DOI Artikel:
Nielsen, Viggo; Clemmensen, Niels-Christian: Surveying of ancient field systems: Danish experiences
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49004#0163
SURVEYING OF ANCIENT FIELD SYSTEMS
DANISH EXPERIENCES
By
Viggo Nielsen and Niels-Christian Clemmensen
Along with Britain and the Netherlands,
Denmark is amongst those countries where
the surveying of and research into old field
systems has been carried out for a long period
of time.
Already an author from c. 1200, as well as
later writers, tells about deserted fields in the
woods and moors of Denmark, which es-
pecially dominated in Jutland in ancient
times. Also historians and archaeologists
were early aware that dividing banks visible
in woods and moors could be traces of an-
cient cultivation (Ravn 1671, 27; Muller 1897,
412; Hatt 1931, 117).
In a sketch from 1819 signs represent pre-
historic fields in a heather grown common in
the Isle of Bornholm (Klindt-Jensen 1958,
116).
The earliest exact survey of a large complex
was carried out in Jutland, instigated by
N. F. S. Sehested, Fig. la. Although he did not
realize that the banks originated in ancient
cultivation, the survey was very precise (Se-
hested 1884,115; Lerche 1984, 60). In 1911 So-
phus Muller published a survey of a part of a
complex of prehistoric fields found at Rod-
land Hede in Northern Jutland (Muller 1911,
255).
From the late 1920s, Gudmund Hatt car-
ried out extensive surveying of predomin-
antly West-Danish prehistoric fields, gath-
ered together in a definitive publication of
1949 (Hatt 1949).
During the following decades large-scale
surveys were carried out predominantly in the
eastern part of Denmark using increasingly
well-developed techniques (Nielsen 1984,135).
Based on systematic studies of aerial photo-
graphs a catalogue was published in 1991,
covering prehistoric field systems in the
counties of North Jutland and Viborg (Har-
der Sorensen 1982 and 1991).
As an addition to considerations of meth-
odological character published in other coun-
tries (e.g. Bowen 1961 and Carlsson 1977), it
is the aim of this paper to present reflections
on methods and source-criticism brought
about by research in Denmark during the last
four decades.
Part I. The Basic Physical Sources
A. The Immediately Visible Elements
The elements that appear as plastic features
marking boundaries of prehistoric fields in
the configuration of the ground are banks,
lynchets and rows of stones.
The existence of such features today im-
plies that the landscape in question has been
untouched after cultivation had ceased a long
time ago, or was a least only extensively
tilled, so that the traces were not annihilated
by later cultivation or modifications of the
surface.
Now such landscapes are only rarely
found. Formerly they were common in the
Jutland moors, where clearly visible patterns
DANISH EXPERIENCES
By
Viggo Nielsen and Niels-Christian Clemmensen
Along with Britain and the Netherlands,
Denmark is amongst those countries where
the surveying of and research into old field
systems has been carried out for a long period
of time.
Already an author from c. 1200, as well as
later writers, tells about deserted fields in the
woods and moors of Denmark, which es-
pecially dominated in Jutland in ancient
times. Also historians and archaeologists
were early aware that dividing banks visible
in woods and moors could be traces of an-
cient cultivation (Ravn 1671, 27; Muller 1897,
412; Hatt 1931, 117).
In a sketch from 1819 signs represent pre-
historic fields in a heather grown common in
the Isle of Bornholm (Klindt-Jensen 1958,
116).
The earliest exact survey of a large complex
was carried out in Jutland, instigated by
N. F. S. Sehested, Fig. la. Although he did not
realize that the banks originated in ancient
cultivation, the survey was very precise (Se-
hested 1884,115; Lerche 1984, 60). In 1911 So-
phus Muller published a survey of a part of a
complex of prehistoric fields found at Rod-
land Hede in Northern Jutland (Muller 1911,
255).
From the late 1920s, Gudmund Hatt car-
ried out extensive surveying of predomin-
antly West-Danish prehistoric fields, gath-
ered together in a definitive publication of
1949 (Hatt 1949).
During the following decades large-scale
surveys were carried out predominantly in the
eastern part of Denmark using increasingly
well-developed techniques (Nielsen 1984,135).
Based on systematic studies of aerial photo-
graphs a catalogue was published in 1991,
covering prehistoric field systems in the
counties of North Jutland and Viborg (Har-
der Sorensen 1982 and 1991).
As an addition to considerations of meth-
odological character published in other coun-
tries (e.g. Bowen 1961 and Carlsson 1977), it
is the aim of this paper to present reflections
on methods and source-criticism brought
about by research in Denmark during the last
four decades.
Part I. The Basic Physical Sources
A. The Immediately Visible Elements
The elements that appear as plastic features
marking boundaries of prehistoric fields in
the configuration of the ground are banks,
lynchets and rows of stones.
The existence of such features today im-
plies that the landscape in question has been
untouched after cultivation had ceased a long
time ago, or was a least only extensively
tilled, so that the traces were not annihilated
by later cultivation or modifications of the
surface.
Now such landscapes are only rarely
found. Formerly they were common in the
Jutland moors, where clearly visible patterns