Assembling the house, building a home The Late Iron Age longhouse (500-1000 AD) Anna Severine Beck Assembling the house, building a home The Late Iron Age longhouse (500-1000 AD) Anna Severine Beck Ph.D. Thesis Aarhus University Museum Southeast Denmark 2017 Name: Anna Severine Beck Institution: Archaeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Museum Southeast Denmark, Vordingborg, Denmark Supervisor: Mads Mähler Holst ( - Oct. 2016) Mette Svart Kristiansen (Oct. 2016 - ) Co-supervisors: Lars Jørgensen, research professor, The National Museum Mads Kähler Holst, director, Moesgaard Museum Tim Flohr Sørensen, associate professor, University of Copenhagen Handed in: 08.12.2017 Text length: Synthesis 209.344 units // 87,2 pages Article 1 54.815 units // 22,8 pages Article 2 50.737 units // 21,1 pages Article 3 120.749 units // 50,3 pages Article 4 96.227 units // 40,1 pages Total: 524.872 units // 218,7 pages Contents Preface ...............................................................................................................................3 English summary ................................................................................................................6 Dansk resumé ....................................................................................................................8 Introduction .......................................................................................................................11 Aims of the thesis ..............................................................................................................12 Archaeological framework ................................................................................................13 Theoretical framework ......................................................................................................15 Framework of the thesis..................................................................................................... 18 The longhouse - characterising a research field.................................................................. 20 Finding the longhouse .......................................................................................................20 Changing research agendas ...............................................................................................25 The role of the longhouse in research today ......................................................................31 Fragments of the longhouse ...............................................................................................33 The total record .................................................................................................................33 The fragmented longhouse ................................................................................................35 An alternative approach ....................................................................................................39 The four articles .................................................................................................................41 Article 1 ............................................................................................................................42 Article 2 ............................................................................................................................43 Article 3 ............................................................................................................................44 Article 4 ............................................................................................................................45 The longhouse as an archaeological phenomenon .............................................................46 Assemblage theory - an introduction .................................................................................46 Components...................................................................................................................... 48 People and the archaeological house ......................................................................50 Relations ...........................................................................................................................52 Processes ..........................................................................................................................54 Multitemporal dimensions of the longhouse ............................................................55 Redefining the longhouse as an archaeological phenomenon ...........................................58 ——————————————————— 1 Assembling the house, building a home .............................................................................61 Assembling the house .......................................................................................................62 The role of the longhouse ..................................................................................................68 Building a home................................................................................................................ 69 Camps at Roskilde Festival ......................................................................................71 Boundaries.............................................................................................................. 74 Maintenance ...........................................................................................................77 Social memory ........................................................................................................80 At home across time ..........................................................................................................81 Conclusions........................................................................................................................ 86 References .........................................................................................................................89 Appendix 1 - 4 ...................................................................................................................111 ——————————————————— 2 Preface This project started, as so many other archaeological projects, with an excavation. In this case, the excavation of the rich Late Iron Age settlement at Strøby Toftegård that was excavated 1995-2013 in the northern part of Stevns. I got involved in the project in 2011 where I got the responsibility of the last excavation campaigns of the site in 2011-2013 and later of the ensuing processing and publication of the site in connection with the research project Pre-Christian Cult Sites conducted by the late Lars Jørgensen at The National Museum, Copenhagen. As things developed, I got the possibility to extend the work on the settlement complex of Strøby Toftegård to become a PhD-thesis in corporation with my working place, Museum Southeast Denmark, the National Museum and Aarhus University. Because of the historical background of the thesis, the site of Strøby Toftegård still plays a central role in the thesis. However, the thesis also provided me with the possibility of combining two of my main interests within archaeology: the research of the house and home across time and space and a fundamental interest in the epistemological and ontological questions of archaeology. The context of the thesis implies that it is rooted in a diverse range of archaeological environments stretching from the everyday practical-oriented contract archaeology to the large culture- historical research project and the reflexive and theoretically oriented academic archaeology. In the process, my work has been characterised by an interchange between the diverse research environments at the local museum, the National Museum and at the university. At times, it has been challenging to find the balance between the various environments which each have their own focus areas, approach to and agendas for the archaeological field. On the other hand, I have also found great inspiration in the combination and ‘free surfing’ between environments. The combination of environments has directly influenced the thesis in the attempt to serve something useful for everybody and must as such be seen as a fundamental premise for the thesis. My hope is that it generally has been for the benefit of the final product and that the thesis will serve to unite elements of archaeology that are sometimes experienced as ‘living in different worlds’. It has at least been an ambition for me to try to bridge the gap between the daily practice of archaeology and the theoretical archaeology and demonstrate that they are closer entangled than is always obvious from the surface. There is a whole range of people that I would like to give my deepest thanks for making the thesis possible. First of all, I would like to thank Svend Aage Tornbjerg for entrusting the archaeological work with Strøby Toftegård to me. I appreciate your confidence. Secondly, the work would not have been possible without the funding for which Lars Jørgensen, the National Museum, Slots- & Kulturstyrelsen, ——————————————————— 3 Aarhus University and not least Museum Southeast Denmark should be thanked. Museum Southeast Denmark particularly for keeping track of the complicated accounting — with patience and always with a smile. For supervision, discussions and general support during the writing process, I want to thank my supervisors, Mads Holst and Lars Jørgensen, who started up the project — and Mette Svart Kristiansen and Tim