Ferslev-Huset

The Ferslev House- a Cult-Building from the Passage-Grave PeriodIn 1959 a cult-building from the Passage-Grave period was excavated at Ferslev 12 kms. south of Ålborg. A similar building had previously been discovered at Tustrup on Djursland peninsula 1). As at Tustrup, the Ferslev building lay in an area with megalith graves nearby, in this case passage graves (Fig. 1).Excavation revealed the burnt remains of a rectangular house measuring 6 x 5 metres, its axis pointing approximately east-west, with the west end open. It had possessed a saddle-roof borne by centre posts, and contained an oblong hearth extending in the direction parallel to the long walls of the house and lying between the south wall and the centre posts.The site was covered by a layer of fist-sized cobbles, together with charred remains of planks, clay burnt somewhat red, and sheets of birchbark. This layer derives from the fallen walls and roof. The situation was particularly clear along the south wall. The planks lay across the length of the house, and it is therefore concluded that the south wall, which had collapsed inwards, was a timber wall of vertical planks covered with clay and stones. The birchbark sheets are from the roof construction, which was presumably further covered with turf and stones. In the northern part of the site the outline of an oval pit of modern date was found (Figs. 2-4).Under this layer of collapsed wall and roof material the actual interior of the house and the outline of the walls was uncovered (Fig. 5). The hard clay-like subsoil had formed the actual floor surface, on which the hearth and the pottery vessels found in the house had been placed. The hearth was edged with stones set on edge and about 25 cms. high; it was 1 metre wide and 4 metres long, and was filled with a layer, 5-10 cms. thick, of charcoal containing fired flint and charred stones. Both ends of the hearth were delimited by a considerably taller stone. It was this stone-setting around the hearth that had protected the pottery in the house from complete destruction when the south wall fell, as the stones supported the collapsed wall until in the course of disintegration it was gradually deposited above the vessels. It should be noted that constructions closely resembling the hearth here described, and containing fired flint and charcoal, are not infrequently found in passage graves.The side wall to the south had been set in a trench, 30 cms. deep and acute-angled, but with the interior edge of the groove vertical (Figs. 6 & 7). Here the changes in soil character left by the decay of rectangular planks could be seen; the planks had stood against the vertical side of the trench, and been wedged by a stone packing which filled the trench. Post-holes at the bottom of the wall-trench showed that the planks had been in addition dug somewhat in. The wall-trench had a length of 6½ metres. It was not straight for its full length, but bent outwards two metres from the east end of the building, to form a niche within the house. Presumably the actual timber-work formed a wall of similar type to that of the Tustrup house, a palisade wall formed of vertical planks set in a wall-trench with stone packing.The end wall to the east was of a different construction. The burnt remains of 5 rectangular vertical posts here stood, set in post-holes with stone packing, at an interval of about 1.2 metres. The second from the north possessed a well-preserved groove (Figs. 8 & 9), and the southernmost showed also a groove. Both these grooves pointed inwards towards the two intervening posts, but these were too badly preserved for grooves to be perceptible. It can from these observations be concluded that the end wall was built in the so-called "bul" construction, where horizontal planks are slotted into grooves in upright posts. It is the earliest example of a "bul-wark" in Scandinavia.The northern side wall had been disturbed by the oval pit of modern date already mentioned. But in the bottom of this pit traces were found of a wall-trench, the bottom of which was at the same level as the bottom of the southern wall-trench, as well as a post-hole with burnt remains of the post. This is the northernmost post of the east end, and its placing gives the east wall a remarkably irregular course. The north wall is assumed to have been of the same type as the south wall.The western end of the house was open, and in front of the opening was a little round hearth.The holes for the central posts which bore the roof were found along the central axis of the house.Between the south wall and the hearth stood 27 pottery vessels, astonishingly well-preserved and unbroken. 