Rønbjerg Strandvolle -a coastal settlement by the Limfjord

Abstract

Rønbjerg Strandvolde - a coastal settlement by the Limfjord

Over the years our impression of the settlement structure of the Ertebølle Culture has developed, with the recognition of a complex of type sites. Today, it comprises a wide variety of settlements, each of which exploited in different ways the characteristics and resources of the landscape. In this context, the settlements on the coastal embankments represent a new settlement type, which has not attracted attention until recent years -a settlement type with a distinct sea-exposed topographic location, which helps differentiate it from the existing types of settlement pattern of the culture.

In 1992, an example of this settlement type was found as a result of deep ploughing for a windbreak belt: the settlement Rønbjerg Strandvolde Øst ('the eastern Coastal Embankment of Rønbjerg'), the subject of this article (fig. 1).

The settlement is situated by the Bay of Bjørnholm in the Limfjord. As the natural formation of embankments of this type in the Limfjord is considerable (fig. 1 +2) this type of settlement was probably once far more widespread than is currently indicated by the archaeological finds. Because of their special topographic location and occurrence far down in the sediments, these settlements easily evade attention and are usually only discovered by chance. For instance, large coastal embankments in the Bjørnsholm Bay have now become meadows or parcelled out for summerhouses, and gravel digging has to some extent destroyed the area.

Behind a comprehensive complex of coastal embankments by Rønbjerg there is a small prehistoric bay (fig. 1). The development of the embankments at the mouth of the bay seems to have already started by the early Atlantic Period, and in time they closed the bay, which seems to have become a less attractive location for a settlement during the Atlantic Period. The Ertebølle element around the small bay stems mainly from the Early Ertebølle Period. There are indications of the development of an embankment of considerable size at the mouth of the bay -with a height of up to 6m -after the Atlantic transgression. A wood sample from sediments in the coastal embankments has been C-14-dated to 4550-4350 BC (fig. 3b, layer 13).

In summary, the embankment indicates that within the Limfjord area, a considerable embankment formation had already begun in some areas by the early Atlantic Period. Shortly after the Atlantic transgression, the first settlement was established on the highest part of the embankment. At about the same time, the shell heaps began to build up in earnest in the Limfjord area.

Rønbjerg Strandvolde Øst has been investigated by both systematic reconnaissance and by an excavation. This has resulted in a considerable number of artefacts and has created a general view of the stratigraphy of the site and the extent of the destruction by ploughing and other activity (fig. 3+9). The site has a concentration of Ertebølle finds within which a density analysis has defined two concentrations about 10m apart (fig. 14). A number of characteristics associated with the material indicate that these are a primary find (fig. 10-12 and table 1). The western concentration has a diameter of c. 6m, but the eastern one is of a more lengthy oval form, about 8-10 m by 6 m. Around both concentrations there is a peripheral spreading of objects from the primary flake production area. The find spot analysis indicates tint the artefacts within each concentration is distributed about an area with sparse finds, which may have contained a fireplace. Mainly transverse arrowheads and waste from the production of the arrow­heads (one or two made brittle by exposure to fire) are associated with these areas. The collected Ertebølle material seems to have come from a quite specific period, dating to mainly the middle part of the Ertebølle Culture (fig. 4-6). This was also the fact for the material found at Aggersund, for layer 2 at Norslund, and layer 4 at Brovst: the regression period between the High Atlantic and Late Atlantic transgression, which is in agreement with the geological/topographical conditions of the site. The find material is characterized in quantity by transverse arrowheads, cross-retouched pieces and core axes. The core axes are unusually numerous compared to the flake axes and occur across the site both as groups of axes and single axes, which to a certain extent breaks up the picture of the two artefact-concentrations. Some of the core axes may have come from the odd episodic visit to the site. This also goes for a couple of small, isolated artefact concentrations. Another strange condition of this site is the apparent complete lack of scrapers in the Ertebølle material. Similarly, flakes with a properly made continuous edge retouch are hardly present. The Rønbjerg Strandvolde site is thus partly characterised by a variety of objects which differ from the large basic settlements from this period.

