{"title":"Reflections on Jørgen Jensen: The Prehistory of Denmark; from the Stone Age to the Vikings – Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 2013","authors":"Ole Høiris","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1177783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1177783","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the Danish version, Jørgen Jensen’s Prehistory of Denmark is presented as the continuation of an archaeological tradition going back to 1843. Jensen’s work is the fourth, and what is common to these archaeological descriptions of our past is that they discuss our Danish origin and identity, related to the worldview of Romanticism, and reflect the most important issues at the time of their publication. The background is that Denmark was reduced to a very small state during this period, that Danes migrated to the area after the Ice Age, and that we have lived on the periphery of cultural evolution and civilisation. By presenting his predecessors’ reflections on such issues, I analyse aspects of Jensen’s work from this perspective.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132131211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A new time: Bayesian models of an Early Neolithic enclosure in North-Western Denmark","authors":"T. Torfing","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1190187","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1190187","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article presents the results of the first Bayesian model of a causewayed enclosure from Denmark. 21 samples were dated, some with multiple dates, giving a total of 41 dates. These dates are built into a model which includes archaeological priors in the form of stratigraphy. It is demonstrated that this enclosure can be dated to the same time as the majority of enclosures on the British Isles: the 37th century BC. Together with other early dates for enclosures, it illustrates that enclosure construction was introduced in South Scandinavia as part of a large European expansion of enclosures. With Bayesian modelling, we can provide better answers to more questions, both regarding intrasite chronologies and a wide range of chronological issues.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127394677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chronological aspects of the Hensbacka – a group of hunter-gatherers/fishers on the west coast of Sweden during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition: an example of early coastal colonization","authors":"Lou Schmitt, K. Svedhage","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1141490","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1141490","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this short article, we take a brief but concise look at chronological, and to a limited extent environmental and typological, aspects of the Hensbacka culture group in Bohuslän. Due to the extensive nature of the group in time and space, it is reasonable to refer to members of this group as colonizers – even if other groups may have visited western Sweden prior to the Hensbacka. Granted, the title is provocative but it should be made clear that we are addressing the Hensbacka group as we know it today, and not in the mid-1950s. In addition, and fairly obvious, it is only the Swedish west coast that is taken into consideration, since this particular area had an extensive seasonal population during the close of the Late Pleistocene and beginning of early Holocene; one that is difficult to find elsewhere in Scandinavia.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130818519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ‘Burgundian’ hat from Herjolfsnes, Greenland: new discoveries, new dates","authors":"Michéle Hayeur Smith, J. Arneborg, Kevin P. Smith","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1151615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1151615","url":null,"abstract":"In 1921, during Poul Nørlund’s excavation at the Norse farm Herjolfsnes, Greenland, a tall hat was recovered from the burial grounds surrounding the farm’s church, where a substantial collection of medieval garments had been recovered. This unusual hat came to symbolize not only the end of the Greenland Norse colony but also its enduring cultural links with continental European fashions, following a comment to this effect published by Nørlund himself. In 1996, the hat was dated to the early fourteenth century by Arneborg, a century earlier than Nørlund’s dating, based on stylistic comparisons with European examples. Recent research on North Atlantic textiles led to a reexamination of the hat, with different sections sampled and resubmitted for accelerated mass spectrometry dating. The results suggest that the body of the hat and its crown are of different periods with c. 100 years between them. This reanalysis of the Herjolfsnes ‘tall brimless hat’ or ‘Burgundian’ hat suggests that a considerable amount of cloth recycling took place in these North Atlantic colonies, that cloth was a valued and cherished commodity, and raises questions about the role this item of material culture role should play in discussions of identity and enduring links between Greenland and the continent.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131557820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Invitation systems and identification in Late Iron Age southern Scandinavia? The gold foil figures from a new perspective","authors":"M. Baastrup","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1151692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1151692","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The ability to identify oneself has always been important, because people in all periods entered into relationships in which their role depended upon their identity. This must have been of great importance to long-distance connections in prehistory, in cases where people did not know the appearance of the foreign individuals they were to connect with. The aim of this article is to present an idea of how a system of identification may have been established. It is intended as ‘food for thought’ on the subject. Gold foil figures could have played a role in prehistoric invitation systems, the identification of a person’s true identity and in the dependency upon magnates in southern Scandinavia during the 6th–8th centuries AD. The gold foil figures may have been tokens issued by the magnate and served as invitations to special events, at a time when there was apparently a preoccupation with organising cult activities at the elite residences and restricting places at and admission to such events. The figures did not guarantee that it was the right guests who arrived on these occasions, but presenting this type of token may have minimised the risk of allowing in impostors.