18 of them stood in a single close group, blocking the whole area of passage, and 9 stood in another group. On the hearth stood 7 vessels, 3 of which contained a good handful of fired flint, and by the second post from the north in the east wall stood a single isolated vessel. There must, however, have originally been more pottery than this, for in the filling of the oval pit more than a hundred sherds were found, belonging to vessels of the same type as those here described (Fig. 10).Surrounding the house on the north, east and west sides had stood a fence consisting of stones standing on edge and up to half a metre in height; some of these stones still stood, and others lay where they had fallen, while of the remainder only the holes they had left showed where they had stood.The modem pit in the northern part of the building, which has been mentioned several times, formed an oval measuring 3 by 5 metres, with a depth of 60 cms. The purpose of the pit had been stone-plundering, and splinters of dynamited stone were found in the filling. The stones which had stood here must have been so large that it was necessary to dynamite them before removal. These stones must have belonged to a prehistoric construction of later date than the house, and the base of this construction was in fact found untouched in the bottom of the oval pit. It consisted of a carpet of burnt and crushed flint. It seems possible that here has lain one of the megalithic graves from the Dagger Period so characteristic for East Himmerland, as in these carpets of flint are usual. The construction can hardly have been contemporary with the house, as, if it were, the post-holes and wall trench of the north wall would scarcely have been below surface level.With the Tustrup house in mente this house also can be understood as a cult building from the same period. The large quantity of pottery prevented passage between the south wall and the hearth. There was no settlement deposit, no flint, either implements or swarf, only pottery and potsherds. Nor was there flint outside the house, apart from two blades and a transverse arrowhead. The hearth, with its burnt flint and its large size, is also remarkable. All these circumstances make it unlikely that the building was an ordinary dwelling house.The house in Ferslev had been used for some time. For potsherds were found in the southern wall trench. Some of them belonged to the vessels which stood nearest to the wall within the house, but there were also others belonging to vessels which were not found inside the house. They must have been lying besides the wall, and fallen into the trench at the same time as the sherds of the vessels within the house, possibly at the time of the destruction of the house by fire. These sherds presumably are the relics of clearings-out of vessels previously standing in the house, in the course of which sherds of broken vessels have been trodden into the floor or left lying by the walls, so that not all sherds were swept out. Many sherds, too, lay outside the open west end, while none were found outside the closed east end. This too suggets clearings-out. A number of these latter sherds belong to "fruit-bowls", and thereby appear slightly older than the 35 vessels which were recovered from the house floor.These vessels comprise funnel-beakers, carinated bowls and a straight-sided beaker with an outcurving foot. The ornamentation was done with grooving stick, toothed stick and false coiled-cord (Figs. 11-16). This pottery fixes the time of the last use of the house to the middle of the Passage-Grave Period, probably to a period only slightly later than the Tustrup house.The Ferslev discovery is thus an important closed find, containing much pottery the contemporaneity of which is beyond doubt.A reconstruction of one half of the house in full size has been erected at Ålborg Historical Museum, and here the pottery is exhibited (Fig. 18).An original model in terracotta of the rectangular house with saddle roof is known from the New Stone Age in Czechoslovakia (Fig. 19). Oscar Marseen

Oldtidsbrønde

Prehistoric WellsThe presence of drinking water has at all periods been one of the factors determining the dwelling-places of man. It would appear that, during the Stone and Bronze Ages, settlements were sited by natural springs, rivers or other surface sources. Only one well, a hollowed tree­trunk, is known from the Late Bronze Age 1), and this was used as a deposition place for offerings. A circular plank-built well in East Jutland dated to the Celtic lron Age is similarly interpreted 2).The considerable growth of population in the Early lron Age, attested both historically and archeologically, forced a spread of cultivation over new areas where, if there was no natural drinking water, it was necessary to obtain it by sinking wells. The first wells, from the Pre­Roman 3) and Roman 4) lron Age, about 2 metres deep, were not designed to tap artesian water but are placed in natural hollows and were probably water-filled for the greater part of the year.In