerbstones stand neatly in such a way that if a barrow had once been removed from the dolmen the process would have had to involve thorough cleaning-up of the area between the kerbstones!Finally, free-standing dolmens are a phenomenon known all over Europe where megalithic monuments were built, e.g. the famous Irish portal-tombs (fig. 8). Moreover, the fact that the free-standing megalithic monuments in other countries, for instance England, seem, like those in Denmark, to have a regional distribution, indicates that the distribution itself is significant.The challenge is to prove that dolmens that appear today to be free-standing have in fact never been covered with a barrow. Only a small number of dolmens in Denmark have been scientifically excavated, and just a few of these have been free-standing dolmens; one of these being the Ormslev dolmen.The barrow is usually placed between the chamber and a circle of kerbstones, and the placement of the kerbstones is thus essential in the assessment of a free-standing dolmen. At the Ormslev dolmen it was not possible to find any traces of kerbstones – maybe because they have always been absent. Instead the disposition of pottery outside the chamber turned out to be of great importance. From the fact that late pottery was found within the stone packing and all the way to the entrance stones of the dolmen it can be seen that this area must always have been accessible and cannot have been covered with a mound. If there once was a barrow the kerbstones must therefore have been placed very close to the chamber, with the layer of sacrificed pottery lying outside the kerbstones. A barrow with such a small diameter would have required a solid circle of kerbstones with dry walling. No trace whatsoever of this was found. Finally it should be noted that there may actually not have been sedimentation to the south of the entrance. If this is the case the Ormslev dolmen cannot have been covered with a mound, as soil would then have been washed out and deposited outside the kerbstones. All things considered it is thus reasonable to assume that the Ormslev dolmen was never covered with a barrow.Other excavated dolmens have provided even better examples of free-standing dolmens. The best example from Denmark is one of the Tustrup dolmens in Djursland. From the stratigraphical observations as well as finds of pottery it can clearly be proved that it has never been covered with a mound. Paradoxically, in 1994 the dolmen was reconstructed in such a way that the area between the chamber and the 2 m high kerbstones was filled in with soil (fig. 7). The intention was to restore its “original” appearance as in the Stone Age!At the Sarup area on Funen a number of free-standing dolmens have been excavated. While some proved always to have been free-standing, others had been covered with earth at a later date. This situation can also be observed in cases of other dolmens in Denmark. The later building of barrows is perhaps to be seen in connection with the transition from the building of dolmens to the erection of the closely sealed passage graves. This distinctly marks a change in mortuary practice and it is possible that at the time when closed chambers became the prevailing way of building megalithic monuments some of the originally free-standing dolmens were covered with earth.Also outside Denmark excavations of meg­al­ithic monuments have proved that the chambers were originally free-standing, for instance the Trollasten dolmen in Scania, Sweden, or most of the megalithic chambers at the Carrowmore cemetery in North-western Ireland.All these indications, arguments, and not least well-documented examples of free-stand­ing megalithic monuments – in Denmark as well as in other parts of Europe – justify the conclusion that free-standing dolmens were a regular type of grave during the Funnel Beaker Culture. Nina NielsenAfdeling for Forhistorisk ArkæologiAarhus UniversitetMoesgård

A large two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted in southern Jutland – Analysis of a longhouse from Early Bronze Age period IIn 2011 and 2012, Sønderskov Museum investigated an area of 65,000 m2 at Nørre Holsted, between Esbjerg and Vejen. The investigation revealed a multitude of features and structures dating from several periods, including extensive settlement remains from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Excavations have also been carried out in this area previously, resulting in rich finds assemblages. This paper focuses on the site’s largest and best preserved two-aisled house, K30, which is dated to Early Bronze Age period I (1700-1500 BC). This longhouse therefore represents the final generation of houses of two-aisled construction. It also contained charred plant remains, which provide information on arable agriculture of the time and the internal organisation of the building at a point just prior to three-aisled construction becoming universal. The remains indicate continuity in both agriculture and in internal organisation between the late two-aisled and early three-aisled longhouses. The two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted can therefore make a significant contribution to the long-running debate about this architectural change, which has often focussed on developments in farming: The increased importance of cattle husbandry is said to have been the main reason for breaking with the tradition of two-aisled construction.The Nørre Holsted locality comprises the top of a sandy plateau that forms a ridge running north-south. The slightly sloping plateau lies 38-42 m above sea level and the ridge is surrounded by damp, low-lying terrain that, prior to the agricultural drainage of recent times, was partly aquiferous. The site occupies a central position in the southern part of Holsted Bakkeø, a “hill island” that is primarily characterised by sandy moraine. People preferred to live on well-drained ridges with sandy subsoil throughout large parts of prehistory and this was also true in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. On the area uncovered at Nørre Holsted, remains were found of 16 two-aisled houses, of which three had sunken floors. Ten of these houses are dated to the Late Neolithic and three are assigned to the first period of the Bronze Age. During Early Bronze Age periods II and III, a total of 14 three-aisled longhouses stood on the sandy plateau. As can be seen from figure 2, the houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lie