Søndervang at Bjerre. A Cemetery from the Late Germanic and Viking periods in eastern Jutland

Abstract

Søndervang at Bjerre

A Cemetery from the Late Germanic and Viking periods in eastern Jutland

The article presents an account of a cemetery on the farm, Søndervang, near Bjerre, south of Horsens, with graves from early in the Late Germanic Iron Age and from the Viking period. The cemetery Jay on the top of a not very high, but fairly wide hill, and was found in an­ticipation of the laying of a natural gas pipeline in 1986. Excavations took place in 1986, 1987 and 1988 (1), (3), and altogether 34 graves were investigated. The limits of the cemetery to the south, east, and west have been determined, but its northern boundary remains uncertain. The graves lie to the west, east and north-east of the site of a late Medieval windmill (2), which seems not, however, to have disturbed any of the graves.

The graves fall into 2-3 distinct groups (fig. 1), probably representing small, chronologically separate entities. The earliest graves, which lie west of the windmill (fig.2), are datable to early in the Late Germanic Iron Age (Ørsnes' period I), while the eastern and north-eastern graves date from the Viking period, probably from the early and the middle parts of the period respectively.

The western graves lay in layer of fill up to 40 cm thick, which probably originated from several small barrows. It is likely that in this area each grave was originally covered with a little mound. A large, elongated stone lay buried close north of the graves (fig. 43). It is unlikely that it has been moved far from its original position, and it could well be a memorial stone (bautasten) originally set up to mark the graves.

The eastern graves were covered in their western part by two irregular stone scatters (A40 and A75), which may originally have been one continuous scatter. Those furthest east were covered with a thick layer of soil, which probably had been ploughed down from the top of the hill. In one of the cremation graves in this area there had been buried another large, elongated stone. It may originally have had the same function as the western "memorial stone".

Both inhumation and cremation graves were present. The cremations could be divided in accordance with their form and contents into five clear groups.

1. Cremation graves with stone packing and burnt base

The graves of this type (A6, A8, A10, A27, A28, A29, 1, A30) all lay west of the windmill along a line running E-W with 2-3 m between graves. The largest graves (A6 and A8) lay furthest east, while the five smaller graves lay west of them. Seen in section the graves were almost completely similar. They had in their upper part a deep, rather compact layer of fist to head sized and smaller stones, some of which were burnt. Between the stones there was clayey earth mixed with ashes, a very few fragments of cremated bone, and various small finds. Under the stones came a very clear charcoal layer, consisting largely of burnt branches. That these had been burnt in situ could be seen partly from where they lay and partly from the fact that the earth under them had been reddened (figs. 3,4,8,14,16,17).

The uniform construction of these graves showed that the same burial procedure was followed in all of them. First a hole was dug, then a fire was laid and lit. Then a few remains of the deceased (whose cremation must have occurred elsewhere) were deposited on top of the remains of the fire, together with his grave gifts and the packing of burnt and unburnt stones. That the fire in the pit was not the actual funeral pyre could be seen from the small quantity of the cremated bone and the size of the fragments, and also from the lack of signs of burning of most of the grave gifts and the absence of cremated bone in the charcoal layer. The fire on the grave floor is probably an indication of a consecration ritual, in which the cleaning powers of fire played a part. There were small finds in all the graves. The five westernmost ones only contained a few pieces of pottery and at best a little iron, while the two easterly graves were better provided. Grave A6, the easternmost, held 31 vitreous and 2 amber beads (fig. 5), probably all originally deposited as a string. Other finds were fragments of an iron knife, 400 sherds of various sizes, and a nearly complete pot (fig. 6). Grave A8 held 32 vitreous beads, a beaked fibula of bronze, a piece of iron wire, a knife, and 12 potsherds (figs. 9,10,11).

This type of grave could easily be confused with the common type of cooking-stone pit, but differs in the obviously burnt bottom of the pit, the cremated bones, and the small finds.

1. Cremation graves in the form of small stone spreads without burnt grave bottom

There were three examples of this type (A 7, A9, and A11). All lay immediately S or SW of the two rich graves just described (A6 and A8). They were small and were orientated either E-W or NW-SE, and were indicated by irregular spreads of unburnt fist-sized stones (fig. 7, 13). Between and under the stones were found small amounts of cremated bone, a little charcoal, and occasional scraps of pottery.

1. Grave with "urn" of organic material

Only one of these was found, A13 close north of the graves which have just been described. This grave contained more cremated bone than any other at the site, but there were no other finds. There was no trace of the cremation container.

1. Pit-like cremation graves

Seven sure (A50, A59, A60, A61, A64, A65, A72) and two less sure cases (A58, A79). They all belonged to the grave group east of the windmill, and were mainly concentrated in its eastern part. In plan they were round, oval or rectangular with rounded corners (figs. 21 and 25). Their orientation was E-W or NE-SW, and they varied considerably in size. Generally their light-coloured fill made them difficult to distinguish from the surrounding subsoil. In section they had roughly rounded bottoms and slightly converging sides. Their depths ranged from 6-7 cm to 51 cm; the majority were around 10-15 cm deep.

