An Early-Neolithic long barrow at Rude in eastern Jutland

Abstract

An Early Neolithic long barrow at Rude in eastern Jutland

In 1977 and 1978, the author undertook excavations in an early Neolithic long barrow at Rude. Two stone cists in the barrow had in 1894 been opened by the owner, who found a skeleton in each cist with no grave-gifts except for a small copper disc (fig. 1) tied to the wrist of one of the bodies. The copper disc was published in 1970 by Klavs Randsborg (1) who dated it to the early Neolithic using the Salten (3) and the Konens høj (4) copper discs as parallels.

The Excavation

The east-west oriented long barrow is preserved to a length of 58 m but was probably once longer. It is 8-9 m wide and the barrow fill has a thickness of 0.7-1.0 m in the middle. Only the eastern part of the barrow was totally excavated. Around the two cists and in the western part only trenches were made (fig. 2).

It is most likely that the barrow was never higher than it is today. Remains of an almost totally removed stone cover were encountered immediately under the turf. In some areas the stone cover was still preserved on the sides of the barrow (fig. 7e). Under the barrow an old turf horizon was found.

The two cists -still well-preserved except for the capstones which had been partially broken- were re-excavated. They are long narrow cists built of flat cleaved stone slabs (figs. 6 and 7 a-b). In the western cist, the one with the copper disc, a few skeletal remains -all apparently from one individual- were found, though not in any anatomical order. Two C-14 dates gave a mean value of 2270 B.C. Trenches through the side of the barrow showed the cist to be a primary grave in the barrow. This was proved by a layer of water­rolled gravel from a nearby beach which functioned as a drainage around the cist. A thin layer of the same gravel was found to the south of the cist under the barrow fill (fig. 5).

The east end of the barrow terminated with a transverse timber facade. The facade consisted of seven split trunks, with diameters of 0.6-0.8 m, placed close together in a foundation trench which was 5 m long, 1.2-1.6 m wide, and 1.0 m deep (fig. 9). The trunks, with their flat sides turned against the barrow, strongly supported by a stone packing on the outside, had been burned down. The evidence of fire was very clear with stripes of charcoal outlining the individual trunks (fig. 10 and 11 a-b). Burned branches showed the possible existence of a lighter superstructure in connection with the facade (fig. 11 c). In the layers of fire, remains of three pottery vessels of early Neolithic B type were found. These vessels had possibly fallen down from a position on the facade during its destruction. A C-14 measurement on charcoal from the trunks gave a date of 2960±90 B.C. and another from one of the branches gave a date of 2860± 70 B.C. (uncalibrated). To the east of the facade a small enclosure measuring 3.7 x 4.4-5.8 m was located (fig. 9). It consisted of what probably had been a hurdle fence constructed of upright poles 0.1 m in diameter, set 0.1-0.2 m apart (figs. 11 d and 12). The fence was joined with each end of the facade, and to the east an opening which gave access to the enclosure was found. The hurdle fence was unburned, an observation which together with some older stratas in the bottom of the foundation trench for the facade (fig. 10) might suggest the existence of two phases. The older phase would then include a facade and a hurdle fence enclosure, both unburned, whereas the younger one would only have the burned-down facade.

Parallels to the cists

The two cists are of a type which in Danish context is normally associated with late Corded Ware culture or the late Neolithic. However, judging by the C-14 date and the copper disc, they must be older. As the western cist was primary in the barrow, it is likely that both should be given an early Neolithic date. Only if a complete renovation of the barrow fill around the cist is accepted can the C-14 date of the skeletal material -indicating a middle Neolithic date- be thought to represent a primary burial. However, there are no good early Neolithic parallels to be found in Denmark, and we have to look to northern Germany to find some examples to which the cists can be compared (19-25). Further references can be given to the Baalberg and Salzmunde cultures (26-28).

The dating of the copper disc

The dating of the copper disc to the early Neolithic seems to rest on good typological comparisons with both other copper discs and amber discs (fig. 16). The C-14 dating of the skeletal material from the western cist has brought this into doubt. There seems to be no good reason why the material dated should not be from the individual originally found with the copper disc. Although I maintain that the disc is early Neolithic, the case invites review of the evidence for the assumption of a narrow dating of the European copper discs. The review (40-47) shows that there is no basis for this assumption, and as one extreme we find the Nieder-Kränig disc (fig. 15 a) which through amber and bone parallels (fig. 15 b­c) can be dated to the Globular or Early Corded Ware cultures. This is contemporaneous with the C-14 date from Rude.

The timber facade

The timber facade in the east end of the barrow, together with other new finds, calls attention to a completely new aspect of early Neolithic burial practice in Denmark: low long barrows containing mostly earth-graves and often terminating with a transverse facade in the east end. The reader is referred to an essay summarizing these new structures which has recently been published by the author (14).

Torsten Madsen