Two graves from Højvang in southern Jutand; Dendrodating and absolute chronology

Abstract

Two graves from Højvang in southern Jutland

Dendrodating and absolute chronology

This articles presents the re-examination of a south Jutland grave from the later Roman period, which was originally published by H. Neumann in Kuml 1953.

More recently it has been possible both through a re-assessment of the pottery from the grave and through a dendrochronological examination of the surviving parts of the grave chamber's oak planks to arrive at a closer dating of grave 1. In this grave was found among other things an imported glass beaker which was probably made near Cologne.

It was possible to arrive at a dendrochronological dating because in the last ten years and relevant to the South Group as defined by J. Ringtved, there have been found several structures in which oak wood survives, particularly at the Hjemsted settlement site, but also the marine obstructions in Haderslev Fjord and at the settlement at Store Emmerske.

Grave 1 is pottery-dated to to period C2 and grave 2 to period C1b/C2. From the dendrochronology the dating of grave 1 can be narrowed down to the time around the year 300, or the final part of period C2.

Grave 1 is the first later Roman grave to be dendrochronologically dated in Denmark, and the earliest north of the limes that has been dated dendrochronologically. The dating applies to the time of burial. This means that the pottery must have been produced in the third century.

This dating does not alter the relative chronology of the period's finds, but is of great importance for establishing absolute chronology and for estimating the length of the individual phases.

Per Ethelberg