They all contained a few small fragments of cremated bone and a very little ash and charcoal. Were it not for the bones and small finds, they would greatly have resembled the pale, subsoil-coloured pits found at many prehistoric settlement sites.

Most of them contained small finds. In A50 there was a nearly complete tortoise brooch lying against the side of the grave with the concave back upwards (5) (figs. 22,23,24). Beside it lay fragments of a nearly identical brooch with duck feathers preserved in its metal salts. The feathers had been treated in a way showing they had been the stuffing of a pillow (4). A little of the pillowcase was also preserved in the form of tabby-woven linen (3). In the other graves there were two glass beads (fig. 33), a fragment either of a brooch or of a bu­ckle plate of bronze, sherds of pottery, and two knives (fig. 26).

1. Cremation pits

There were five of these (A71, A77, A78, A85. A42) (fig. 31), all from the central part of the eastern cemetery. They were either round or elongated and of very variable size. They all had considerably more charcoal and ash in them than the pale, pit-like cremation graves had. Also cremated bone seemed to be more abundant, though still only present in limited quantities. Only one of the graves had no grave goods. The others contained sherds of pottery (fig. 35), staples or nails, an arrowhead (fig. 34), an indeterminate piece of bronze, and a fossil sea urchin.

Inhumation graves

Seven were present (A43 (fig. 19), A69 (fig. 27), A 7011 (fig. 28), A81 (fig. 36), A82 (fig. 38), A83 (fig. 40), and A29,2 (figs. 17-18). The last is unsure. The eastern graves were overlain by stone spreads A40 and A75 (fig. 1), whose purpose was probably to indicate or protect them (6).

The inhumation graves were rectangular and orientated E-W or nearly so. Most of them had stones of one size or another in their fill, but these did not form continuous spreads or regular outlines. In their fills there were furthermore black patches of ash, burnt bones, and sherds of pottery. It is not clear whether this material was derived from disturbed cremation graves or came from ritual offerings of animals and human beings made during the funerals.

The depth of the inhumation burials ranged from 0,4 to 0,9 m. There were traces of coffins in all the graves (3, 8), except the uncertain grave A29,2. In A43 and A70 II there were partially carbonized log coffins, both of ash­wood. Grave A69 may also have contained a burnt tree trunk coffin of ash, whereas the coffin in A82 was made of oak boarding, which probably also had been superficially charred. The board coffins in A81 and A82 showed no sign of having been charred.

The size of the coffins varied very considerably, especially the width. In one of them, A83, no bottom could be found. Metal coffin nails were entirely absent. There were grave goods in six of the graves. These were knives, belt fittings, and in one case a complete pot (figs. 20, 29, 30, 37, 39, 41). In most of the graves the objects lay where they had been worn, that is to say near the belt. however in A43 they were distributed in three groups, in which most of the objects must have lain beside the body. They were therefore genuine grave gifts.

Conclusions

Grave customs, the arrangement of the graves, and the finds indicate that the Søndervang cemetery consisted of two, or possibly three chronologically distinct cemeteries (9).

The western area contains graves from early in the Younger Germanic Iron Age. This dating is indicated by a bronze fibula (Ørsnes' type G2) (10, 11, 12, 13) and is supported by the glass beads and to some extent by the pottery, which belongs to a number of different types (14, 15, 16, 17). The hemispherical vessels (fig. 42) in graves A8, A10, and A29 show that this type was already present early in the Younger Germanic Iron Age.

The easterly graves can be dated to the Viking period. The two tortoise brooches of Jan Petersen's type 37:3 (18) and two glass beads (19,20,21,22) show chat the cremation graves date from the early part of the period, c. 800. The inhumation graves are probably about 100 years younger (23,24,25).

The finds are too meagre to permit far­reaching conclusions about the social differences between the persons buried. However the number of graves in the different phases suggests that the cemetery may have been the burial place of a single farm (26). It is unknown where this farm and the graves of the missing phases lay (27).

The Søndervang cemetery has produced some types of feature that were not earlier recognized/described as graves. These are the cremation graves with Stone packing and burnt bottom in the western area, which could easily be confused with ordinary cooking pits with stones; and also the pit-like cremation graves in the east, which greatly resemble ordinary diffuse settlement features. Similar types of cremation graves have recently been found in 8th century Ribe (28), and hints of the existence of similar graves can be found in the literature (29).

This raises the question whether the scarcity of graves from the Younger Germanic Iron Age and early Viking period could be due to a failure to recognize similar features as graves before. However as "normal" types of cremation and inhumation graves also occur in these periods, Søndervang by itself cannot answer this question. In all events it is important that the somewhat unusual grave types described here should be taken into account as evidence in the future.

Orla Madsen