Project title: Cemetery in the Early Iron Age: recontruction and registration

Researchers: Anna Severine Beck, MA student, Copenhagen University, Denmark

and Trine Borake, MA student, Copenhagen University, Denmark

E-mail: annasbeck(at)ofir.dk or mox1957(at)yahoo.com

Year: 2004

Abstract:

On Iron Age burial sites low burial mounds were raised, but today after 2000 years of ploughing they only appear sporadically in the archaeological record. Therefore the principles of their construction are virtually unknown. Similarly, the relationship between the Iron Age’s living villages and the burial sites of the dead is only rarely known. This experiment will address these archaeological questions.

A reconstruction of a burial site with 10 small burial mounds was build in the vicinity of the Iron Age village at Lejre. The aim was not to build an exactly reconstruction of a burial site but to use the experience from the practical work to create new questions and new ways to look at the original archaeological material.

Through the work question of e.g. transportation and of mound construction was raised. The observation that the burial site almost disappeared in the surrounding landscape was also a new perspective. This new way to use experimental archaeology in the archaeological process can be an important way to get new ideas of interpretation of the material. At the same time, the experiment aimed to expand the traditional procedures for documentation so it was not just the features that readily can be measured or weighed that are registered, but also the human factors such as experiences, working processing, thoughts and ideas were documented in the experiment. The use of diaries and interviews can rejuvenate experimental archaeological as well as excavation documentation methods.

Reference number: HAF 08/04