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Diverse phenotypes of Late Glacial–Early Holocene downy birch (Betula pubescens Erh.) and the morphology of early Preboreal tree stands in southern Schleswig-Holstein
No full textThe flexibility in growth of Betula pubescens is taken as example for possible erroneous imaginations of Late Glacial–Early Holocene living conditions. The article highlights the factors influencing the phenotype of the contemporary plants, as well as the small-scale patchiness of the distribution of thevegetation in the landscape. The area of investigation is the southern Weichselian younger morainic area of Schleswig-Holstein, including a major Late Glacial archaeological type locality – the Ahrensburg tunnel valley. The period under investigation spans the time between 11 700 and 11 400 cal BP and hence the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition, which is characterized by a significant shift in the vegetation. This shift has often been seen as a simple transition from treeless tundra to birch forest. The aim of the articleis to provide a more realistic image of plant cover of the late Dryas 3 period and the Early Holocene period before the Preboreal oscillation by considering past natural growth limits of Betula pubescens in the study area. The intention is to provide a more accessible interpretation of palaeobotanical data to non-specialists, especially in archaeology
Variation in bioavailable lead, copper, and strontium concentrations in human skeletons from medieval to early modern Denmark
No full textThree trace elements in human bones permit the delineation of temporal and social variability among medieval to early modern Danes in what they ate (strontium, Sr) and whether they lived in an urban or non-urban setting (lead, Pb; copper, Cu). The chemical composition of bones from 332 children (5 to 12 years old) buried in 51 Danish cemeteries was estimated through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Children provide a local chemical signal because they were less likely than adults to have moved from one place to another. There was no age effect on trace element concentrations. Geographical variability in trace element concentrations was highly localized, so the three elements, individually or collectively, cannot be used to identify where in Denmark people originated. Diets and exposure to sources of Pb and Cu, however, did not remain constant over time. Trace element concentrations show that the life experiences of people from towns differed from their rural counterparts. While most apparent with Pb and Cu, it is also true of Sr until urban and rural diets converged in the early modern period.Keywords: Historic Denmark; Bioavailable trace elements; Social variation; Temporal variation; Human skeletons; ICP-M
The Mandate for Speculation:Responding to uncertainty in archaeological thinking
No full textThe aim of the article is to reframe speculation from being seen as synonymous with unacademic conjecture, or as a means for questioning consensus and established narratives, to becoming a productive practical engagement with the archaeological and responding to its intrinsic uncertainties. In the first part of the article, we offer a review of speculation in the history of archaeological reasoning. In the second part, we proceed to discussing ways of embracing the speculative mandate, referring back to our engagements with the art/archaeology project Ineligible and reflections on how to work with the unknowns and uncertainties of archaeology. In the third and last part, we conclude by making the case for fertilizing the archaeological potential nested in the empirical encounter, creating more inceptions than conclusions, fostering ambiguities, contradictions and new spaces of experiential inquiry. This leads us to suggest that—when working with the archaeological—speculation should be seen not only as a privilege, but also as an obligation, due to the inherent and inescapable uncertainties of the discipline. In other words, archaeology has been given a mandate for speculation through its material engagements
Vi broderer historien
Get PDFEn større gruppe borgere og frivillige var i en periode fra efteråret 2022 og frem til i foråret 2023 med til at skabe fælles historie gennem broderier under overskriften ”Vi broderer historien”. Konceptet bestod af to sideløbende projekter, begge skabt som et led i fejringen af Øm Klosters 850-års jubilæum. Det ene projekt kaldes for ” frisen” og er en 3,6 meter lang billedfrise, der fortæller historien om munkenes vej til Øm. Det andet projekt, ” fællesfrisen”, er et fælles broderiprojekt, hvor alle, der har haft lyst, kunne være med til at brodere en bid af historien sammen
Being Strong Together:Cooperative Farmer Organizing in Scandinavia
No full textThis chapter on the role of the cooperative farmer movement for the social and economic development in Denmark focuses on the cooperatives as a form of associating, hereby unfolding how these cooperatives gained momentum due to sociopolitical conflicts in the late 19th century and became embedded within a wider rural cultural and organizational network. This gave Danish economic development a distinctively associational characteristic as cooperative organizations consolidated on a national level. However, while cooperative businesses survived dramatic transformations by the 1960s concerning international economic pressures, shifts in national political interests leading to rural depopulation, increasing farm sizes, centralization, and the dissolution of rural culture and organizations, their former associational aspect was lost as their business aspect became disembedded from wider organizational and cultural networks