more or less evenly distributed across the area. However, the buildings from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age period I form a distinct cluster in the eastern part, while a western distribution is evident for the houses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III. The western part of the site lies highest in the terrain and a movement upwards in the landscape was therefore associated with the introduction of the three-aisled building tradition. Tripartition of the dimensions can be observed in both the two- and the three-aisled houses, with this being most pronounced in the latter category. The three-aisled Bronze Age houses from periods II and III, which represent the typical form with rounded gables and possibly plank-built walls, show great morphological and architectonic uniformity. Conversely, the two-aisled house remains are characterised by wider variation. The small and medium-sized examples, with or without a partly-sunken floor, represent some very common house types in Jutland. Conversely, the largest longhouse, K30, represents a variant that is more familiar from areas further to the east in southern Scandinavia.The largest two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted was located on the eastern part of the sandy plateau, where this slopes down towards a former wetland area (fig. 3). The east-west-oriented longhouse had a fall of 1.5 m along its length, with the eastern end being the lowest part at c. 38 m above sea level. Its orientation towards the wet meadow and bog to the east is striking, and it stood a maximum of 50 m from the potential grazing area. A peat bog lay a further 100 m to the east and in prehistory this was probably a small lake. Sekær Bæk flows 600 m to the north and, prior to realignment, this watercourse was both deeper and wider where it met the former lake area. Access to fresh water was therefore optimal and opportunities for transport and communication by way of local water routes must similarly have been favourable. It should be added that the watercourse Holsted Å flows only 1 km to the south of the locality.House K30 had a length of 32 m and a width of 6.5-7 m, with the western part apparently being the broadest, giving a floor area of more than 200 m2. The eastern gable was slightly rounded, while that to the west was of a straighter and more open character. The wall posts were preserved along most of the two sides of the building and the internal (roof-) supporting posts were positioned just inside the walls. Two transverse partition walls divided the longhouse, with its ten central posts, into three main rooms (fig. 5). These posts were the building’s sturdiest and most deeply-founded examples. Charcoal-rich post-pipes could be observed in section, and these revealed that the posts consisted of cloven timber with a cross-section of c. 25 cm. The central posts were regularly spaced about 3 m apart, except at the eastern and western ends, where the spacing was 4 m (fig. 5). The posts along the inside of the walls were less robust and not set as deeply as the central posts. There were probably internal wall or support posts along the entire length of the walls. These were positioned only 0.5 m inside the walls and must therefore have functioned together with these. Based on the position of these posts, the possibility that they were directly linked to the central posts can be dismissed. It seems much more likely that they were linked together by transverse beams running across the house – a roof-supporting feature that, a few generations later, moved further in towards the central axis to become the permanent roof-bearing construction. The actual wall posts or outer wall constituted the least robust constructional element of the longhouse.Remains of the walls were best preserved in the eastern part, and the wall posts here were spaced 1.5 m apart in the eastern gable and 2 m apart in the side wall (fig. 5). The wall posts had disappeared in several places, particularly in the central part of the building. Entrances could not be identified in the side walls, possibly as a consequence of the fragmentary preservation of the post traces. Two transverse partition walls, each consisting of three posts, were present in the western and eastern parts, with the latter example being integrated into a recessed pair of posts. The western room had an area of 59 m2 and contained two pits, while the eastern part was filled with charred plant material, consisting largely of acorns. The actual living quarters may have been located here, even though the larger central room, with an area of c. 85 m2, could just as well represent the dwelling area with its large, deep cooking pit (fig. 5). The eastern room had an area of 60 m2 and therefore did not differ significantly in area from that to the west.The entire fill from features that could be related to longhouse K30 was sieved. The objective was to retrieve small finds in the form of micro flakes and pottery fragments that are normally overlooked in conventional shovel excavation. The associated aims included ascertaining whether the flint assemblage could reveal the production of particular tools or weapons in the building. Unfortunately, not a single piece of pottery or any other datable artefacts were recovered. Only a few small flint flakes, which simply show that the finds from house K30 conform to the typical picture of a general reduction in the production of flint tools at the transition from Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. The 11 flint flakes from the longhouse merely reflect the simple manufacturing of cutting tools. Consequently, no bifacial flint-knapping activities took place within the building, and there is a lack of evidence for specialised craftsmen. The great paucity of finds is typical of houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age which do not have a sunken floor. It is therefore important to look more closely at the charred plant material (plant macro-remains) concealed in the fills of the postholes and pits. In the case of house K30, the soil samples have provided a range of information, providing greater knowledge of what actually took place in a large house in southern Jutland at the beginning of the Bronze Age.The scientific dating of house K30 is based on barley grains from two roof posts and from a wall post in the eastern part. The three AMS radiocarbon dates assign the longhouse to Early Bronze Age period I, with a centre of gravity in