Werkstätten oder Wohnhäuser? Ein Beitrag zur Ansprache und Deutung von wikingerzeitlichen Grubenhäuser

Abstract

In the area between the Eider and the
Kongeå, many Viking Age settlements
are known, but only at fifty-seven sites
could structures of buildings be identified.
Thirty-four settlements contained
pit-houses, but in some cases the dominance
of pit-houses over post built structures
was striking. Settlement sites with
predominantly sunken-featured buildings
are often interpreted as seasonal
settlements, trading places, or specialised
settlement sites. However, historical analogies
indicate a possible function of the
sunken-featured as living areas in which
daily activities such as sleeping, cooking,
handling of refuse, or handicrafting
took place. The analysis of features from
the settlement of Kosel-East (LA 198),
distr. Rendsburg-Eckernförde, yields evidence
on economic activities in some
of the longhouses as well as on the habitation
of some pit-houses. Sometimes
it is assumed that pit-houses with fireplaces
could have been used for living
or they were used as outbuildings. In
the scientific discussion, however, longhouses
are defined as habitable in contrast
the use of the pit-houses which
is often identified as seasonal or for
skilled crafts. But only in two cases it
was possible to identify workplaces situated
in pit-houses in Kosel-East. On
the other hand, many pit-houses built
in robust techniques and with fireplaces
inside implied a theoretical habitability.
In combination with the evidence
of objects of daily use or indicators for
a domestic economy disposed in abandoned
pit-houses and pits, possible areas
of activity e. g. housing space could be
identified. Referring to other historical
and archaeological analogies, this paper
offers a theoretical and methodological
contribution to the discussion of the
housing situation, emphasizing different
archaeological indications for the identification
of various (hybrid) ways of living
and working.