Et monumentalt midtsulehus ved Nørre Holsted i Sydjylland

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

A large two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted in southern Jutland – Analysis of a longhouse from Early Bronze Age period IIn 2011 and 2012, Sønderskov Museum investigated an area of 65,000 m2 at Nørre Holsted, between Esbjerg and Vejen. The investigation revealed a multitude of features and structures dating from several periods, including extensive settlement remains from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Excavations have also been carried out in this area previously, resulting in rich finds assemblages. This paper focuses on the site’s largest and best preserved two-aisled house, K30, which is dated to Early Bronze Age period I (1700-1500 BC). This longhouse therefore represents the final generation of houses of two-aisled construction. It also contained charred plant remains, which provide information on arable agriculture of the time and the internal organisation of the building at a point just prior to three-aisled construction becoming universal. The remains indicate continuity in both agriculture and in internal organisation between the late two-aisled and early three-aisled longhouses. The two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted can therefore make a significant contribution to the long-running debate about this architectural change, which has often focussed on developments in farming: The increased importance of cattle husbandry is said to have been the main reason for breaking with the tradition of two-aisled construction.The Nørre Holsted locality comprises the top of a sandy plateau that forms a ridge running north-south. The slightly sloping plateau lies 38-42 m above sea level and the ridge is surrounded by damp, low-lying terrain that, prior to the agricultural drainage of recent times, was partly aquiferous. The site occupies a central position in the southern part of Holsted Bakkeø, a “hill island” that is primarily characterised by sandy moraine. People preferred to live on well-drained ridges with sandy subsoil throughout large parts of prehistory and this was also true in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. On the area uncovered at Nørre Holsted, remains were found of 16 two-aisled houses, of which three had sunken floors. Ten of these houses are dated to the Late Neolithic and three are assigned to the first period of the Bronze Age. During Early Bronze Age periods II and III, a total of 14 three-aisled longhouses stood on the sandy plateau. As can be seen from figure 2, the houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lie more or less evenly distributed across the area. However, the buildings from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age period I form a distinct cluster in the eastern part, while a western distribution is evident for the houses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III. The western part of the site lies highest in the terrain and a movement upwards in the landscape was therefore associated with the introduction of the three-aisled building tradition. Tripartition of the dimensions can be observed in both the two- and the three-aisled houses, with this being most pronounced in the latter category. The three-aisled Bronze Age houses from periods II and III, which represent the typical form with rounded gables and possibly plank-built walls, show great morphological and architectonic uniformity. Conversely, the two-aisled house remains are characterised by wider variation. The small and medium-sized examples, with or without a partly-sunken floor, represent some very common house types in Jutland. Conversely, the largest longhouse, K30, represents a variant that is more familiar from areas further to the east in southern Scandinavia.The largest two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted was located on the eastern part of the sandy plateau, where this slopes down towards a former wetland area (fig. 3). The east-west-oriented longhouse had a fall of 1.5 m along its length, with the eastern end being the lowest part at c. 38 m above sea level. Its orientation towards the wet meadow and bog to the east is striking, and it stood a maximum of 50 m from the potential grazing area. A peat bog lay a further 100 m to the east and in prehistory this was probably a small lake. Sekær Bæk flows 600 m to the north and, prior to realignment, this watercourse was both deeper and wider where it met the former lake area. Access to fresh water was therefore optimal and opportunities for transport and communication by way of local water routes must similarly have been favourable. It should be added that the watercourse Holsted Å flows only 1 km to the south of the locality.House K30 had a length of 32 m and a width of 6.5-7 m, with the western part apparently being the broadest, giving a floor area of more than 200 m2. The eastern gable was slightly rounded, while that to the west was of a straighter and more open character. The wall posts were preserved along most of the two sides of the building and the internal (roof-) supporting posts were positioned just inside the walls. Two transverse partition walls divided the longhouse, with its ten central posts, into three main rooms (fig. 5). These posts were the building’s sturdiest and most deeply-founded examples. Charcoal-rich post-pipes could be observed in section, and these revealed that the posts consisted of cloven timber with a cross-section of c. 25 cm. The central posts were regularly spaced about 3 m apart, except at the eastern and western ends, where the spacing was 4 m (fig. 5). The posts along the inside of the walls were less robust and not set as deeply as the central posts. There were probably internal wall or support posts along the entire length of the walls. These were positioned only 0.5 m inside the walls and must therefore have functioned together with these. Based on the position of these posts, the possibility that they were directly linked to the central posts can be dismissed. It seems much more likely that they were linked together by transverse beams running across the house – a roof-supporting feature that, a few generations later, moved further in towards the central axis to become the permanent roof-bearing construction. The actual wall posts or outer wall constituted the least robust constructional element of the longhouse.Remains of the walls were best preserved in the eastern part, and the wall posts here were spaced 1.5 m apart in the eastern gable and 2 m apart in the side wall (fig. 5). The wall posts had disappeared in several places, particularly in the central part of the building. Entrances could not be identified in the side walls, possibly as a consequence of the fragmentary preservation of the post traces. Two transverse partition walls, each consisting of three posts, were present in the western and eastern parts, with the latter example being integrated into a recessed pair of posts. The western room had an area of 59 m2 and contained two pits, while the eastern part was filled with charred plant material, consisting largely of acorns. The actual living quarters may have been located here, even though the larger central room, with an area of c. 85 m2, could just as well represent the dwelling area with its large, deep cooking pit (fig. 5). The eastern room had an area of 60 m2 and therefore did not differ significantly in area from that to the west.The entire fill from features that could be related to longhouse K30 was sieved. The objective was to retrieve small finds in the form of micro flakes and pottery fragments that are normally overlooked in conventional shovel excavation. The associated aims included ascertaining whether the flint assemblage could reveal the production of particular tools or weapons in the building. Unfortunately, not a single piece of pottery or any other datable artefacts were recovered. Only a few small flint flakes, which simply show that the finds from house K30 conform to the typical picture of a general reduction in the production of flint tools at the transition from Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. The 11 flint flakes from the longhouse merely reflect the simple manufacturing of cutting tools. Consequently, no bifacial flint-knapping activities took place within the building, and there is a lack of evidence for specialised craftsmen. The great paucity of finds is typical of houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age which do not have a sunken floor. It is therefore important to look more closely at the charred plant material (plant macro-remains) concealed in the fills of the postholes and pits. In the case of house K30, the soil samples have provided a range of information, providing greater knowledge of what actually took place in a large house in southern Jutland at the beginning of the Bronze Age.The scientific dating of house K30 is based on barley grains from two roof posts and from a wall post in the eastern part. The three AMS radiocarbon dates assign the longhouse to Early Bronze Age period I, with a centre of gravity in period Ib (fig. 6). Plant macro-remains have previously been analysed from monumental three-aisled Bronze Age houses in southern Jutland. It is therefore relevant to take a look inside a large longhouse representing the final generation of the two-aisled building tradition. Do the results of the analyses indicate continuity in the internal organisation of these large houses or did significant changes occur in their functional organisation with the introduction of the three-aisled tradition?During the excavation of longhouse K30, soil samples were taken from all postholes and associated features for flotation and subsequent analysis of the plant macro-remains recovered. An assessment of the samples’ content of plant macro-remains and charcoal revealed that those from two central postholes and a pit contained large quantities of plant material (fig. 7), whereas the other samples contained few or no plant remains. It was therefore obvious to investigate whether there was a pattern in the distribution of the plant macro-remains that could provide