Single Graves near Rødding

Abstract

Single Graves near Rødding

In 1985 Haderslev Museum excavated two ploughed down barrows on elevated land north of Rødding in south Jutland.

In the western barrow, sb. 6, graves 10 and 11 came to view immediately below the ploughsoil. They lay alongside one another in the middle of the barrow. Both were constructed alike, being rounded-rectangular pits with a flat stone-laid floor surrounded by what remained of a framing of stones. It was apparent from the sections that on the floor of each there had originally been a plank coffin. The structure and grave goods (two amber discs in one, a flint knife and a battleaxe of Globs type D5 in the other) date both graves to the early period of the Single Grave Culture -the Bottom Grave Period.

3-400 m to the east lay another barrow, sb. 3. Despite the strongly ploughed down condition of the site, the excavation gave surprisingly good results. There were three burials from the Single Grave Culture, 8-9 urn burials, mainly from the Pre-Roman and Early Roman Iron Age, and three inhumation graves from the Later Roman Iron Age. Only the Neolithic graves will be described here, graves 1, 2 and 4.

Graves 1 and 2 were found to be ring-ditch burials laid out on the same principles: a rounded-rectangular grave pit with flat, stone­laid floor surrounded by a marked stone framing. There had originally been a planken coffin in each of them. Around each had been constructed a ring-ditch with packing stones for the posts that originally enfenced them. Each of the graves contained two flint axes - a thin bladed and a thick butted. In grave 2 there was also a battleaxe of Glob's type B1. Both the form of the graves and their furnishings date them to the Bottom Grave Period.

Grave 4 lay midway between the two ring­ditch graves. It differed from the other graves in being constructed without using any stones. In the grave had once stood a wooden chamber, in which the coffin had been placed. The grave goods, a battleaxe of Glob's type H, dates the grave to the middle part of the Single Grave Culture, the Ground Grave Period, so this grave is younger than the two with ring ditches.

In 1948 a somewhat similar complex from the same period was excavated at Skærbæk Mølle NW of Rødding. It consisted of two "circle-graves" with a grave between them instead of two graves with ring-ditches. Despite the structural differences circle graves and ring-ditch graves must have had the same function, that of an open protected grave, where the deceased lay on a "lit de parade". There are thus indications that burial customs were very uniform within restricted local areas.

Anne Birgitte Sørensen