period Ib (fig. 6). Plant macro-remains have previously been analysed from monumental three-aisled Bronze Age houses in southern Jutland. It is therefore relevant to take a look inside a large longhouse representing the final generation of the two-aisled building tradition. Do the results of the analyses indicate continuity in the internal organisation of these large houses or did significant changes occur in their functional organisation with the introduction of the three-aisled tradition?During the excavation of longhouse K30, soil samples were taken from all postholes and associated features for flotation and subsequent analysis of the plant macro-remains recovered. An assessment of the samples’ content of plant macro-remains and charcoal revealed that those from two central postholes and a pit contained large quantities of plant material (fig. 7), whereas the other samples contained few or no plant remains. It was therefore obvious to investigate whether there was a pattern in the distribution of the plant macro-remains that could provide an insight into the internal organisation of the house and the occupants’ exploitation of plant resources. The plant macro-remains can be used to investigate the organisation of the house because the house site lay undisturbed. The remains can therefore be presumed to date from the building’s active period of use. The plant remains lay on the floor of the house and they became incorporated into the fill of the postholes possibly as the posts were pulled up when the house was abandoned or when the posts subsequently rotted or were destroyed by fire. The plant macro-remains therefore reflect activities that have taken place in the immediate vicinity of the posthole in question.Only barley, in its naked form, can be said to have been definitely used by the house’s occupants, as this cereal type dominates, making up 80% of the identified grains (fig. 8). It is also likely, however, that emmer and/or spelt were cultivated too as evidence from other localities shows that a range of cereal crops was usually grown in the Early Bronze Age. This strategy was probably adopted to mitigate against the negative consequences of a possible failed harvest and also in an attempt to secure a surplus. Virtually no seeds of arable weeds were found in the grain-rich samples from the postholes where the central posts had stood; just a few seeds of persicaria and a single grass caryopsis were identified. This indicates that the crops, in the form of naked barley, and possibly also emmer/spelt, must have been thoroughly cleaned and processed. In contrast, the sample from pit A2500, in the western part of the house, contains virtually no cereal grains but does have a large number of charred acorn fragments (fig. 9). The question is, how should this pit be interpreted? If it was a storage pit, then the many acorns should not be charred, unless the pit and the remnants of its contents were subsequently burnt, perhaps as part of a cleansing or sterilisation process. It could also be a refuse pit, used to dispose of acorns that had become burnt by accident. In which case this must have been a temporary function as permanent refuse pits are unlikely to have been an internal feature of the house’s living quarters. Finally, it is possible that this could have been a so-called function-related pit that was used in connection with drying the acorns, during which some of the them became charred.From the plant macro-remain data it is clear that the occupants of longhouse K30 practised agriculture while, at the same time, gathering and exploiting natural plant resources. It should be added that they probably also kept livestock etc., but these resources have not left any traces in the site’s archaeological record – probably due to poor conditions for the preservation of bones. A closer examination of the distribution of plant macro-remains in house K30 reveals a very clear pattern (fig. 9), thereby providing an insight into the internal organisation of the building. All traces of cereals are found in the eastern half of the house and, in particular, the two easternmost roof postholes contain relatively large quantities, while the other postholes in this part of the building have few or no charred grains. This could suggest that there was a grain store (i.e. granary) in the vicinity of the penultimate roof-bearing post to the east, while the other cereal grains in the area could result from activities associated with spillage from this store, which contained processed and cleaned naked barley. No plant macro-remains were observed in the posthole samples from the opposite end of the building. The plant remains in this part of the house all originate from the aforementioned pit A2500, which contained a large quantity of acorns, together with a few arable weed seeds. The pit should possibly be interpreted as an acorn store or a functional pit associated with roasting activities or refuse disposal.The distribution of the plant macro-remains provides no secure indication of the location of the hearth or, in turn, of the living quarters. However, if the distribution of the charcoal in the house is examined (fig. 10), it is clear that there was charcoal everywhere inside house K30. This indicates that the longhouse was either burned down while still occupied or, perhaps more likely, in connection with its abandonment. A more detailed evaluation of the charcoal found in the various postholes and other features reveals the highest concentrations in the central room, suggesting that the hearth was located here, and with it the living quarters. This is consistent with the presence of a large cooking pit, found in the eastern part of this room. Perhaps this explains the presence of open pit A2500 in the western part of the house, which constitutes direct evidence against the presence of living quarters here. Another explanation for the highest charcoal concentrations being in the central room could also have been the entrance area, where there would be a tendency for such material to accumulate.Plant macro-remains have previously been analysed from large Bronze Age houses in the region, namely at the sites of Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II, and plant remains from a somewhat smaller Late Neolithic house at Brødrene Gram were also examined. In many ways, K30 corresponds to the houses at Brødrene Gram (houses IV and V) and Kongehøj II (house K1). There is continuity with respect to the cereals represented in the