Northern Europe, 06 DENMARK (Scandinavia): Bronze Age (1700-500 BC)

The core of the Nordic Bronze Age is Southern Scandinavia, i.e. Denmark, Scania (the southernmost county of Sweden), the Oslofjord (southeast Norway) and Schleswig-Holstein (the northernmost state of Germany).

Inhumation in stone cists or oak trunks was the dominant burial custom during the Early Bronze Age (1700-1100 BC), replaced by cremation urns in the Late Bronze Age (1100-500 BC). Tens of thousands of earth mounds (barrows) were constructed during the period 1500-1200 BC.

The three-aisled longhouse had opposing doors on the long sides of the house, opening to an entrance hall dividing the house into two zones: a dwelling room identified by a fireplace, etc, and a byre often identified by stall partitions and a cobbled dung channel. With cows in the byre for part of the year it became easier to collect manure for the fields.

Settlement consisted of single isolated farmsteads, usually consisting of a longhouse as a residence for a family along with one or two outbuildings, that ‘moved around’ within a resource area. As the Bronze Age progressed there was a trend towards more clustered settlements, but true villages like those from the Early Iron Age are largely unknown.