Treskibede bulvægshuse og deres vestdanske udbredelse.

Om regionalitet og monumentalitet i ældre bronzealder periode II-III

Resumé

During the Nordic Bronze Age Period II
and early Period III, 1500–1200 BC, South
Scandinavia experienced an increase in
the construction of barrows and longhouses.
Their number, dimensions and the
resources involved in their construction
had a dramatic effect on the landscape.
On the sandy plains of western, central
and southern Jutland, longhouses were
particularly large, robust structures. Their
walls were constructed using the bole-wall
technique that involved sturdy vertical
posts and horisontal planks in between – a
building tradition that demanded a large
quantity of oak timber. On the young moraine
landscapes of eastern Jutland and
the Danish Isles, houses were built using
a more ephemeral wall construction tradition,
that often leaves little or no archaeological
traces. But what did this regional
variation reflect? Why are the large timber-
consuming longhouses common in the
old glacial landscapes of western Denmark,
while they are missing in the central and
eastern parts of South Scandinavia? This
can hardly be explained simply as a result
of resource availability. Pollen analyses
from barrows, bogs and lakes in the western
parts of Jutland have clearly shown
evidence for a more open grass and heath
landscape, whereas the heavy moraine
soils of eastern Jutland and the eastern
Danish Islands seemed to have been much
more forested. One could ask if house construction
in the western parts of Denmark
was actually dependent on timber resources
from central and eastern South Scandinavia.
The bole-walled longhouses are
particularly characteristic to the southern
part of Jutland during the Early Bronze Age
and their distribution corresponds to that
of the largest Early Bronze Age barrows
with their iron pans and rich burials. There
seems
to be an intentional act of conspicuous
consumption in the construction
of both monumental longhouses and barrows
in the south-western part of Denmark
during the Early Bronze Age.