Pottery from the older Iron Age in Sweden
The pottery of the older Iron Age in Sweden (around 400 BC to 0) comprises some 1000 vessels (for Swedish standards a high number in a limited period of time), which represent several types without showing any great variation. Of particular importance is the large amounts of ceramics are the cemeteries Ekehögen (200 graves), Fiskeby, horn and Sjögestad. The high number is due to the custom of burning corpses in clay vessels.
Most of the vessels from the older Iron Age are simple household items. These often include barrel-shaped or slightly curved jars with a curved or straight edge. Some are of a more profiled shape and of better quality. Smooth, dark-colored vessels, sometimes with a stepped foot, large, bulging vessels with handles, cups with handles and, to a lesser extent, double-conical vessels come from cemetery fields in western Sweden. Some of the vessels in western Sweden show connections to the Kraghede group on Jutland in Denmark . A decor is missing or consists of simple line ornaments.
Meander-like decorations, which point to northern German influences, show some vessels from Väster- and Östergötland. Double-conical vessels also occur on Öland and in Östergötland. Öland also has cup-like cups with counterparts south of the Baltic Sea. A distinctive ceramic cannot be excreted during the final phase of the early Iron Age. The shapes of the vessels are uniform and simple in those parts of the country where this craft is present.
In part, the ceramics reflect shapes that are rooted in the previous period. Individual barrel-shaped, tall vessels from Östergötland and Västergötland show an affinity with late Bronze Age shapes that can hardly be based on chance. They express the traditional connection with the Bronze Age and its ceramics, so that a continuity of settlement becomes tangible based on the ceramics.
literature
- Mårten Stenberger : Nordic prehistory. Volume 4: Prehistory of Sweden. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1977, ISBN 3-529-01805-8 .