Tunanlegg

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Tunanlegg are prehistoric settlements that are only known in this form from coastal locations in Norway . There are concentrations in the coastal landscape of Jæren and in the Vestfjord bay . But the plants scattered in the fjord landscape are also connected to the coast. Tunanlegg (roughly translated: courtyard area) are also known as kretstun , ringtun or ringtun-anlegg .

Features of the plants

Aerial photo of the remains of the Vollmoanlegget in Steigen, the reconstructed building floor plan in the image detail

So far, 25 of these systems are known, which in a way remind of Swedish Fornborgar . The complexes, initially dated to AD 300 to 600, consist of up to 20 buildings with a maximum length of 16 meters and a width of 4.3 meters, which are arranged tightly, radially around a round or oval square. The entrance to the building faces the square. A few Tunanlegg completely surround the square. Many have rows of buildings so that the inner space is open on one or two sides. Until the 1930s, the oblong ramparts in the area were still perceived as burial mounds . However, it is the collapsed walls of the rectangular houses.

There are clusters of such systems in the far north and south-west of Norway. In the past, the southwestern Norwegian systems were dated to the early Iron Age and the northern ones later, to the Viking Age. One interpretation was that the southwestern facilities at Jæren and Ryfylke were military camps. A recent study of the facility at Ase in Andøy has given a date from 200 to after 800 AD. This means that the south-west Norwegian systems have a longer service life than assumed. Dating can also be done through the pottery, numerous fragments of which have been found in the south-western complex. Far fewer fragments can be found in the northern systems.

Bøanlegg and Vollmoanlegget in Steigen

Terrain with remains of the full moanlegget from Steigen

The settlement of Bøanlegg in Steigen was probably built between 300 and 400 AD. Povl Simonsen from the University of Tromsö recognized building 12 about 8.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. A women's grave and a richly decorated warrior's grave were found nearby. It contained an iron sword, two iron arrowheads, the remains of a shield made of wood, iron and bronze, a gold ring, and a leather belt with brass fittings. The facility is now partially under an asphalt road.

In 1926, the amateur archaeologist Edvard Havnø discovered Vollmoanlegget. Here you can see cooking areas and the remains of 16 longhouses, which together offered space for around 600 people. The houses are 10 to 16 meters long and 4.3 meters wide, making them much larger than in Bøanlegg. The houses were placed opposite each other in two curved rows.

use

The Tunanlegg in the coastal areas of Norway have been discussed in several publications. There are several theories about how they were used. For the archaeologist Gutorm Gjessing it was obvious that a Tunanlegg was used several times a year as a temporary stop for sacrificial celebrations. There are no traces of agriculture or animal husbandry in the vicinity of the facilities and no fortifications.

So far none of the authors has been able to support his interpretation. On the basis of northern Norwegian places of jurisdiction and comparisons with Icelandic ones , the assumption was made as early as 1866 that the places represented thing places .

See also

literature

  • Povl Simonsen: The history of settlement. Norway north of 65. Tromsø Museum Skrifter VII, 1960.
  • Oliver Grimm: Tunanlegg på Jæren and the European continent. Frá haug ok heiðni. Tidsskrift for Rogalands arkeologiske forening, 4/2006, pp. 3–10, 2006
  • Oliver Grimm, Alexandra Pesch: Kulthus på Jæren. Frá haug ok heiðni. Tidsskrift for Rogalands arkeologiske forening, 2/2010, pp. 13-18, 2010

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Oliver Grimm: Game grounds in western and ship races in eastern Scandinavia in archaeological-interdisciplinary view. In: Matthias Teichert (Ed.): Sports and games among the Germanic peoples. Northern Europe from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, supplementary volumes 88, pp. 429–456, 2013
  2. ↑ All castles in Scandinavia and even the Viking castles of the late period in Denmark experienced similar interpretations .
  3. ↑ Vollmoanlegget , Kulturminne ID 7945-4, Riksantikvaren, Directorate for Kulturminneforvaltning
  4. ↑ Grimm, Oliver .: Roman period court sites in South-Western Norway: a social organization in an international perspective . Arkeologisk museum, Universitetet i Stavanger, Stavanger 2010, ISBN 978-82-7760-144-1 , p. 43 .
  5. ↑ Stefan Brink, Oliver Grimm, Frode Iversen, Halldis Hobk, Marie Degaard, Ulf Nsman, Alexandra Sanmark, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk, Orri Vsteinsson & Inger Storli: Court Sites of Arctic Norway: Remains of Thing Sites and Representations of Political Consolidation Processes in the Northern Germanic World during the First Millennium AD? Norwegian Archaeological Review, 4, 1, S, 89-117, 2011 doi: 10.1080 / 00293652.2011.572685