SARUP

Around 3400 b.c., in the Fuchsberg phase of the Funnel Beaker culture, a Neolithic enclosure with several causeways was constructed on a sandy promontory in the village of Sarup in the southwestern area of Funen, Denmark. The enclosure defined an elongated area of 8.5 hectares, 6 hectares of which were uncovered between 1971 and 1984 (fig. 1). Watercourses bound two of the three sides of the promontory; the third side was bordered by a palisade fence, four-sided fences built on the outside of the palisade, a fenced entrance passage, and two parallel rows of segmented ditches with several causeways between them. The enclosure was constructed in a period characterized by marked human impact on the environment, in the clearance of land for cultivation and grazing. In this timeframe the building of megalithic graves, or dolmens, began. In the two centuries c. 3400 b.c., both types of monuments (causewayed enclosures and megalithic graves) were constructed in the Atlantic region of western Europe.

The palisade on the Sarup enclosure originally stood in a trench, which could be followed for 572 meters. The planks were of split-oak trunks with diameters up to 42 centimeters. The close-standing planks of the palisade probably rose at least 3 meters above the ground. On the outer side, but close to the palisade, amounts of pottery, burned bones (including those of humans), scorched stones, and charcoal for hearths were found. Joined to the palisade or placed in the gaps between the ditches, nineteen four-sided fences were uncovered (fig. 1). No finds explain the function of these fences, but they must have had special significance because the placement of the ditches respects them. The entrance was a 1.6-meter-wide gap in the palisade, shielded by a fence 3 meters in front of it. Access to the entrance was along a path 2–3.5 meters wide, which at one spot was restricted by a cross fence to only 1.4 meters, so that nothing wider could come in (fig. 2).

In front of the palisade and fences lay two parallel rows of segmented ditches. Originally, the ditches were about 15 meters long, 4 meters wide, and between 0.20 and 2.0 meters deep. At the base of the ditches there occasionally were special finds or layers, for example, of decomposed organic deposits, whole pots or large fragments of pots, skulls of cattle, sheep, or pigs, plus human skulls or skull fragments and other bones. Only a very few flint artifacts have been found in the ditches. Above the bottom layers a homogeneous fill of the original upcast was thrown back deliberately from the heaps of upcast subsoil until then placed along both sides of the ditches. There is no evidence that the site had been fortified with banks.

Excavations of two-thirds of the interior of the Sarup enclosure have produced eighty-seven features dating to the same period. Most of them were scattered small pits, but some of the features had a special function, for instance, deposit of ritual materials (whole pots and axes), storage, or waste disposal. In a few of the pits there was considerable waste material, but the segmented ditches had only a few samples of waste. The finds from the site consisted of mainly materials specially selected by the inhabitants, such as human bones, axes, and whole or crushed pots. The material had been deliberately smashed, in the case of pottery, or burned, in the case of axes, grain, and human bones.

Some 150 years later, in about 3250 b.c., another enclosure was constructed on the promontory at Sarup. In the form of a crescent, this uncovered enclosure demarcated an area of about 3.5 hectares on the southern point of the sandy promontory. This structure also comprised a palisade fence, four-sided fences, and two parallel rows of ditches. In the interior 144 features were found. Some of them were small pits, perhaps postholes, but others were used for deposits of ritual materials and still others for storage. Three pits contained the burned human bones of adults. In this period passage graves were built, and very high quality pottery was manufactured and frequently offered in front of the graves—perhaps to a kind of prehistoric deity.

About thirty Neolithic enclosures have been found in Scandinavia. All these sites belong to the Funnel Beaker culture and date to a very short period between 3400 and 3200 b.c. The finds from all the enclosures are of special types (those that do not represent a daily life or settlement), with little or no debris but with selected bones of animals and humans, flintaxes, pots, etc. The enclosures seem originally to have been used for a short interval only, but the ditches later were reused. A couple of hundred years later, most of these places became settlements.

Hundreds of enclosures of the Michelsberg, Chasséen, Windmill Hill, and Wartberg cultures, characterized by segmented ditches, have been discovered since 1882 in western Europe. Although these cultures were not entirely contemporaneous, they do have many features in common. These enclosed sites could have served similar functions. Excavations of the enclosures have provided much new information about the Neolithic period. This new type of monument must be looked at in connection with the contemporary megalithic graves and settlements. Since 1988 intensive surveys of the fields around the Sarup site have been carried out. Within less than 20 square kilometers, 152 sites have been found from the periods of the two Sarup sites, that is, between 3400 and 3200 b.c.

