Bronze Age Settlement and Land-Use in Thy, Northwest Denmark (Volume 1 & 2)

Jens-Henrik Bech (Ed.)

Description

This two volume monograph about the region of Thy in the early Bronze Age provides a high resolution archaeological and ecological model of the organisation of landscape, settlements and households during the period 1500-1100 BC. Bordering the North Sea to the west, and the calmer waters of the Limfjord to the east, the region of Thy in Denmark experienced four centuries of intense economic and demographic expansion. By combining results from environmental and economic research (pollen and palaeo-botanical analyses) with intensive field surveys and excavations of farmsteads with exceptional preservation, it has been possible to open a window to the changes that transformed Bronze Age society and its environment during a few centuries of exceptional expansion and wealth consumption. The results from this interdisciplinary venture made it possible to link together the histories of local farmsteads with the wider regional and global history of the Bronze Age in North-western Europe during this period. Here is much to feed on for students and researchers of the Bronze Age alike.

Sujets

• Dinamarca
• Archaeology
• Prehistoric Europe
• Bronze Age
• Denmark
• Région

Informations

• Publié par: Aarhus University Press
• Date de parution: 04 juin 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788793423305
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 89 Mo

Extrait

Bronze Age Settlement and Land-Use
Vol. I
in Thy, Northwest Denmark
Bronze Age Settlement
and Land-Use in Thy,
Bronze Age Settlement and Land-Use in Thy,
Northwest Denmark Northwest Denmark
Edited by Jens-Henrik Bech, Berit Valentin Eriksen & Kristian Kristiansen
This two-volume, multi-author and multi-disciplinary monograph sheds
Vol. Inew light on the Bronze Age in Thy from many different angles, and
places the archaeology of the area in both a detailed regional and a
broader supra-regional North Sea context. It provides a high-resolution
archaeological and palaeoecological picture of the organisation of
landscapes, settlements and households during the period 1500-700 BC.
By combining the results of palaeoenvironmental research, extensive
feld surveys and excavations of archaeological sites with exceptional
preservation, it links the histories of local farmsteads in Thy with wider
developments and events in the Bronze Age of northwest Europe.
Museum Thy
Jutland Archaeological Society
103174_cover_bronce age_bd1_.indd 1 07/05/18 14:01Bronze Age Settlement
and Land-Use in Thy,
Northwest Denmark
Vol. I
Edited by Jens-Henrik Bech, Berit Valentin Eriksen
& Kristian Kristiansen
Museum Thy
Jutland Archaeological SocietyBronze Age Settlement and Land-Use in Thy, Northwest Denmark, Vol. I
© The authors and Jutland Archaeological Society 2018
Layout and cover: Jens Nygaard and Ea Rasmussen
Translation, language revision and proofreading:
Anne Bloch and David Earle Robinson, HSLS, Ebeltoft
Graphics: Lars Foged Thomsen
Excavation photos: Museum Thy
E-book production by Narayana Press, Gylling
Type: ITC New Baskerville
Jutland Archaeological Society Publications 102
ISBN: 978-87-93423-30-5
ISSN: 0107-2854
Jutland Archaeological Society
Moesgård
DK-8270 Højbjerg
Distribution:
Aarhus University Press
Finlandsgade 29
DK-8200 Århus N
Published with the support of:
Farumgaard-Fonden
Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Front cover: Bronze Age barrows at Elsted, central Thy. Photo: J.-H. Bech.Contents
Preface ................................................................... 9
Chapter 1
The Thy Archaeological Project .............................................. 13
Introduction 13
Pollen analysis13
Field surveys14
Survey fndings14
Sites 15
Developments in population density 18
Site distribution 18
Early Bronze Age sites at Sønderhå 19
Chapter 2
Thy and the outside world in the Bronze Age ................................... 25
The setting 25
The Bronze Age farmstead 33
Economy 55
Along and across the North Sea 64
Land-use in a changing environment 66
Bronze Age contacts in the North Sea region 67
Trade and shipping 83
Thy and the world around: Some conclusions 86
Cumulative probability distributions – what can they tell us? 90
Chapter 3
The rise and fall of Bronze Age societies in Thy, northwest Jutland ................ 107
Introduction: Theoretical model 107
The formation of a barrow landscape in 1500-1100 BC: Social and economic implications 108
The construction of farms and the domestic economy 114
The social organisation of society and the political economy 118
Conclusion: The tragedy of commoners 126Chapter 4
Bronze Age houses in Thy ................................................. 133
Introduction 133
Distribution and date 133
Size and proportions of houses 135
Habitation units with a hearth and cooking pits 138
Habitation units as ‘modules’ in house construction 140
General traits in Bronze Age house construction in Thy 143
Identical house plans 146
Chapter 5
Bronze Age farms in Thy ................................................... 153
Introduction 153
Examples of possible Bronze Age farms 153
Outdoor working areas 158
Conclusion 158