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129234265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Vikings, victims of their own success? A selective view on Viking research and its dissemination","authors":"Sarah Croix","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2015.1133944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1133944","url":null,"abstract":"The Viking age as a time of adventures and violence never ceases to fascinate the public. Both aspects remain central to the definitions of the period which can be found in recent introductions to the topic. Those definitions, developed in Western Europe and applied to the events taking place in this region, are currently being challenged by scholars arguing for the greater significance of economic, political and social developments on a broader scale, beyond the strict agency of individuals of Scandinavian origin. This discussion raises the question of the participation of different regions in the Viking phenomenon and their visibility in the research history. While Viking studies can benefit from this debate thanks to new perspectives on the cross-cultural dynamics of the Viking world, generalizations and excessive broadening may potentially lead the concept to lose its meaning. Therefore, we need to retain the focus on the specificities of the Viking age as a particular set of phenomena under the broader scope of contemporary pan-European historical processes and to pursue our research objectives independently from the desires and pre-conceptions of the public.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115493222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Late Bronze Age hoard from Bækkedal, Denmark – new evidence for the use of two-horse teams and bridles","authors":"Torben Sarauw","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2015.1115606","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1115606","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In late summer 2014, two metal detectorists located 40 bronze objects on a small hillock west of Gammel Skørping in Himmerland. Eastern Himmerland in particular is renowned for its many Late Bronze Age hoards and the Bækkedal hoard, as the discovery is now known, underlines this trend as it represents a multi-type hoard from Late Bronze Age period V. The hoard, which was undergoing progressive plough disturbance, contains both male and female items and, astonishingly, also several metres of well-preserved leather straps that had once formed parts of bridles and harness. Moreover, several bronze fittings, including cheek pieces and phalerae, were in situ on the leather straps, thereby enabling parts of the bridles to be reconstructed. The many bronze harness-related objects show that the hoard represents the components of bridles for a two-horse team. This article gives a preliminary presentation of the hoard, with a particular focus on the metal objects and horse harness, which are then placed in a broader northwest European context.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130376590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The chronology and structure of the Sejlflod cemetery, Northern Jutland, Denmark","authors":"Elisabeth B. Carlsen, Niels Haue, J. N. Nielsen","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2016.1159428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2016.1159428","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Sejlflod cemetery in Northern Jutland, containing almost 300 graves from the Late Roman and Early Germanic Iron Age, occupies a central position in a North European perspective. This arises in particular from the fact that the graves are inhumation burials furnished with a relative abundance of grave goods and that the cemetery represents the entire adult population of a village through time. An understanding of the Sejlflod cemetery is important for investigations of other similar cemeteries and burial grounds, for studies of a range of period-defining artefacts and for analyses of the social circumstances of the time. It is, however, heavily dependent on knowledge of the cemetery’s chronological structure. On the basis of the pottery, it has proved possible to divide the cemetery up into four chronological phases. This division is supported by stylistic and chronological analyses of the fibulas and a few other artefact types from the graves. Surprisingly, the chronological analysis does not reveal a horizontal stratigraphical development. On the contrary, it provides a basis for a new interpretation of the cemetery as a progressive fusion of independent family grave clusters.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114995267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Danish runestones – when and where?","authors":"Lisbeth M. Imer","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2015.1104905","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1104905","url":null,"abstract":"This article concerns the dating and distribution of Danish runestones from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. On the basis of both old and more recent investigations, the runestones are divided into five chronological periods each with their own characteristics and according to typological features regarding runes, language, style, and ornament. The majority of Danish runestones were erected within two generations after the conversion around AD 970–1020/25 and probably as a result of the stress and societal changes in connection with the advent of Christianity. The geographical distribution changed dramatically during the 400 year long runestone period and was probably due to the changing political situation. In the eighth and ninth centuries, runestones were mainly erected on Fyn, Sjælland, and Skåne. Runestones were almost exclusively erected in Jutland in the tenth century before the conversion and in the decades around the year 1000, runestones were erected in the north-eastern parts of Jutland and along the coast in Skåne. The runestone fashion died out in most parts of Denmark during the eleventh century, although on Bornholm the tradition began in the early eleventh century and came to an end within a few generations in the late eleventh century or around AD 1100.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126922736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Price, Kirsten Prangsgaard, M. Kanstrup, P. Bennike, K. Frei
{"title":"Galgedil: isotopic studies of a Viking cemetery on the Danish island of Funen, AD 800–1050","authors":"T. Price, Kirsten Prangsgaard, M. Kanstrup, P. Bennike, K. Frei","doi":"10.1080/21662282.2015.1056634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2015.1056634","url":null,"abstract":"Galgedil is a Viking Age cemetery located in the northern part of the Danish island of Funen. Excavations at the site revealed 54 graves containing 59 inhumations and 2 cremation burials. Previous study of the remains to date has included light isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in collagen (10 samples) and the radiocarbon determination of the age of 8 samples. In addition, aDNA was investigated in 10 samples from the cemetery. Here we report the analysis of strontium isotopes in human tooth enamel as a signal of place of birth. Some 36 samples have been measured and non-local outliers identified. Baseline levels of strontium isotope ratios in Denmark are discussed and documented. Our study also includes an in-depth consideration of the bioarcheology of the skeletal remains in terms of demography, paleopathology, and taphonomy. The burials are evaluated in light of the available archeological, chronological, anthropological, and isotope information available.","PeriodicalId":191998,"journal":{"name":"Danish Journal of Archaeology","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134356619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}