When the size of the concentrations, the types of objects and the topographic situation are taken into consideration, the site must be interpreted as a seasonal settlement established in order to exploit a given resource at a favourable time. Which resource cannot be determined as no organic remains are preserved on the site. However, the location seems to further stress the maritime aspect of the settlement pattern of the Ertebølle Culture. The settlement thus joins the group of coastal settlements which has recently been brought into focus by Søren H. Andersen. In his work on the harpoon finds of the Ertebølle Culture, Søren H. Andersen compares these with the remains of fauna, animal behaviour and the Danish coastal topography. On this foundation he draws a picture of the marine mammal hunting of the Ertebølle Culture.

Rønbjerg Strandvolde may be considered according to these reflections. It is tempting to imagine a colony of seals on the coastal embankment. The conditions may also have been favourable for seals by Rønbjerg Huse, a little west of the site, on the large complex of sandbanks, which are now partly eroded. Here, it would have been possible to kill seals in the breeding season by cudgelling. Seal bones make up part of the faunal material in a number of coastal Ertebølle sites, for instance by Ertebølle and Bjørnsholm, but regular seal hunting grounds, as those known from later periods, have not yet been found. Also, the closed-in bay behind the coastal embankments may have been a low water, insect-infested area with still water, which may have been attractive to different kinds of sea birds. The settlement was presumably located here because of the possibility of exploiting this variety of different resources. A comprehensive Ertebølle Culture settlement has been documented just a couple of kilometres away by the Bjørnsholm Fjord. It is therefore natural to conclude that the Rønbjerg Strandvolde settlement took part in the exploitation of the resources in the area around the Bjørnsholm Bay -an exploitation concentrated in the more protected Bjørnsholm Fjord with the Bjørnsholm shell heap as the largest and central evidence for a basic settlement (fig. 1).

Even today, a small colony of seals live outside the Bjørnsholm Bay by Liv Tap on the island of Livø. Several harpoons have been found in the area, but they all belong to the Pitted Ware Culture. This culture is also represented by a quite large settlement on Livø. Surprisingly enough, no positive remains from the Pitted Ware Culture have been found at Rønbjerg Strandvolde. Perhaps the settlements of this culture are to be found somewhere else in the area.

The fact that Rønbjerg Strandvolde was also an attractive place to people after the Atlantic Period is attested by settlement traces from the New Stone Age -from the Funnel Beaker Culture, the late Single Grave Culture and from the early Dagger Period (fig. 7+8). The traces of activity during these periods are far more widespread than the ones from the Early Stone Age. The Neolithic activity expresses itself mainly as late Neolithic earthenware, usually found around an area with concentrations of cooking stones (fig. 13). The certain traces of the Middle Neolithic periods are less conspicuous.

The visits to Rønbjerg Strandvolde in the period between the late Single Grave Culture and the early Late Neolithic Period may be connected to a rise in sea level. This has been established at, for instance, Bjerregård (fig. 15) for the period 2570-2410 BC. New investigations are documenting still more clearly the continuous changes in the sea level in the Sub-boreal Period. As the changes in sea level are controlled by the climate, these later changes in sea level -as in the Atlantic Period- may have had a positive productive influence on the variety of marine life. A few oyster-dominated kitchen middens from the Limfjord may be attributed to the Single Grave Culture and should perhaps be seen in this light (fig. 15). These attributes parallel those of such sires as Selbjerg -a coastal settlement with seasonal hunting activity during the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture (MN AII), the Pitted Ware Culture, Single Grave Culture and Late Neolithic Culture, particularly the Pitted Ware Culture and Late Single Grave Culture. The faunal material documents that among other things seal hunting took place from this settlement.

The marked Late Neolithic coastal activity at Rønbjerg shows another aspect of the occupation and settlement pattern at Myrhøj. Here -about 2 km from the Limfjord coast- house sites belonging to a small settlement from the Late Neolithic A-period have been excavated. The finds consisted partly of earthenware from the Beaker Culture which is, in many ways, similar to the earthenware found at Rønbjerg Strandvolde Øst. The presence of small shell heaps in the culture layer shows that the people of Myrhøj also visited the coast regularly. The Limfjord area thus has the potential of a differentiation study, including the occupation and settlement structure of other periods and the adjustment to local conditions. Just as the Selbjerg site, the coastal embankment site of Rønbjerg Strandvolde was probably used on several occasions for seasonal activity.

Henrik Skousen