The Iron Age cemetary of Vogn. An archaeological and osteological investigation

Abstract

The Iron Age cemetery of Vogn

An archaeological and osteological investigation

An investigation of the archaeological material from the Pre-Roman Iron Age cemetery of Vogn in Vendsyssel has furnished new information on the social structure of this period. Both artefact material and skeletal remains of the dead are analysed. Other material pertaining to the period has been adduced in the interpretation.

I ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORIES ON SOCIETY AND BURIAL PRACTICE

Etnographical studies show that aspects of the social structure of a society are expressed in its burial practice (Saxe 1970, Binford 1971, O'Shea 1984). In connection with burial, both the social status of the dead person and the composition and size of the social group to which he is related in status are symbolized (Binford 1971 p. 17).

The most important social attributes symbolized through differentiated burial are age, sex, relative social status (vertical differentiation) and social differentiation transcending these three categories (horizontal differentiation) (Binford 1971, O'Shea 1984).

To elucidate the social position of the grave occupant archaeologically, differences in burial custom, form, placement and furniture have been investigated (Binford 1971 p. 21). In the Vogn cemetery, it is mainly differences in burial furniture which differentiate the various graves.

II VOGN AND COEVAL FINDS

The vogn cemetery and its chronology

The Vogn cemetery is situated in Mosbjerg Parish, northeastern Vendsyssel (fig. 1). It is placed on an evenly sloping hillside (fig. 2) and comprises 123 graves from the Early Iron Age, 117 of which are cremation graves and 6 inhumation graves (fig. 3). The site is considered to have been completely excavated, and various circumstances suggest that only a few graves have been present in addition to those excavated. Half of the graves of the cemetery were selected for osteological and archaeological analysis. Selection occurred by means of statistical randomization, in order to ensure that the selection was representative. The bones from 13 of the selected graves were missing, 2 structures proved not to be graves and 1 grave was not excavated. In the investigation a distinction is maintained between the 46 selected graves in which the bones have been identified and 13 selected graves in which the bones have not been identified. Furthermore, the archaeological analyses are supplemented by 14 graves in which the pottery has previously been analysed and published by Bech (1980a p. 145).

Pottery is found in all graves. In about a quarter of the graves, pottery is the only burial furniture, while in another quarter, every grave also contains a straight-edged knife. The remaining half of the graves are furnished with one to nine different kinds of artefact, which in addition to the pottery and knives comprise jewelry and dress fittings, implements and weapons (see examples of burial furniture, pictured in fig. 20-23).

A grave may contain from one to fifteen pots. Quality, size and type and the presence of decoration on the vessel vary.

Three-quarters of the graves from which the burnt bones have been studied contain, besides the remains of the dead person, bones of sheep or goat, among other animals.

The Vogn cemetery has been in use from Pre-Roman Iron Age Period IIIa until the beginning of the Early Roman Iron Age. Most of the graves belong to the end of the Pre­Roman Iron Age Period IIIb (Bech 1980b p. 68) (fig. 4). Various authors have discussed the absolute chronology for the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age in Denmark (Hachmann 1960, Becker 1961, Hvass 1975a, Bech 1977). On the basis of their figures, it is possible to give a reasonable estimate that the continuous Pre-Roman use of the cemetery spanned a period of 50-100 years.

Coeval finds

From previous investigations in Jutland and Funen it is apparent that large areas with several villages have been organized in a barter system comprising, for example, foodstuffs (Jensen 1976, Christoffersen 1976). Finds of imported objects, known from the whole country, attest communication over large distances.

Apparently, the individual farm functioned as a self-contained production unit, most often in a village community (Hatt 1937 and 1957, Hvass 1975b and 1985, Stummann Hansen 1980).

Social differentiations pertaining to age and sex have not been dealt with in the previous investigations, but indications of relative social status have been recognized. Thus in the village of Hodde in Phase 3a, on the basis of farm size, three economic strata have been discerned which probably also constitute social strata (Hvass 1985 p. 175ff). In other smaller villages, two strata can possibly be distinguished in the population (Hatt 1957, Lund 1980, Lewis 1984). Although anthropological age and sex identifications are not available, some of the difference in wealth of graves at least seems to be due to differences in social status in Pre-Roman Iron Age society (see Klindt-Jensen I 950, Albrectsen 1954, Becker 195 7, Christoffersen 1976).

III PALAEODEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

On the basis of the osteologically determined graves (table 1, appendix A), the size and structure of the dead population has been calculated, and on this basis again, it has been evaluated to what extent the burials represent a whole community or merely a part of it. Combined with a calculation of the demographic components, an estimate is finally given of the size and structure of the Iron Age population who lived and buried their dead in Vogn. This result, which should be regarded merely as a qualified estimate, is included in the subsequent evaluation of the archaeological material.

