A01_P03

Contextualizing the presence of Late Bronze Age Millet at the Arnbjerg site - Investigating settlement dynamics in Jutland, Denmark

Kanstrup M¹, Sørensen C², Olsen J¹

¹Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark, ²Viborg Museum, Viborg, Denmark

Situated near Viborg, just south of Lake Søndersø, large-scale archaeological excavations at Arnbjerg N revealed a great amount of Settlement evidence. A priority within the project was to Radiocarbon date a wide range of samples in order to investigate the duration of the different settlement features and the dynamics of the site compared with the Settlement History in the same region using Bayesian modelling. In total more than 220 samples were dated, giving ages mainly ranging from The Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age with a relatively large concentration of dates situated on the Hallstatt Plateau. The overall distribution of the dates demonstrates site continuity with a few interesting exceptions. Here we focus on the settlement recovery and consolidation phase following a clear hiatus from 1200-800 BCE. This Hallstatt settlement phase is particular since we here see clear evidence of Late Bronze Age Millet farming in the archaeobotanical assemblages. Millet is not a common crop found to be cultivated in Denmark. The spread of millet to Northern Europe tend to give rise to considerations about linkages to pan-continental communicative networks, and the exchange of both goods, social mobility, and technology. Besides the obvious new and more exotic agrarian trait, the archaeology in the Hallstatt phase of Arnbjerg also reveal new features in the architectural lay out of the longhouses.  Combined the different sources of evidence points out differences in the development in the Settlement structure compared to earlier phases.