Version 1
: Received: 27 November 2023 / Approved: 27 November 2023 / Online: 28 November 2023 (02:02:39 CET)
How to cite:
Rose, H.; Meadows, J. Dividing Time – An Absolute Chronological Study of Material Culture from Early Iron Age Urnfields in Denmark. Preprints2023, 2023111702. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.1702.v1
Rose, H.; Meadows, J. Dividing Time – An Absolute Chronological Study of Material Culture from Early Iron Age Urnfields in Denmark. Preprints 2023, 2023111702. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.1702.v1
Rose, H.; Meadows, J. Dividing Time – An Absolute Chronological Study of Material Culture from Early Iron Age Urnfields in Denmark. Preprints2023, 2023111702. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.1702.v1
APA Style
Rose, H., & Meadows, J. (2023). Dividing Time – An Absolute Chronological Study of Material Culture from Early Iron Age Urnfields in Denmark. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.1702.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Rose, H. and John Meadows. 2023 "Dividing Time – An Absolute Chronological Study of Material Culture from Early Iron Age Urnfields in Denmark" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.1702.v1
Abstract
Chronological frameworks based on artefact typologies are essential for interpreting the archaeological record, but they inadvertently treat transitions between phases as abrupt events and disregard the temporality of transformation processes within and between individual phases. This study presents an absolute chronological investigation of a dynamic material culture from Early Iron Age urnfields in Denmark. The chronological framework of Early Iron Age in Southern Scandinavia is largely unconstrained by absolute dating, primarily due to it coinciding with the so-called ‘Hallstatt calibration plateau’ (c.750 to 400 cal BC), and it is difficult to correlate it with Central European chronologies due to a lack of imported artefacts. This study applies recent methodological advances in radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling, specifically a statistical model for wood-age offsets in cremated bone and presents the first large-scale radiocarbon investigation of regional material culture from Early Iron Age in Southern Jutland, Denmark. Dated material is primarily cremated bone from 111 cremation burials from three urnfields. The study presents absolute date ranges for 16 types of pottery and 15 types of metalwork, which include most of the recognised metalwork types from the period. This provides new insights into gradual change in material culture, when certain artefact types were in production and primary use, how quickly types were taken up and later abandoned, and distinguishing periods of faster and slower change. The study also provides the first absolute chronology for the period, enabling correlation with chronologies from other regions. Urnfields were introduced at the Bronze-Iron Age transformation, which is often assumed to have occurred c.530-500 BC. We demonstrate that this transformation took place in the 7th century BC, however, which revives the discussion of whether the final Bronze Age period VI should be interpreted as a transitional phase to the Iron Age.
Keywords
Archaeology; Early Iron Age; typology; cremated bone; radiocarbon dating; Bayesian chronological modelling
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Archaeology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