the summer of 1955 a collection of hazel wands and potsherds were found on the bed of the lake of Møllesø, which was drained in 1760 and is now under cultivation. The discovery was made in the course of clearing a drainage channel some 3.25 metres deep. An investigation was commenced and the first to appear was a circular interlaced structure of hazel wands which proved to be the present upper edge of a wickerwork well, the original upper portion having been cut away when the drainage channel was dug. The wands were intertwined on a frame­work of thicker vertical hazel sticks, pointed at the lower end and standing in double and treble rows at a distance of 20-30 cms. from each other (Fig. 1). The wickerwork was up to 20 cms. in thickness and still survived to a depth of about 50 cms. The interior diameter of the well was 120 cms. and its remaining depth 93 cms, the bottom of the well being 36 cms. above sea-level. It was filled with light-coloured drift sand mixed with a quantity of potsherds and animal bones.Other hazel wands in the channel sides proved on investigation to be the wickerwork of a second well, later than Well I, into which it had cut slightly. The side had been cut away by the drainage channel and it could therefore be excavated both in plan and in section (Figs. 2-3). It was conical in shape, 100-110 cms. in diameter at the top and 40 cms. less at the bottom. The surviving depth of the well was 145 cms., the wickerwork being about 120 cms. high, well preserved but more flimsy than that of Well I (Fig. 4). Here too the well was filled with drift sand, animal bones and potsherds. The original upper edge of neither well could be determined; their surviving upper edges were, for Well I and Well II respectively, 230 and 130 cms. below the original ground surface.The majority of the potsherds could be reassembled (Fig. 5) and date the wells to late Celtic or early Roman lron Age. One vessel had been cracked in prehistoric times and repaired with a resin-like substance. The bones from Well I have been identified as those of goat and probably sheep, domestic pig, ox and horse, those from Well II as of a young pig.lnvestigation showed that the method of construction of the wells must have been: first, to stick the vertical poles into the ground in a circle and to weave a wickerwork cylinder around them; and then to dig the hole in which to sink the cylinder.A settlement site measuring about 200 X 100 metres, and covered with potsherds of the same type as those from the wells, was identified close to the wells and level with the present surface. This level gives an original depth for the wells of 3--4 metres.*The large-scale excavations at Lindholm Høje near Nørresundby have up to now uncovered five wells. The great cemetery of Lindholm Høje, where to date about 700 graves have been found, dates from 500 to 900 AD; after that date it was covered with drift sand and a village was built above it about 1000 AD. No wells have been found in association with this village. It had long been assmuned that the drift coverage of the cemetery was caused by breaking up by cultivation the light soil north and west of Lindholm Høje. The correctness of this theory was shown two years ago when, during the construction of a rifle range, the excavating machines found widespread traces of settlement in this area. An emergency excavation was carried out with the full personnel from the Lindholm Høje excavation.In the course of this operation a timber-built well was found. It lay at the bottom of a shaft, about 3 metres deep and steep-sided except to the north where there presumably was access to the well. The actual well was about 100 cms. deep and square in shape with an interior measurement of about 110 cms. It was constructed of massive well-shaped timber, tongued and grooved together. In each corner stood a post which supported horizontal planks forming the sides. On the north and west sides massive planks had been laid to provide a firm standing surface. Around the well pointed planks had been driven into the earth close together to prevent quicksand from flowing into the well. The well contained many twigs and branches and a quantity of poorly preserved animal bones and teeth. At the bottom lay the sherds of a little spherical vessel with vertical knob-handles, horizontally pierced (Fig. 7) 10). Some of the timbers of the well showed holes and shapings with no present constructional significance, showing them to be reused timber.The next well (L. H. no. 1559), also at the bottom of a shaft, was of more massive construction than the first (Fig. 8). It consisted of a massive square well-shaft of heavy shaped planks, tongued and grooved together, with a maximum interior breadth of 120 cms. The sides of the well were packed with large granite stones; the bottom, funnel-shaped and set with large stones, lay