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The complex of megaliths near Tustrup is a prime example of the megalithic sites used by early farming communities in Stone Age Europe. Excavated in the 1950s by Moesgaard Museum, the site continues to hold great contemporary and scientific value. Its significance relates primarily to the unusual find of a ritual complex connected to two dolmens and passage grave. The question of why monumental sites played such an important role for early farming communities is currently the focus of several international studies. In Denmark, which boasts one of the world’s largest concentrations of megalithic monuments as well as a strong tradition for research in the area, archaeologists have had a longstanding wish to contribute to this discussion with a comprehensive publication about the unique complex of megaliths near Tustrup. Experts have researched the finds and meticulously analysed the site and its artefacts. These detailed studies have led to surprising and well-documented interpretations of the megalithic tombs, the construction history of the ritual site and their function, along with the inter-relationship between the monuments.
In this book, a contemporary archaeologist critically examines designs experts advising the US government suggested to mark nuclear waste sites and prevent their excavation thousands of years into the future: to build either an artificial ruin, or install a landscape scale artwork; and explores why planners thought they would work.
This pioneering work presents the first comprehensive economic history of medieval Denmark. It puts data produced by more than a century of historical research into a new context and includes a multitude of information based on primary research. The book abounds in knowledge of natural and human resources, rural life, urban industries, tax and commodity trade. Arguing that the development of the Danish resources from the eleventh to the middle of the fourteenth century cannot be viewed simply as a period of prosperity, and conversely that the Late Middle Ages were characterized as much by growth as by recession, the book places itself in an international historiographical controversy. The Danish Resources will become an indispensable standard work for students of Danish and north European medieval history.
The North European megaliths are among the most enduring structures built in prehistory; they are imbued with symbolic meanings which embody physical and conceptual ideas about the nature of the world inhabited by the first Northern farmers. The Megaliths of Northern Europe provides a much needed up-to-date synthesis of the material available on these monuments, incorporating the results of recent research in Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. This research has brought to light new data on the construction of the megaliths and their role in the cultural landscape, and Magdalena Midgley offers a fascinating interpretation of the symbolism of megalithic tombs within the context of early far...
Newgrange in Ireland is a world famous monument not only because of its vast scale and elaborate megalithic art, but also because of its renowned alignment to the sun on the winter solstice. Yet the origins of Newgrange remain somewhat mysterious. Across Ireland over two hundred similar passage tombs are found, some of which are considerably older than Newgrange. These less investigated monuments reveal that the origins of Newgrange may be hidden in plain sight. A progression in the scale and sophistication of construction of these passage tombs, developments in the styles of megalithic art, and an increase in the scale and craftsmanship of associated artefacts may be observed, which taken t...
In this book we offer an exciting new perspective on a distinctive form of megalithic monument that is found across most areas of northern Europe. In order to achieve this we have abandoned outmoded typological classifications and reintroduced the term ‘dolmen’ to embrace a range of sites that share a common form of megalithic architecture: the elevation and display of a substantial stone. By critically assessing the traditionally assigned role of these monuments and their architecture as megalithic tombs, the presence of the dead is reassessed and argued to form part of a process generating vibrancy to the materiality of the dolmen. As such this book argues that the megalithic architect...
The twenty-eight papers in this volume explore the practical !ife, domestic settings, landscapes and seascapes of the Viking world. Their geographical horizons stretch from Iceland to Russia, with particular emphasis on new discoveries in the Scandinavian homelands and in Britain and Ireland. With a rich combination of disciplinary perspectives, new interpretations are presented of evidence for buildings and technology, navigation, trade and military organization, the ideology of place, and cultural interactions and comparisons between Viking and native groups. Together, these reveal the multivalent importance of settlement archaeology and history for an understanding of the pivotal phase within the Middle Ages that was the Viking Period.
A major reassessment of the vikings and their legacy The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships to explore. The Age of the Vikings tells the full story of this exciting period in history. Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage. He not only explains the Viking attacks, but also looks at Viking endeavors in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequaled in the rest of Europe. The Age of the Vikings sheds new light on the complex society, culture, and legacy of these legendary seafarers.
Between ca. 3000 and 2800 BC, the Pitted Ware Culture of northeast European descent spread to the northeastern parts of Denmark. Here, by far the best archaeological evidence is known from the Djursland peninsula in eastern Jutland. This volume presents 12 individual papers that present the available finds from the key site of Kainsbakke as well as number of other excavated and not excavates sites. Besides artefacts, the faunal and botanical remains are dealt with in a comprehensive matter. Several papers are devoted to scientific analyses of chronology as well as the provenance of artefacts and selected faunal remains. On this basis, the Pitted Ware culture in Djursland is interpreted as a group that emerged locally from Funnel Beaker culture predecessors. This group choose to distinguish itself from its Funnel Beaker neighbours by giving itself a unique identity. This identity can be understood as a combination of Pitted Ware traits in material culture and ritual conduct obtained through close contact with Neolithic groups on the west coast of Sweden with elements derived from contemporaneous Funnel Beaker groups in other parts of Denmark.
Sited at the furthest limits of the Neolithic revolution and standing at the confluence of the two great sea routes of prehistory, Britain and Ireland are distinct from continental Europe for much of the prehistoric sequence. In this landmark 2007 study - the first significant survey of the archaeology of Britain and Ireland for twenty years - Richard Bradley offers an interpretation of the unique archaeological record of these islands based on a wealth of current and largely unpublished data. Bradley surveys the entire archaeological sequence over a 4,000 year period, from the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic period to the discovery of Britain and Ireland by travellers from the Mediterranean during the later pre-Roman Iron Age. Significantly, this is the first modern account to treat Britain and Ireland on equal terms, offering a detailed interpretation of the prehistory of both islands.