It is apparent from tables 2 and 3 that all ages and both sexes are represented in this cemetery. However, if the community used this cemetery for all its dead, the small number of child burials is remarkable; only about 20 % of the investigated individuals being younger than 20 years. From a variety of archaeological and historical sources it is estimated that children and young people on an average make up at least 60% of the annual mortality in a prehistoric society.

There is much to suggest that all persons who died at a mature age were buried in the communal cemetery. Moreover, the variation in the burial furniture of adults shows that the site was used by several social strata. The situation is quite different as far as child graves are concerned, where only a portion of the dead children are buried. Their age spread and the fact that all of them were given at least one accessory vessel -the older children even metal objects- suggest that the buried children belonged to families with a higher social status.

It is assumed that the cemetery was used by a village community, which forms the basis for the following calculations.

With a view to calculating the size and structure of the living population, the number and age distribution of dead children has been corrected. The occurrence of infants has been corrected in accordance with information from prehistorical, historical and modern relevant skeletal series which show that the number of children aged 0-1 year should constitute between one and three quarters of the total number of children and young people (Brothwell 1971). The expected number of dead children is established on the basis of an assumption that women gave birth to an average of 5 children, and that the size and structure of the population were stable. The corrected age distribution is seen in table 6.

On the basis of the corrected mortality (table 6), the survival table, table 7, is constructed. The size of the population is calculated from the formula P = k + (De/t), where P is the mean population size in the time interval t, k is a correction coefficient of 10%, D is the population's total number of dead in the time interval t, e: is the expected longevity at birth, and t is the time interval in which the cemetery was in use (Acsadi & Nemeskeri 1957 pp. 142- 43). The total number of dead in the Pre-Roman period is calculated to have been 225 (1) (2). As mentioned earlier, the length of the different periods of the late Pre-Roman Iron Age cannot be precisely established. We therefore operate with a Pre-Roman use of the cemetery for 50, 75 or 100 years, respectively.

The population size is accordingly calculated on the basis of the above formula to be 89, 50 or 45 individuals respectively (3).

The survival curve shown in fig. 5 is constructed from the survival table and serves as a graphical model for a stationary population (Acsádi & Nemeskéri 1970 p. 44, Matthiessen 1970 pp. 94ff.). The area under the curve represents the living population at a given juncture, and an idea of the size of the age groups is obtained. The exact age structure is given in the survival table's Lx values (Acsádi & Nemeskéri 1970 p. 44). It appears from this that children under 1 year make up about 5% of the living population, children aged 1-6 years almost 20%, children aged 7-13 years 18%, and the young (14-20 years of age) 16% (table 8). The biggest group comprises young adults, to which almost 32% of the population belong, while only about 10% of the persons are over 40 years of age (4). The absolute number of persons in each age class can hereafter be calculated for each of the three theoretical population sizes given above (table 8).

It should finally be kept in mind that the survival table and curve are partly based on estimates. Thus the number of dead infants and the birthrate are estimated from other sources than Vogn.

IV ANALYSIS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL

Through the osteological identifications and the palaeodemographic analysis, an impression has been gained of the age and sex make-up and size of the living Vogn population. It is demonstrated that the cemetery was probably used by a population equivalent to a village, and in the following it will be investigated which social differences were present and marked in the Vogn community.

Grave form and grave goods are available for analysis. With respect to grave form, there are only two possibilities at the Vogn cemetery: urn cremation pits or simple cremation pits. The grave goods, however, vary considerably in kind and amount and therefore constitute the primary data base in the analyses.

The archaeological material primarily consists of the selected graves, but in order to increase the size of the material and the reliability of the results, the 14 supplementary graves are sometimes included.

Nature and occurrence of grave goods

The grave goods comprise 21 artefact forms which, together with urns, feature as attributes in the analyses (appendix B). 23 of these 24 attributes are combined on the basis of functional criteria into 10 groups.

The number of graves in which the individual attributes occur is shown in table 9 for »selected« and »all« graves, respectively. The distribution of accessory vessels in the graves is listed in table 10 and shown in histogram form in fig. 7. The highest incidence is of graves with one accessory vessel. The number of graves decreases with increasing number of accessory vessels, and between 9 and 14 accessory vessels are found only in a few graves. Only in one grave does it appear that no accessory vessels were given.

