Brebel LA 49: En bosættelse under overgangen fra ældre til yngre romersk jernalder i nærheden af Thorsberg Mose

Resumé

The excavation of the site Brebel" LA 49 near the well-known Thorsberg bog deposit
allows the closing of a research gap. Until recently, we only knew where
the Angles in the Roman Iron Age buried their dead and where they sacrificed
to their gods, but we did not know where they lived. !e excavation carried out
between 2021 and 2024 yielded a settlement with at least fifteen longhouses and
secondary structures like fences, roofed fences and storehouses, alongside some
Bronze Age pits and, notably, an inhumation grave from the early stages of the
Funnel Beaker Culture. Several well-preserved houses, one of which had remains
from a burned and collapsed timber wall still in situ, give a detailed account of Early
to Late Roman Iron Age construction work and everyday life. Although only
one of the farmsteads was preserved with all its fences and secondary buildings, it is
highly probable that also the other longhouses were parts of larger farmsteads,
as indicated by the presence of numerous structures in their surroundings.
One hall-house found in the very centre of the settlement probably had a special,
centralized function, thus giving a hint
that the settlement was more than a mere accumulation of farmsteads: It was a village.
It is highly probable that the villagers were aware of the depositions at Thorsberg
or even participated in the offerings there.The abandonment of the settlement at the
end of the Roman Iron Age agrees well with the historical reports about the largescale
migration of Angles to Britain.