about 3.5 metres below original ground surface (Figs. 9-10). Alongside the south side of the well was a little half-oval construction of pointed planks, their maximum length 130 cms. These formed a funnel, with interior dimensions about 50 X 70 cms., of which the timbers of the well formed one side. lts base lay some 30 cms. higher than the bottom of the well, and it cannot therefore have been used as a well at the same time as the main construction. It may have served as a cooling room for milk or other foodstuffs. The stoneset well contained a number of potsherds, attributable to the Later lron Age or the Viking Period, as well as a badly preserved comb of bone ornamented with groups of oblique lines. From the little plank enclosure came a well-preserved birchwood scoop with a handle ending in a stylized animal head (Fig. 12). On it stood a cylindrical wooden box (Fig. 11). Their position suggests that they were not dropped into the compartment but placed there, a circumstance which supports the theory that the compartment was used for food storage.After the completion of the rifle range two further shafts were found, one of which contained two square wells (L. H. no. 1833) (Figs. 13-15), with interior dimensions 100 and 160 cms. The smaller well-shaft cut into the larger, which is thereby proved to be the earlier. No ramp to the edge of the wells could be traced. The bottoms of the wells lie about 3 metres below original ground level. No artifacts apart from some unidentifiable potsherds were found in these wells.The other shaft contained a well (L. H. no. 1832) formed of wickerwork with an inner reinforcement of closeset pointed planks (Figs. 16--17). Its interior diameter was about 100 cms. and its depth 90 cms. The sides of the shaft were not too steep to have been used for descent and ascent (Fig. 18). The well contained potsherds of Later lron Age or Viking Period type, a fragment of a wagon wheel and three fragments of a plain wooden box.None of the wells was artesian. The terrain lies high and the subsoil consists of sand, but there is a thin clay stratum 3-4 metres down which contains the surface water and allows it, in rainy periods, to stand no more than 25 cms. below ground surface. The number of wells inside a small area indicates that a large village originally stood here, and trial trenches showed that the settlement level continued for a considerable distance. Potsherds prove its contemporaneity with the Lindholm Høje cemetery.*As will be seen from these notes there is not yet sufficient material to provide a basis for dating wells by their mode of construction. In particular wickerwork wells were used both in the Celtic Iron Age and in the Germanic lron Age or Viking Period. The plank-built wells may be confined, as here, to the late Germanic lron Age or the Viking period, but too little material exists for any certainty. The wells found at Trelleborg, Hedeby and other Viking sites show constructional differences from these.Oscar Marsee

Fangstfolk på Selbjerg

Hunters and Fishers at SelbjergOn the north side of Limfjord, at Selbjerg on the southwestern tip of Øland in Øster Hanherred, recent excavations have revealed traces of a 4000 year old colony of the Pit-Ware folk, a culture well-known in Sweden but hitherto rarely found in Denmark. It was a culture of fishers and hunters of seals and whales, though pigs and occasionally cattle were kept. In Denmark the culture has been found on the islands and coasts of the Kattegat, often on Ertebølle sites.The site, excavated by the author under the auspices of the Aalborg Historical Museum, was revealed as a kitchen-midden of oyster and other shells, now 7.2 metres above sea level, but at the time of the settlement lying actually on the 15 metre broad shoreline. The midden consisted of an earlier and a later deposit, separated by a layer of sand, about 12 cms. thick, marking a rise in the sea level. Below this break in the sequence only a core axe, a certain amount of flint swarf and a few undecorated potsherds were found, the latter, however, resembling New Stone Age ware rather than Ertebølle.Above the sand layer the excavation revealed traces of Pit-Ware culture. The type characteristic of this culture, the cylindrical flaking block, was found throughout the upper deposit. In contrast to the contemporary Passage-Grave sites, and to the Swedish Pit-Ware settlements, there was in general a scarcity of artifacts, whether of pottery, flint or bone - although other bone was preserved in quantity. Flint swarf was often concentrated in the few metres around a cylindrical flaking block, flint being otherwise sparse - about 75 fragments to the square metre. Only three fragments of blade arrowheads were found, only one with tang preserved, though to these should be added three complete specimens found in an earlier reconnaissance.The