Late Neolithic house at Brødrene Gram and the three-aisled Early Bronze Age houses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II; naked barley and emmer/spelt are the dominant cereal types. There is, however, some variation in the cereal types present in the three-aisled Bronze Age houses, as hulled barley also occurs as a probable cultivated cereal here. It therefore seems that, with time, an even broader range of crops came to be cultivated when houses began to have a three-aisled construction. Another marked difference evident in the composition of the plant macro-remains is that the grain stores in the two-aisled houses contain only very few weed seeds, while those in the later houses are contaminated to a much greater extent with these remains. This could be due to several factors. One possible explanation is that the grain was cleaned more thoroughly before it was stored at the time of the two-aisled houses. Another explanation could be that there were, quite simply, fewer weeds growing in the arable fields in earlier periods, possibly because these fields were exploited for a shorter time and less intensively. This would mean that the field weeds were not able to become established to the same degree as later and fewer weeds were harvested with the cereal crop. As a consequence, the stored grain would contain fewer weed seeds relative to later periods. If the latter situation is true, the increase in field weeds could mark a change in the use of the arable fields, whereby each individual field was exploited for a somewhat longer period than previously.A common feature seen in all the houses is that they had grain stores in the eastern part of the building and storage was therefore one of the functions of this part. No secure evidence was however found of any of the houses having been fitted out as a byre. The three-aisled house IV at Brødrene Gram apparently also had a grain store at its western end – where K30 had its acorn-rich pit. However, while the western end of the Brødrene Gram house, and that of the other houses, is interpreted as a dwelling area, this room apparently had another function in K30, where the living quarters appear to have been located in the central room, as indicated by the cooking pit and the marked concentration of charcoal.Longhouse K30 differs from the later houses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II in that these two three-aisled houses contain large quantities of chaff (spikelet forks) of wheat, possibly employed as floor covering, while no such material was observed in K30. However, it is unclear whether this is due to differences in the internal organisation of the buildings or to preservation conditions. Conversely, the use of possible function-related pits, like the one containing acorn remains in house K30, appears to have continued throughout the subsequent periods, as the Bronze Age house at Brødrene Gram also contains similar pits, the more precise function of which remains, however, unresolved. A high degree of continuity can thereby be traced, both in the crops grown and the internal organisation of the two- and three-aisled longhouses in southern Jutland. There was, however, some development towards the cultivation of a wider range of crops.In turn, this suggests that, in terms of arable agriculture and internal building organisation, there was no marked difference between the late two-aisled and early three-aisled houses – or, more correctly, between the large houses of Bronze Age periods I and II in southern Jutland. More secure conclusions with respect to continuity and change in the internal organisation of the buildings would, however, require a significantly larger number of similar analyses, encompassing several house types of different dimensions from a longer period of time and across a larger geographic area. Nevertheless, let us address the problem by including house sites in other regions, because this should enable us to gain an impression of the degree to which the picture outlined above for southern Jutland is representative of larger parts of southern Scandinavia.In several cases, both in the large two-aisled longhouses from Late Neolithic period II to Early Bronze Age period I and the large three-aisled longhouses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III, we see an internal division of the building into three main rooms. This tripartite division does, however, become clearer and more standardised with the advent of the three-aisled building tradition, which is a special characteristic of the longhouses of southern Jutland. Food stores were apparently often kept in the eastern parts of these houses. This is shown by the concentrations of charred grain found in these areas, and in some cases the larders must have been positioned immediately inside the eastern gable. Over time, traces of grain stores have been recorded from sunken areas in a number of house sites in Jutland. As a rule, these sunken floors constituted the eastern part of two-aisled houses of Myrhøj type, which were particularly common, especially in Jutland, during the Late Neolithic and the first period of the Bronze Age. One reason for lowering the house floor in this way was possibly a requirement for more space to store grain. It has been pointed out that a sunken floor gives greater head clearance in a room which, in turn, optimises the possibility of keeping the grain dry. In some cases, these sunken floors were almost totally covered by charred barley and wheat grains; surely the result of stored grain having fallen from an open loft during a house fire.In the Late Neolithic, arable agriculture apparently increased in importance as it became more intensive and diverse, with a wider range of crops now being cultivated. Agriculture in the Early Bronze Age was simply a continuation of the agricultural intensification evident in Late Neolithic arable agriculture. There was a possible difference in that fields were probably more commonly manured in the Early Bronze Age, though the first secure evidence for manuring dates from the Late Bronze Age. The plant macro-remains from the Early Bronze Age include significantly greater numbers of weeds, suggesting that individual arable fields had a longer period of use. Moreover, nutrient-demanding hulled barley came on to the scene as a cultivated crop. This has been demonstrated for example in the aforementioned longhouses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II, both of which date from the Early