Experiments on digging pits in pit zone alignments

Iron Age pit zone alignments are a relatively newly recognized type of system and research has focused primarily on why the pits were dug. There are numerous proposals, although the general perception of them as a kind of defence system hasnot changed since it was put forward by Eriksen and Rindel in 2001. But an experimental archaeological approach is, as of yet, untested, and by asking the ‘how’ before the ‘why’ the enigmatic tracts of thousands of pit-holes can be analysed froma new angle. Thus, in this article, the focus moves from the collective pit zone alignments to each individual pit-hole and the process involved in digging same. Systematic studies of spades, attempts to reconstruct double-spades, experimentsdigging pit-holes and the construction and use of parts of pit zone alignments helps make it probable that the inhabitants of a village from the pre-Roman Iron Age would have been able to dig a stretch of 100 metres by 4 metres of a pit zonealignment, broadly equivalent to seven holes, in 1 day. The experiments also made it clear that the pit zone alignment did not constitute an obstacle to sheep or cattle, and that they only, under exceptional circumstances, were an obstacle to people. But most significant was the insight gained into the process of digging the holes in terms of the organization of work, which undoubtedly lay behind the excavation work

Typology and function of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cremation graves – a micro-regional case study

In Denmark, there has been little focus on characteristic differences between grave types from the transition period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age with limited elaboration on the nature of the differences and on chronological variation. In nearby Scania, Sweden, a grave type classic for Southern Scandinavia, the ‘cremation pit’, has been interpreted as in situ remains of the actual cremation pyre, that is, a form of bustum. Here, we further explore this interpretation through both osteological and archaeological analyses of recently excavated graves from the Fraugde region on northern Funen ,Denmark. In the Fraugde region, pyre debris in cremation graves clearly gain significance during the transition period from the Bronze Age towards the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The exclusive presence of cremation pits on the Pre-Roman Iron Age grave sites in contrast to the varied grave types present on the Bronze Age sites implies a change in cremation practice and technology during the transition period. Although clearly commemorated and left undisturbed for centuries, the cremation pits on the pre-Roman Iron Age sites must be interpreted as intentional, secondary deposits of the debris from the cremation pyre, but not as in situ pyre sites