potsherds found are all reddish yellow in colour, of coarse clay plenti­fully mixed with quartz and poorly fired. They are 5-11 mms. thick and, at least in one case, built up of strips of clay (fig. 2). Sharply distinguished from these is a Passage-Grave vessel (fig. 10) found at the bottom of the upper deposit in an undoubtedly undisturbed layer.Above the kitchen midden was a cobble paving which must originally have covered the whole area, and behind it a semicircle of dark earth had been dug into the slope of the hill (fig. 1, rows A-C). Though no post holes were found these features suggest a period of permanent habitation.Among the bone material those of red deer predominated, followed by those of pigs and cows. Seal, bear and porpoise were also represented, as well as many birds, including seasonal migrants both of winter and summer species.C. J. Becker presumes in his article, that the pit ware people did not settle down. (Aarbøger 1950 p. 255). This point of view seems to be contradicted by the Selbjerg find. Pig and cow beeing represented among the bones may indicate that the pit ware people really settled in dwelling places. And when you find the blade arrowheads in the passage graves, they don’t absolutely need to be of a pit ware culture origin, the passage grave people itself having excel­lent flint smiths. (Aarbøger 1950 p. 213-220).Oscar Marseen*In the summer of 1951 a similar settlement site was investigated by Sylvest Grantzau of Aalborg Historical Museum at Gjøl about 10 kms. from Selbjerg. Here too there was a kitchen-midden and a semicircular excavation in the hillside with a cobble paving below.Another settlement at Nr. Tranders has also been identified, giving 50 cylindrical blocks and 10 blade arrowheads. Here, however, all objects found lay in the ploughed up layer immediately above undisturbed subsoil.Oscar Marsee

En trææske af ler

A Wooden Box in Pottery In 1952 members of the Jutland Archeological Society undertook the emergency excavation of a ploughed-over tumulus in Nyrup (Sønderholm parish, Himmerland; North Jutland). The tumulus contained as central grave a broken­up cairn burial of the Dagger Period, and covered a ring-wall of large stones 22 meters in diameter, immediately within which were 9 secondary cremation patches.In one of these was found a pottery box with lid (Fig. 1), 6.4 cms. high, 17.5 cms. long and 10.5 cms. wide. Its sides are concave-convex (Fig. 2). The box could be fastened by means of a rod passing along a groove in the lid and through three perforated projections, one in the centre of each side and on the lid. The underside of the rimmed lid is fire-blackened, perhaps from the cremation patch, or perhaps indicating that the box was used to carry coals. Its shape proves that it was worn on the belt.The box is dated to the Late Celtic Iron Age by potsherds of a typical Kraghede vessel found in the same patch (Fig. 3). No parallels are known from the Late Bronze Age (Fig. 4). It is probable that boxes of this type were in common use, but were made of wood or hark and therefore perished.Oscar Marseen

Smedegårde og Livø

Smedegaarde and LivøPitware Settlements on the Limfjord.Two years after C. J. Becker's publication in 1950 of the Pitted Ware Culture in Denmark 1), the settlement at Selbjerg on Øland on the northern shore of the Limfjord was found, with pottery, flint implements and animal and fish bones 2). In the following year (1953), the settlement at Smedegaarde, in the parish of Nørre Tranders, was discovered. Smedegaarde is situated 4 km. east of Aalborg and about 4 km. south of the present Limfjord, and lies 6.35 m. above sea-level. The settlement originally lay on the west bank of an arm of the fjord.The area involved covered approximately 20 m. N-S and up to 10 m. E-W. As it transpired that no undisturbed stratum bearing artifacts was present, all material was carefully sieved to provide as large a statistical material as possible. The strongly arenacoous soil precludes the preservation of bones, and neither Cardium nor Ostrea shells were found, in contrast to Selbjerg.No post-holes were found in the light-coloured sub-soil and any dwellings there may have been have left no visible traces. Only the presence of fire-shattered granite provides evidence of fires, which, however, cannot be dated, as ploughing has destroyed the stratigraphy.The numerous potsherds represent such a large number of pots -at least 50- that a fairly long occupation may be assumed.No flint occurs near the site and the material used must have been brought from a distance. This is also seen by the absence of raw nodules, only worked flint being found. The site must, then, have been chosen with exclusive regard to food supply.In the inventory p. 00, Becker's classification 7) of tanged arrowheads, which is based on differences in the dressing of the tang, has been