Bronze Age period II. However, a large component of hulled barley has actually been demonstrated in remains from a Late Neolithic sunken house site at Hestehaven, near Skanderborg.Most Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age farms in what is now Denmark were located on nutrient-poor sandy soils, and this was also the case at Nørre Holsted. In itself, location on these soils suggests that soil-improvement measures were employed. Indirectly, it can also tell us something of the significance of livestock, if it is assumed that cattle supplied a major proportion of the material used to manure the arable fields. Domestic livestock is, however, virtually invisible in the Late Neolithic settlement record, compared with that from the three-aisled contexts of the Bronze Age. There are records from Jutland of about 15 longhouses with clearly evident stall dividers, but this total seems very modest relative to a total number of Bronze Age house sites of around 1000. It has long been maintained in settlement archaeology that the three-aisled building tradition was better suited to the installation of a byre. On the face of it, this seems plausible for animals tethered in stalls. But the byre situation is, however, unlikely to have been a direct cause of the change in roof-bearing construction, as highlighted by recently expressed doubts in this respect. Neither are there grounds to dismiss the possibility that byres were installed in two-aisled longhouses. There is an example from Hesel in Ostfriesland, northwest Germany, where a large two-aisled house, measuring 35 x 5-6 m, contained stall dividers in its eastern half. An example from Zealand can also be mentioned in this respect: At Stuvehøj Mark near Ballerup there was a two-aisled longhouse, measuring 47 x 6 m, with possible post-built stall dividers in its eastern half. It stood on a headland surrounded by wetland areas and, like longhouse K30 at Nørre Holsted, it had a marked fall from the west to east gable.Preserved stall dividers in Bronze Age houses are, therefore, still a rare phenomenon and phosphate analysis of soil has yet to produce convincing results in this respect. There must be another explanation for the change in building architecture. It is possible that the massive monumentalisation process of Early Bronze Age period II played a crucial role in this respect. As described in the introduction, the first three-aisled houses were built higher up in the terrain. A position on the highest points of the landscape is a recurring feature at many other localities with longhouses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III. This visualisation process involved consistent use of the timber-demanding plank-built walls and took place primarily in southern, central and western Jutland. Here, forests had to yield to the huge resource consumption involved in constructing three-aisled houses because it was here that the tradition of plank-built walls was strongest. This situation must be seen in conjunction with barrow building, where there was a corresponding and coeval culmination in the construction of large turf-built burial mounds. Was the three-aisled tradition introduced quite simply because it became possible to build both wider and higher? Period II has the largest longhouses found in Scandinavia to date and these could reach dimensions of 50 x 10 m. The buildings became much wider and the earth-set posts for the plank walls were in some cases founded just as deep as the roof-bearing post pairs, which could extend 50-70 cm down into the subsoil. This could, in turn, suggest that some longhouses had more than one storey. It should also be pointed out that the large-scale construction of longhouses and barrows came to a halt at the same time – in the course of period III, i.e. shortly before 1200 BC. It therefore seems likely that the three-aisled building tradition was introduced as an important step in the actual monumentalisation process rather than as a result of a need to adjust to new requirements for internal organisation. At the end of the Early Bronze Age and throughout the Late Bronze Age, the dimensions of three-aisled houses were reduced and the houses adopted a much less robust character. There was no longer a need for monumental construction. The significance and symbolism by the large buildings constructed in the Early Bronze Age period II and the first part of period III is though a longer and more complex story and it should not be studied in isolation from the barrow-building phenomenon of the time.Lars GrundvadMuseet på SønderskovMartin Egelund PoulsenMuseet på SønderskovMarianne Høyem Andreasen Moesgaard Museum

Mobiltelefonen er det mest udbredte medie i verden. Ifølge guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/03/mobile‐phones1) var antallet af mobiltelefoner i begyndelsen af 2009 oppe på 4,1 milliarder.Til sammenligning viser en opgørelse fra markedsanalyse instituttet Experian at der i 2007 var 850 millioner personlige computere, 1,3 milliarder fastnet telefoner og 1,5 milliarder tv‐modtagere, samt 800 millioner biler og 1,4 milliarder kreditkort. Denne enorme udbredelse af mobiltelefonen er i sig selv interessant, eftersom mobiltelefonen er et medie, som brugere medbringer overalt og har adgang til på et hvilket som helst tidspunkt. Derfor er der et umiddelbart potentiale i at udnytte mobiltelefonen i læringssammenhænge. Samtidig er mobiltelefonen interessant, fordi den har udviklet sig til et multifunktionelt personligt værktøj med funktioner som bl.a. kamera, lyd- og videooptager og internetopkobling, I dag bliver mobiltelefonen ofte bandlyst i skolen, hvor den primært betragtes som et forstyrrende element. Imidlertid er der flere ting, der taler for, at man med fordel kan forsøge at finde en plads til den i undervisningen. Som Bachmair et al. (i denne antologi) skriver, er mobiltelefonen først og fremmest en teknologi, der spiller en væsentlig rolle i de unges kultur, ikke mindst kommunikationskultur. Derudover har mobiltelefonen en række egenskaber, der er relevante i en læringssammenhæng. Den kan anvendes til kommunikation, samarbejde, informationssøgning, dokumentation, vidensdeling, etc. I denne artikel vil vi sætte fokus på mobiltelefonens potentiale for at styrke elevernes refleksion over eget arbejde. Artiklen tager afsæt i et casestudie fra Moesgård Museum i Århus, hvor folkeskoleelever anvendte mobiltelefoner til at opsamle deres oplevelser og erfaringer fra besøget på udstillingen RØR VERDEN.

