in Thy, Northwest Denmark in Thy, Bronze Age Settlement and Land-Use 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 new light on the Bronze Age in Thy from many different angles, and Vol. I 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 field 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. Vol. I Vol. Museum Thy Jutland Archaeological Society 103174_cover_bronce age_bd1_.indd 1 07/05/18 14:01 Bronze 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 Society Bronze 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 analysis 13 Field surveys 14 Survey findings 14 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 126 Chapter 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 Introduction 161 Fences made of poles with thorns and other brushwood 175 Conclusion 176 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, field 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 field at Bjerre 4 204 Palaeoecological studies of beach-ridge deposits to the east of the settlement area 207 The influence 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 Conclusions 218 Chapter 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 Introduction 231 Previous investigations 231 Investigations of the building timbers 231 Analyses of charcoal from Bjerre 6 and Bjerre 7 236 Other charcoal identifications 239 Discussion 239 Conclusion 248 About radiocarbon dates in appendices A-D ...................................251 Appendix A .............................................................252 Appendix B. 264 Appendix C .............................................................270 Appendix D .............................................................278 This 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 field project that central Zealand and, finally, in Thy. Subsequently, ran from 1990 to 1997 (first 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 fieldwork 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 fill gaps and address an open landscape for grazing animals over a period specific 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 briefly They represent one of the most dramatic regional outlined here. They reflect the circumstances and pollen sequences in northern Europe, but they make conditions that face all modern archaeological field 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 benefit 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 first 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 catchment area for the pol- Culture and Palaces, the former institution headed len diagram to gain an overview of the settlements. until 1994 by Kristian Kristiansen), and the Geological The results of this work were supplemented by local Survey of Denmark, Division for Geo-botanical pollen data from excavated barrows (Andersen 1999), Research (now The Geological Survey of Denmark and later by pollen analyses of sediments associated and Greenland, headed by Svend Thorkild Andersen† with the buried Bronze Age fields excavated at Bjerre during the same period). This collaboration was aimed Enge, northern