adopted. This classification with its sub­divisions A0, A1, A2, A3, (the points are all of A type) seems, however, too precise and specific to be of value for the Smedegaarde material, where there is an almost equal number of each type, and where it seems to be arbitrary, from which side the tang has been retouched. The arrowheads must be regarded as contemporary, also in view of the homogeneity of the pottery. The above considerations do not apply to type A0 (blade arrowhead without tang), however, which can only be determined as a type in integral finds 8). There are 6 specimens of A0, all having in common that they are flat at the base. This has been achieved not by dressing but in the striking of the blade, and permitted the point to be hafted without a tang. Only specimens with the tang intact are otherwise enumerated. Broken tips are not included.Of other flint implements, special mention should be made of the many blade scrapers and oblong flake scrapers. The latter agree well with the inventory from other Pitted Ware sites with A-points -Aagaard I, Øster Tørslev Parish, Randers Country, a site with an admixture of Ertebølle artifacts, where the inventory included 56 A-points, 71 cylinder flaking cores and 243 flake scrapers, of which the majority were oblong 9). Two flake axes, a core axe and seven transverse arrowheads and fragments of Late Neolithic implements such as daggers and sickles, also figure in the list, but such pieces are often found on the ancient coastline. Transverse arrowheads are, judging by Swedish settlements, not alien to the Pitted Ware culture. (It should be remarked that six are made from chips and the seventh from a blade. The latter therefore belongs to the Ertebølle culture).The pottery matrix is usually coarse and with a strong admixture of quartz, but well fired. The colour is most often brownish, but grey-black also occurs. The vast majority of the sherds are unornamented owing to the large size of the pots, which have been decorated only on or near the rim. It is rather unusual that the pots are also decorated on the edge itself (fig. 3). Only 12 small base sherds were found; 3 of them may be of round-bottomed vessels, the remainder have a flat base. Some of the latter can, however, be from Late Neolithic vessels, of which a few side-sherds were found. An examination of pitted ware potsherds in Swedish museums, and comparison with published Swedish pottery, reveals that the Smedegaarde pottery and the west Swedish pitware pottery from Bohuslän are so much alike, that the same culture must be responsible for both.Livø.During 1961 and 1962, 190 sq. m. of this settlement, which extends roughly 16 m. north-south and 20 m. east-west, on the cliff at the south of the island, were examined. On the surface of the light, greyish loam lay a great deal of ploughed-up flint waste. The pitware artifacts were found throughout the undisturbed stratum, which is up to 20 cm. thick and lies directly on the sand subsoil, but it was not possible to discern any stratification. Conditions were not suitable for the preservation of bone.As the site, which is situated on a low stretch of sand, surrounded by clay subsoil, has been open since its occupation, apart from a later covering of soil and blown sand, the same reservations as to possible intrusions apply as to other open Stone Age sites. But as a whole, it is regarded as a Pitted Ware site.The potsherds are generally coarse, with a strong quartz admixture, but well fired, although thin sherds with a smooth surface and a finer quartz admixture also occur. The colour varies from yellow-brown to black-grey.The smaller inventory, p. 128, in contrast to both Smedegaarde and the Pitted Ware settlements in Sweden indicates a shorter period of habitation, and this is confirmed by another interesting piece of evidence. Several rocks, resting on the subsoil, were uncovered. Around them were quantities of flint swarf and hammer stones, blades, cylindrical flaking cores and unfinished or rejected cores. They are anvil stones, where at least the coarser preparation took place. They were usually pointed, like small bauta stones, with shattering on or near the top. Fig. 13 shows a still erect anvil stone, surrounded by hammer stones and some flint waste. Fig. 15 shows an overturned anvil closely surrounded by hammer stones and swarf. In both cases most of the waste and all artifacts have been removed to clear the anvils for photography. The growth of swarf around them was clearly indicated and demonstrates that the layer is Pitted Ware throughout and deposited quite rapidly. These flint workshops with anvils confirm Anders Kragh's arguments on flint technique 11).It is apparent from the rejected or unfinished blocks that it is the locally available dark shore-flint that was employed. Several of them still have the retouched sharp platform, which