Hans Andersson: Medeltida Urbanisering. Uppsatser(Jette Linaa) Peter Moe Astrup: Sea-level Change in Mesolithic southern Scandinavia. Long- and short-term effects on society and the environment(Kristoffer B. Pedersen) Jens-Henrik Bech, Berit Valentin Eriksen and Kristian Kristiansen (eds.): Bronze Age settlements and land-use in Thy, Northwest Denmark, vol. I & II(Christopher Prescott) Lars Bjarke Christensen: Nationalmuseet og storstensgravene 1890-1950(Sven Thorsen) Nils Engberg: Danmarks døde kirker. Middelalderens nedlagte kirke(Jes Wienberg) Anders Lundt Hansen: Sølv, blod og kongemagt. Bag om vikingemyten(Kasper H. Andersen) Christofer Herrmann: Der Hochmeisterpalast auf der Marienburg. Konzeption, Bau und Nutzung der modernsten europäischen Fürstenresidenz um 1400(Hans Krongaard Kristensen) Helle W. Horsnæs, Jens Christian Moesgaard & Michael Märcher: Denar til daler. Danmarks mønthistorie indtil 1550(Thomas Guntzelnick Poulsen) Lisbeth M. Imer: Danmarks runesten – En fortælling(Lars Krants Larsen) Ola Wolfhechel Jensen: På spaning efter det förflutna. En historia om arkeologiskt fältarbete i Sverige 1600-1900(Henriette Lyngstrøm) Hans Krongaard Kristensen: Mariager Kloster(Stephan Borgehammar) Morten Larsen: Danmarks Middelalderlige Tiggerklostre. Franciskanernes og dominikanernes bygningskultur(Michael Andersen) Henriette Lyngström (red.): Farverige Vikinger(Sarah Croix) Marzena J. Przybyła: Pressblechverzierte spätkaiserzeitliche Trachtbestandsteile in Südskandinavien(Kent Andersson) Caroline Wickham-Jones: Landscape Beneath the Waves. The Archaeological Investigation of Underwater Landscapes(Peter Moe Astrup)

Høj SteneA monumental ship setting by the Gudenå river Ship settings, or stone ships, in the sense of stones arranged in a regular pointed-oval shape, are known especially from Denmark and Sweden, where some can be dated to the Late Bronze Age, others to the Late Iron Age and Viking Age. Of the latter, so-called monumental ship settings stand out by virtue of having a length in excess of 40 m (fig. 1). A further general feature is that, either singly or in groups, they occupy prominent positions in the landscape, usually by a main traffic route and often in association with barrows; some are found in conjunction with a royal residence – Jelling and Lejre. Insofar as rune stones form an integral part of a ship setting, as is said to be the case at Glavendrup and Bække and is suggested by the circumstances at Jelling, the monument can be dated to the Viking Age. In other cases, the dating of the monuments is less certain, with several possibly deriving from the end of the Late Iron Age. There is also great uncertainty about the function of these monumental ship settings. There has been a general tendency to perceive them as burial structures on a par with the other ship settings. But the preservation conditions at the archaeologically investigated monuments have been poor, and it has therefore not been possible to demonstrate a clear link between monumental ship settings and possible graves. Even so, these monuments can clearly be perceived as a power manifestation by an aristocratic environment, and they can be viewed in conjunction with the ship symbolism that is evident in Late Iron Age boat graves and the spectacular ship burials of the Viking Age. With the aim of addressing these issues, Moesgaard Museum has investigated the site of one of southern Scandinavia’s largest ship settings, located at Vejerslev, close to Gudenå river (fig. 1, no. 1). The monument was demolished more than 150 years ago. The first mention of it in written sources is in 1683 under the name “Højs Steen”, located on the western fields of the village of Vejerslev, which run down towards the Gudenå. A written source from 1768 states that the ship setting extends between two small barrows standing about 100 paces apart. A report submitted to the National Museum of Denmark around 1850 contains valuable information about the ship setting as the detailed text is accompanied by a survey of the ship setting’s ground plan. It is stated that the monument was c. 88 m long and 13 m wide in the middle. The drawing shows 16 preserved stones. These stood 2-4 m apart and were c. 1.9-2.5 m high (fig. 4). But the stone at the northern stem/stern, which was c. 4.5 m in length, lay toppled on the northern barrow. The distance from the Gudenå river is given as just less than 100 m. A written source from 1877 states that the final remaining stones were removed in 1852. In 2014 and 2016, systematic geophysical surveys were undertaken of the area between the mound that could be the northern barrow and the remains of the presumed southern barrow. Collectively, the geophysical surveys sketched a picture of an extended pointed-oval formation between the two barrows (fig. 6). The structure had been c. 82 m long and 14 m wide at its broadest point. This concurs well with the