Distribution in the cemetery

It will now be investigated how the graves are distributed in the cemetery and how graves with particular attributes are placed in relation to one another (figs. 8-11). In evaluating the distribution maps, one has to take account of the fact that a number of the grave numbers from the earliest excavations cannot be related to the plan with any precision. The consequent relatively depleted area in the middle of the eastern burial area is thus an artificial phenomenon, and left out of account in the archaeological evaluation (5).

The grave distribution appears to be uniform, and no deliberate grouping can be ascertained (fig. 3). No chronological grouping of the graves can be observed.

Neither the age and sex of the dead nor the grave attributes show well-defined spatial concentrations, although there is a more or less distinct tendency to grouping in certain areas. Most noticeable is a possible sexual division, with women mostly in the south part of the cemetery and men mostly in the north part (fig. 9). Bone pins and belt fittings tend to be found in the southern part, where also the two bead finds are located -close together (fig. 10). Finger-rings are found mainly in the western part of the cemetery (fig. 10), while lunate knives occur centrally. Weapon graves concentrate in the central to northwestern part of the cemetery, possibly with the best endowed in the middle and with a decreasing number of weapon forms in a semicircle outside these (fig. 11).

Attributes and age

In figs. 12 and 13 a series of histograms is presented which in the form of a percentage show the incidence of the individual object categories and of urn burial in the various age categories of the dead. The percentages should, due to the limited amount of data available, be evaluated with caution, and the absolute number of graves is shown in the columns.

It is apparent from the histograms that apart from accessory vessels, which are present in all graves, the age group 0-6 years (infans I) is normally without any kind of dress fittings, implements or anything else. Only two burials of young people 14-20 years of age (juvenilis) are recorded. The grave furnishings of young adults comprise, in addition to accessory pottery, jewelry, dress fittings and implements. With the exception of a little curved iron knife, no object types have been observed which could have been reserved for children and/or juveniles, whereas there are a number of objects which are otherwise found only in adult graves, including weapons. Urn burial is employed with the same frequency for all age classes.

The analysed material shows an increase in grave goods from infans I to juvenilis. The missing infans II graves prevent us from discovering when and how this change of status occurs. The few graves of the juvenilis group likewise limit the possibilities of observing changes in the transition from young to old. To judge by the occurrence of dress accessories and jewelry, this change of status occurs -for females at least- before or around the age of 17-18 years.

Attributes and sex

The analysis includes both osteologically sexed graves, and weapon graves, which are assumed to contain men. The limited results show that only weapons and belt chapes can at the moment be considered gender specific (table 11). Urn, fibula, finger-ring, straight­edged and lunate knife and accessory vessels occur with both sexes. A particularly large number of accessory vessels feature perhaps only in men's graves (fig. 14). The other attributes are too poorly represented to allow any sex attribution at the moment.

Combination table

In the combination table, table 12, the number of graves in which two given grave goods attributes occur together is given. A division of the material into two parts, thought to correspond to the sex of the grave occupants, can be discerned. This is supported by the bone determinations (diagram at the bottom of table 12). The observed correlations become distinct when the table values are recalculated according to Yule's formula (Neuffer 1965) and then converted into easily perceived symbols (tables 13-14).

The grave goods may on the basis of these combinations be divided into two groups. Some of the attributes show a sharply defined presence in one of the groups. Others combine with elements from both groups, but occur mainly in one of them. One type of grave goods is characterized by belt mounting, belt chape and belt ring and to some extent fibula. Bone pin and bead should possibly also be placed in this group. Supported by the osteological determinations, this dress and jewelry equipment should be interpreted as women's grave goods. The other group is characterized by its content of weapons. Lunate and straightedged knife are affiliated to this group but may also -albeit rarely- be found with what is designated as women's equipment. In addition it is possible that tweezers, awl, sewing needle and gold finger-ring belong to this goup. Belt buckle and spurs, on the other hand, cannot be properly assigned, but based on the occurrence of weapons and the osteological identifications, they are interpreted as male equipment.

Bronze finger-ring occurs with both men's and women's equipment, but is found most frequently in weapon graves. Urn burial is indifferent as to grave goods group.

Quantitative assessment of relative social status

In the following, the value of the furnishings of the individual grave will be evaluated in order to characterize its relative wealth. The value of each artefact form is calculated on the basis of the average number of attributes in all graves in which this artefact form occurs (Hodson 1977) (table 15).