is the prerequisite for striking a keeled blade-in other words a keeled blade that has not been struck. In KUML 195316) I suggested that keeled blades must be regarded as a waste product. But this view, which was already challenged by Bengt Salomonsson in 1960 17), is disproved by the Livø site. Besides the tanged points, there are also 20 burins and 8 scrapers made from keeled blades (fig. 7-10).The Livø burins are robust and many of them can be seen to have been used repeatedly after re-cutting. This is particularly mentioned because it suggests that burins have been a natural and traditional tool for the Pitted Ware people. That so few as 5 were found at Smedegaarde is explained by the lack of opportunity to hunt seals or larger animals and the consequent reduced demand for burins, which are believed to be for working bone.The numerous dispersed pieces of amber found must be seen as evidence that one of the purposes of the settlement was the systematic collection of this material -a previously unknown side of the Pitted Ware peoples economy. The site must also have been chosen, not only for its fishing and seal-hunting but for its ready supply of flint, of which there are great quantities on the shore.From the flint inventory it appears that it is almost exclusively arrowheads and flake and blade implements that have been manufactured here and that it is the dark shore flint which has been employed. The axe fragments found are for the most part made of light, fine flint, which, at least at the present, is not found on Livø. Besides these, a "double edged" battleaxe of greenstone (fig. 11) was found in several pieces, in such circumstances that there seems to be no doubt as to its belonging to the Pitted Ware site. Such axes also occur at Swedish Pitted Ware sites 15).Flint implements and waste are largely unpatinated, but an experimental exposure to the elements demonstrated surprisingly that only one year is necessary to produce a blue-white patina.Traces of a horseshoe-shaped hut were found, but cannot be ascribed with certainty to the Pitted Ware habitation, (fig. 16).The results from the three Pitted Ware settlements, Selbjerg, Smedegaarde and Livø, which have all been published, supplement and confirm Becker's documentation in 1950 1) of the role of the Pitted Ware people in Denmark.Oscar Marsee

Lundegårde-gravpladsen fra yngre jernalder

The Lundegaarde cemetery from the Late Roman Iron Age The Late Roman Iron-Age cemetery at Lundegaarde (Nøvling parish, East Himmerland) lies on the top of a hill between three Bronze-Age tumuli. Excavation, by the author for Aalborg Historical Museum, began in summer 1963 and will be continued, as burials from the Late Roman Iron Age have hitherto been a rarity in Himmerland, whereas those from the preceding period are common. The reason for this may be that Early Roman Iron-Age graves are set with large stones, whereas the Late Roman Iron-Age graves are almost stonefree and therefore more easily overlooked.This preliminary account is therefore only given to provide an archeological basis for the subsequent discussion of the runic inscription on the rosette fibula found in Grave 4 (Fig. 3).This grave was, exceptionally, surrounded by stones, leaning inward against each other and almost roofing the grave. Slight traces of the body showed that it lay outstretched on its back, with head to the west. Strings of beads at each shoulder must have been borne over the shoulder, as they lay under and over the bones. That on the right was of 48 amber beads, and that on the left of 91 glass and 32 amber beads. Two small silver fibulae, too corroded to be typed, lay by the left shoulder, and the rosette fibula, of silver with gold inlay on the rosettes and the band above the sheath lay by the right shoulder. After conservation it could be seen that the broad pin-sheath bore a runic inscription.The other contents of the grave were two decorated pottery vessels (Fig. 4), fragments of a knife with oval silver pommel, a single-edged iron knife and a bronze dipper or sieve.The rosette fibula is of a special Scandinavian type which seems to have been most common in the beginning of the Third Century AD but known and used until the end of the century 3). Three other specimens with runic inscriptions are known, all from rich earth-graves at Himlingøje, Værløse and Næsbjerg. The Lundegaarde fibula is of the same type as that from Himlingøje, and resembles another newly found at the Gammel Hasseris grave! pit near Aalborg (Fig. 5).The pottery from Grave 4 belongs in both shape and ornamentation to a North Jutland pottery group with South Norwegian affiliations, which is dated by Mackeprang to the Third Century A. D. 4). Pottery from all other graves in the cemetery is of the same type and date, with the exception of one cremation of Early Germanic Iron-Age date.Oscar Marsee