dimensions given in the report to the National Museum around 1850. The ship setting was oriented NNW-SSE and lay almost parallel with the Gudenå, c. 130 m distant from it. It was located on the edge of a level sandy plain that rises above the riverbed. An archaeological investigation was undertaken in 2016, with an excavation trench measuring c. 18 x 9 m being positioned across the southern part of the ship setting, in a place where the geophysical surveys had demonstrated stone traces or possibly stones (fig. 6). Of the four anomalies evident on the geophysical surveys that fitted with an arrangement of gunwale stones, it proved possible to locate three in the archaeological investigation. A further investigation was undertaken at the site in 2017, when a trench measuring c. 18 x 13 m was placed across the middle of the ship setting (fig. 6). This demonstrated a good agreement between the excavated stone traces and those evident from the geophysical surveys (fig. 12). During the investigation in 2017, several metal objects were found by metal detector in the soil layer located over the central part of the ship setting. These were primarily melted fragments of gold and bronze objects, as well as a silver arte­fact and one of iron. The gold objects comprise a fragment of band-like gold foil with animal ornamentation (fig. 14), two small rings of beaded wire (fig. 15a-b), a small band-like ring (fig. 16), a fragment of an edge fitting of gold foil (fig. 17), two partially melted fragments of lugs (?) (fig. 18), four unidentifiable fragments of gold foil and ten melted gold lumps. The bronze finds comprise a strap buckle (fig. 21), two possible fragments of brooches (fig. 19 and 20), a fragment of a bronze arte­fact with vaulted upper surface (fig. 22), six unidentified fragments and 44 melted bronze lumps. The silver object is a small rivet, and there is a small fragment of a thin iron sheet. As is evident from the above description, most of the metal finds from the ship setting are heavily fragmented and partially melted, which makes dating difficult. The finds are interpreted as remains from a cremation grave that has been placed on the surface of the central part of the ship setting. The most remarkable find is the ornamented gold foil (fig. 14), which can be assigned to the second half of the 6th century AD; the early part of Salin’s style II. As for the two gold rings (fig. 15), similar rings are employed on brooches and swords from the Late Germanic Iron Age, where they are placed around rivets. The third gold ring (fig. 16) must, due to its tiny diameter, be perceived as decoration that has encircled an object. The strap buckle (fig. 21) is of a type that Mogens Ørsnes dates to phases 1 and 2, i.e. c. AD 550-725. The possible button bow from a button-bow brooch (fig. 19) cannot be identified more closely. Ørsnes classifies button-bow brooches into types E0-6, which collectively can be assigned to the period AD 550-880. The fragment of an equal-armed brooch (fig. 20) cannot, due to its small size, be identified more closely within Ørsnes’ types F1-4, which are all assigned to his phase 1, c. AD 550-650. The most recent research dates the beginning of the dating range for this brooch type to between AD 510 and 545. All in all, the finds can be placed within the second half of the 6th century AD, as also suggested by the ornamented gold foil. A central question is whether the ship setting and the cremation grave are contemporaneous. With regard to the ship setting, a sample was taken for OSL dating from one of the socket stones in A121. The date subsequently obtained by the Nordic Laboratory for Luminescence Dating/DTU Nutech was 1.33±0.13 ka, i.e. 688±130 in calendar years. In other words, the ship setting was constructed in the period AD 558-818. When the OSL date is compared with the archaeological dating of the artefacts, it seems very probable that ship setting and cremation grave are contemporaneous. A further indication that the now vanished grave had a direct link with the ship setting is the distribution of the metal finds: These were all found over the central part of the monument. Burial customs in the Late Germanic Iron Age are characterised by local differences, and cremation graves surrounded by stone settings are the dominant form in Jutland. The best-known example is Lindholm Høje at Nørresundby, with ­almost 700 graves marked by various kinds of stone settings, including some that are ship-like in form. At Høj Stene there was nothing to indicate that the cremation had taken place directly on-site. All the evidence suggests that the cremation grave was located so high up that it was disturbed by the cultivation activities of later times. The presumed cremation grave shows some similarities with the situation in Grydehøj at Lejre. The base of this large round barrow, which had been c. 40 m in diameter and up to 4 m in height, was