Vester Hedegaard. A Late Neolithic Settlement with House Remains, Offering Pits, Carbonised Grain and Animal Bones in Northern Jutland

Bibliographic Data

ID10957445
AuthorsJens Winther Johannsen (0009-0004-9715-0263, Ministry of Culture, corresponding author), Per Mandrup, Per Th Mandrup
Year2024
Volume94
Issue2
Pages231-245
Publication date2024-10-23
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Archaeologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0065-101X • E-ISSN: 1600-0390
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/16000390-09402003
OpenAlexW4404080704
LanguageEN
References cited10

A settlement with six houses and two offering pits is presented in the article. The settlement is roughly dated to the Late Neolithic II ( c. 1950–1700 BCE ). It contained comprehensive subsistence material, including carbonised grain, food crust and burned bones of a cow and a smaller mammal. The two animals were possibly trapped in a house fire and interpreted as evidence of livestock stalling during the Late Neolithic. The material forms the basis of an interpretation of the subsistence, which is suggested to have consisted of cereal cultivation enhanced by intensive fertilisation with dung from domestic animals. This cultivation cycle ensured stable food production on the lean soils of the area during the occupation. Analysis of the food crust indicates that fruit wine was also consumed in the settlement

Agriculture · Animal food · Archaeology · Biology · Economics · Geography · Livestock · Settlement (finance · Subsistence agriculture · Subsistence economy · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forestry · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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