Chapter 6
Animal pens at Bronze Age settlements in Thy: Ditches and post-built fences ........ 161
Introduction161
Fences made of poles with thorns and other brushwood 175
Conclusion176
Catalogue of enclosures and ditches in Thy 177
Chapter 7
Topography: The origin of the landscape in Thy and Vester Hanherred,
processes and sediments ................................................... 185
Mapping of the earlier geological formations 185
The Quaternary 186
The last 10,000 years – the Holocene 188
Radiocarbon dating of marine deposits in northern Thy 190
Chapter 8
Pollen analyses from lake, feld and beach-ridge deposits in the vicinity of
the Bronze Age settlement at Bjerre Enge, Thy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Introduction 193
Pollen analyses from Bjerre Sø 194
Pollen analyses from a hollow by an arable feld at Bjerre 4 204
Palaeoecological studies of beach-ridge deposits to the east of the settlement area 207
The infuence of the Bjerre settlement on the development of the vegetation and the landscape 214
The contribution of the Bjerre studies to the vegetation history of Thy 217
Conclusions218Chapter 9
Pollen analyses from the Bjerre area ......................................... 223
Analyses 223
Bronze Age vegetation at Bjerre based on pollen analysis 230
Chapter 10
Resource problems in a treeless cultural landscape ............................. 231
Introduction231
Previous investigations 231
Investigations of the building timbers 231
Analyses of charcoal from Bjerre 6 and Bjerre 7 236
Other charcoal identifcations 239
Discussion 239
Conclusion248
About radiocarbon dates in appendices A-D ................................... 251
Appendix A ............................................................. 252
Appendix B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Appendix C 270
Appendix D 278This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
BACK TO CONTENT This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
Preface
Jens-Henrik Bech, Berit Valentin Eriksen & Kristian Kristiansen
The ‘Thy Project’ is the convenient shorthand term (who undertook the analyses), set up a long-term
we have always employed for the Thy Archaeological plan to cover the entire country, which resulted in a
Project, which is central to this book (for English series of modern pollen diagrams produced by Svend
speakers, Thy [tˢyːˀ] is pronounced with a hard ‘T’ – Thorkild Andersen, Bent Aaby, Bent Odgaard and later
the ‘h’ is silent’ – rather like ‘Tu’, with stress on the also Peter Rasmussen. These pollen diagrams revealed
T; our American friends never quite learned it). The the impact of prehistoric settlements on the vegeta -
Thy Archaeological Project began as a collaborative, tion in south Jutland, Djursland, northern Jutland,
interdisciplinary and international feld project that central Zealand and, fnally, in Thy. Subsequently,
ran from 1990 to 1997 (frst synthesis published in local pollen data from Bronze Age barrows in Thy
1998 by Earle et al.; further publications up to 2010 (published in Andersen 1999) and from megalithic
cf. Earle & Kristiansen 2010, appendices 2-3). In the monuments were added, too (published in Andersen
early years, the excavation focus was mainly on Late 1992). However, the Thy pollen diagrams (one from
Neolithic settlements in central Thy (published in Hassing Huse Mose and one from Ove Sø, the latter
2008 by Martinez). But from 1993 onwards, it shifted identical to the former and therefore only published
to a number of Bronze Age settlements in central in an internal report) were remarkable in showing a
and northern Thy. The feldwork was succeeded by major and sudden ‘landnam’ around 2700 BC. This
a long post-excavation analysis phase – when new was linked to the Single Grave culture, which created
project members were added to fll gaps and address an open landscape for grazing animals over a period
specifc aspects – culminating, after 20 years, in this of less than a century. A second clearance episode was
two-volume publication of the Bronze Age evidence. evident in the Bronze Age, beginning around 1500
The project’s three strands of collaboration, together BC, which eliminated most of the remaining forests.
with its philosophy and development, will be briefy They represent one of the most dramatic regional
outlined here. They refect the circumstances and pollen sequences in northern Europe, but they make
conditions that face all modern archaeological feld perfect sense archaeologically. Thy is renowned for
projects, and it is hoped that future projects may its thousands of large Bronze Age barrows, which still
beneft from our experience in the Thy Project (see crown the landscape and make it one of the most
also Preface to Earle & Kristiansen 2010). authentic barrow landscapes in Europe. The region
The frst collaborative strand involved ten years of has also produced some of the richest Bronze Age
cooperation (1983-1995) between the National Agency burials, especially from period III. The obvious next
for Nature Conservation and Forestry, Division for step was therefore to undertake an archaeological
Archaeological Heritage (now The Danish Agency for survey within the 10 km c