covered by a burnt layer containing charcoal, fragments of burnt bone and artefacts in the form of gold wire, drops of melted gold, melted bronze and burnt iron rivets. These represent the remains of a cremation grave containing the remnants of exceptionally rich grave furnishings that were destroyed in the cremation and, judging by patches of fire-reddened earth, this took place directly on-site. Grydehøj has been 14C dated to the first half of the 7th century AD and is therefore contemporaneous with the early magnate’s settlement at Lejre, with the Høj Stene grave, with similar cremation graves and with closely related boat graves in Sweden that, in addition to magnificent grave goods, were also accompanied by remains of numerous animals. As for the many unanswered questions about monumental ship settings, the local­isation of Høj Stene and the associated investigations have taken us a significant step further towards a better understanding of the chronology and function of these structures. The enormous ship setting is dated to the Late Germanic Iron Age, c. AD 600, and is so far the first example that can be securely assigned to this period. Furthermore, it was constructed as a sepulchral monument for an unusually richly-furnished cremation grave which exhibits many common features with the coeval elite grave in Grydehøj and with Swedish burial monuments. Like other monumental ship settings, Høj Stene occupied a striking location. It was placed by the Gudenå river, which was presumably a major traffic route extending far into the central part of Jutland. The monument must have been impressive seen from the river, and it was also sited close to an ancient traffic junction. Kongensbro lies about 1 km to the southwest, and there has been an actual bridge there since the end of the 14th century, but it could very well have been the location of a crossing place prior to this. Høj Stene’s northern and southern barrows cannot be dated more closely, but they lie together with two other barrows that probably date from the Late Neolithic Single Grave culture or the Bronze Age. It seems remarkable that large ship settings, which had not been built since the Late Bronze Age, suddenly turn up again after a break of a millennium in a totally different cultural context with a very different world of ideas. It is a well-known cultural-historical phenomenon that new and striking monuments sometimes appear formed in the shape of familiar structures from another time. In the case of Høj Stene and other contemporaneous ship settings, these should probably be interpreted as an expression of a contemporary elite’s need clearly to manifest its power. With the emergence of the Frankish Empire, which by AD 600 encompassed large parts of the Continent, Europe had gained a new superpower following the dissolution of the West ­Roman Empire. The northern border of the Frankish Empire ran close to present-day Denmark, and it became important for the people who lived in the lands to the north. Both in Scandinavia and the British Isles petty kingdoms emerged in the 6th and 7th centuries, which mimicked the Frankish warrior aristocracy. Rich burials, such as Sutton Hoo in southern England and related boat burials at Vendel and Valsgärde in Sweden, bear witness to close dynastic connections. The settlement at Lejre, with its large farm complex, the burial in Grydehøj and possible coeval ship settings, are examples which demonstrate that just such an elite existed in eastern Denmark during the 6th century. It is in this perspective that we perceive Høj Stene. We have demonstrated here the largest known ship setting from the Late Iron Age, together with the remains of heavily burnt grave goods reflecting a rich burial. There is therefore much to suggest that we are on the trail of a possible Jutish elite residence equivalent to that in Lejre. Indeed, it may already have been found. In metal-detector surveys on the fields to the north and northeast of Høj Stene in recent years several localities have been recorded with finds from the Late Germanic Iron Age (fig. 24). Seen in relation to the ship setting, the northernmost of these is of greatest interest. At this locality, which lies 2 km from the ship setting, 39 artefacts that can be assigned to the Late Germanic Iron Age have been found within an area of c. 2 ha (fig. 25-27). Moreover, there is also waste from bronze casting and slag from iron smelting. As pointed out by Birgitta Hårdh, clear evidence of high-quality metalworking is found at South Scandinavian central places such as Uppåkra in Scania and Gudme on Funen. A similar situation is suggested by the finds from the site at Borre Skov, with indications of bronze casting and iron smelting as well as a patrix (punch), which bears witness to exquisite craftmanship. The finds are contemporaneous with the ship setting, and they perhaps represent a coeval elite residence.