Twenty-two of the sites are regarded as settlements. These were of limited size, about 500 square meters, and were situated in different zones, which means that the Stone Age farmers made use of a variety of topographical situations, with sites for hunting and fishing, for cattle herding, for pig farming, and for cereal cultivation. The settlements had many different tool types and clear evidence of toolmaking, plus a variety of livestock and cultivated cereals. The analyses of the settlements reveal significant differences with respect to size, location, and finds. The small settlement units suggest that only one or two families were living there, for a short period.

In the area around Sarup, 121 megalithic graves, now preserved only as plow-damaged sites, can be added to the four previously known. The damaged sites were found by intensive field survey. Twenty-eight of these megalithic graves have been excavated, and in the coming years many of the other graves will have to be excavated because intensive plowing is quickly destroying them. The megalithic graves developed in Denmark between 3400 and 3200 b.c. from small dolmen chambers reminiscent of the body-length earthen graves of the preceding period, to large dolmen chambers, to dolmens with a passage, and then to passage graves. The chambers often were placed within an enclosure or a barrow surrounded by a row of stones in a circular or oblong form or a palisade in a trench. A very small dolmen, less than 1 meter long, was placed at the bottom of a segmented ditch within an enclosure.

The distribution of megalithic graves close to Sarup indicates that they frequently were concentrated in clusters, dividing the area into units of equal size, which perhaps can be treated as territories. Division of the land into units of equal size together with the many small settlements of uniform size may be signs of the social organization of a segmented tribal society. It is of special interest that no complete primary burials have ever been found in the megalithic grave, only body parts. A similar situation exists at the causewayed enclosures, where only parts of buried individuals have been found. These details indicate a link between the megalithic graves and the causeway enclosures.

The enclosures and the megalithic tombs were erected some six hundred years after the introduction, in about 4000 b.c., of a farming economy in Denmark. Traces of the earliest forms of agriculture are finds of grain and domesticated animals and vague signs in the pollen diagrams of pollen from grain. At this time the first funerary monuments, the long barrows without chambers, containing the remains of one or more persons, appear. Significant changes in the landscape are first found in about 3400 b.c., at the time of the enclosures and megalithic tombs. Studies of pollen grains show that there was a smaller quantity of pollen pertaining to oak and lime forest and a higher proportion from birch and, later, hazel. Proportions of pollen of grasses and herbs characteristic of an open landscape also increased. These changes represent the deliberate creation of open areas for both cereal cultivation and grazing, which is known as Iversen's landnam ("land taking" or, simply, "land occupation").

Beneath some megalithic barrows there are traces of a primitive scratch plow, the ard. Working with an ard drawn by bullock required large fields cleared of big stones, trees, and stumps. The fields were plowed only a few times, and then the Neolithic peoples had to move on to new areas, looking for fresh land to cultivate. The introduction of the ard may have brought with it a series of changes in social relations, specifically, men undertaking cultivation and women carrying out tasks related to settlement. Land rights and inheritance would have become important, because a great deal of work had been invested in clearing plots for cultivation. Rights to the land could have led easily to conflicts between different groups.

In the Sarup, the enclosure is placed conspicuously in the center of a wide area of land featuring groups of megalithic tombs. The enclosure must have been shared by several groups, from the evidence of the labor expenditure necessary for construction alone. It is possible to interpret the enclosure, with division by many four-sided fences and segmented ditches, as a picture that correlates to the settlement pattern of the surrounding area. The individual segments may have symbolized or been associated with a family, a settlement, a clan, or a land unit. When the deceased were temporarily buried in the enclosure, they were brought into a wider community; there, during a dangerous transitional phase, they underwent transformation into members of the realm of the dead. Participation in the building of the enclosure and in the activities that took place there must have strengthened the social, economic, and religious institutions. Through a network of this kind a social forum was created, which would have facilitated the resolution of conflicts over, for instance, land rights and food distribution in time of shortage. It might have represented an element of stability in a period that saw many new and important innovations and profound changes in social structures.

About 3100 b.c. further social changes took place in the Sarup area. The pattern consisting of a major enclosure associated with a large number of small settlements and building of megalithic tombs came to an end, and a concentration of settlement at a few sites began. One of them, on the promontory of Sarup itself, was about 4 hectares in size, or 80 times larger than the settlements of former centuries, which suggests a more stable economy. These changes indicate that the big ritual landscapes were in use for a period of only about two hundred years, when the final and most profound evolution took place from a society of hunter-gatherers to one of farmers.

See alsoThe Megalithic World (vol. 1, part 4); Consequences of Farming in Southern Scandinavia (vol. 1, part 4).

bibliography

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Niels H. Andersen