The values of the individual graves are illustrated in the histograms figs. 15-17. The histogram figure 16 includes only selected graves with individuals aged over 16 years. This should be a representative section of the population's buried adults and as such reflect the nearest we can get to a picture of status distribution among adults in Pre-Roman Iron Age society. In the configuration, in which pottery is not included in the calculation of grave value (black and hatched columns), a division of the material into two or three parts, as in fig. 15, may be discerned. Over half of the graves belong to a group where no or only a few and less valuable objects are found in the grave. After this we see a number of graves which make up less than one third, in which dress fittings and jewelry, various implements and even a shield-boss rivet are present; as a rule several forms of artefact are found together. Finally, a smaller group of seven graves can perhaps be discerned. These are characterized by the presence of weapons, possibly implements, dress fittings and finger-ring or by the presence of a good stock of jewelry and dress fittings. If vessels are included in the assessment of grave value, the picture is to some extent fudged (white columns). This applies in particular to the division between the two lowest social groups, while a certain difference to the wealthiest graves can still be discerned.

The quantitative assessment of social status on the basis of grave goods shows that the adult population of the Pre-Roman Iron Age can be divided into two or three status groups, each comprising both sexes and all adult age groups. The transition from the medium to the highest status is best marked in the men, who in the highest status group are better endowed than women.

Qualitative and quantitative grouping by correspondence analysis

By means of correspondence analysis, a primary qualitative division of the graves is made on the basis of their attributes. This does not include urn, accessory vessel and head. In fig. 18, three groups are seen. The first group comprises weapon graves. Both rich graves with several kinds of weapons and dress fittings and more modest graves merely containing shield boss rivets are included. The other group comprises graves containing dress pins and/or belt fittings, but no weapons. In the last group are graves in which the grave goods consist only of implements. Graves without metal artefacts and containing nothing but pottery are not included in the analysis.

V INTERPRETATION OF THE ANALYSES

The analyses have furnished us with same directly interpretable information on age and sex differentiation in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age at Vogn. As expected, signs of horizontal differentiation could hardly be discerned, while differences in social status are expressed in the material in several ways. Methods of distinguishing between different forms of social status in archaeological cemetery material follow Brown (1981).

Social differentiation in the cemetery material from Vogn

Social differentiation based on age has been ascertained both demographically and in the amount and kind of grave goods. In relation to the number of adult burials, the number of buried children and juveniles makes up less than one sixth of the expected number. Young people apparently came of age -for women at least- before or around the age of 17-18 years.

Despite the overrepresentation of women in the osteological identifications, there must have been equal access to the cemetery for both sexes. Sexual differentiation in the burial goods has been observed only among the wealthy. A distinction between the sexes -irrespective of wealth- is manifested in the placement of the graves. The cemetery has been divided into two parts, the southern part mainly for women and the northern part mainly for men.

As expected, signs of horizontal differentiation are only tenously expressed. Burial in urn cremation pit as against urnless cremation pit is the only feature that can possibly be interpreted in that direction.

The vertical differentiation occurs in several different forms. An age-determined social difference between children and adults is expressed both demographically and in grave goods.

A sex-determined vertical differentiation can be observed in the group with high social status, in which the men's graves are more richly endowed than the corresponding women's graves. The difference is underlined by the men's more flagrant status symbols -their weapons.

Various circumstances in the bone and artefact material suggest a ranked society. Inequality of wealth between persons of the same age and sex become apparent with quantitative rating of the value of the grave goods. If the graves are ranked by the rating of their contents, the wealth curve shows an even rise without marked breaks, and a division of graves cannot be undertaken directly. On the basis mainly of qualitative attributes in the grave goods, the graves can be grouped into discrete units. Weapons, dress fittings and jewelry are considered to be symbols of high social rank. Adult graves in which only implements and/or pottery are present are considered to hold persons of lower social rank. Judging by the selected graves with adults, the population consisted of about one fifth with high social rank, one fifth of medium rank and three-fifths with low social rank.

The demographic conditions support the concept of a ranked society. The number of buried children and young people plus the expected number of dead infants has earlier been calculated to 19-20 individuals (table 4). In relation to the number of adults of high social rank, children and young people make up 63% . This is in close agreement with the estimated number of dead children and young people for the Vogn community as a whole, making up 60% of the adult population. It is likely that only children of parents with high rank are buried in the cemetery with the adults. Infants were, however, normally not admitted.

Apart from rich grave goods, it is characteristic of men of high social rank that they were given weapons in the grave. Sword, spear and shield have, besides expressing high social rank, also served as symbols of authority.

Examples of what the various groups of persons took with them into the grave are shown in figs. 20-23.

vogn scenario

The people buried in the Vogn cemetery presumably lived in a village consisting af 9-10 farms with about 60 inhabitants: 25 children, 9 young people and 25 adults. The community was made up of people of different social rank, with a male village head. The economic basis was agriculture, and the village was presumably a part of a regional system with economic and social exchange between villages, which in some places lay only a few km apart. Possibly several villages had a single chief. Contacts further afield -to the west Swedish area- also existed.

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