Today is the
first day of class. We visited Sagnlandet Lejre also known as “Land of
Legends.” This beautiful National Park
located near Roskilide, Denmark is comprised of reconstructions of an Iron Age
village, Viking marketplace, hunter-gatherer sites, and an 18th
century farmstead. It is a living
history and historical reenactment site which makes learning much more
interactive and enjoyable. Many archaeologists travel to Lejre to partake in
experimental archaeology, which focuses on testing and replicating feasibility
of ancient cultures performing various tasks or feats.
PROMPT: Summarize
the impact that the Danish landscape has had on the Danish as a people, and
vice versa.
You cannot
separate the Danish culture from the landscape.
The two are very intertwined and have had and still have enormous
influence on one another. Learning about the progression of the land, the
people, and the way of living over time was particularly interesting to me.
Denmark
remained uninhabited until around 7000 B.C. When the first people began emerging in
Denmark, they were hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherers are always on the move.
Their movement was dictated by food availability..basic survival. In the case of these early
Danes, this was reindeer. They could depend on the predictable movement of
reindeer to provide meals for a few seasons. The
hilly landscape gave hunters an advantage because the reindeer tended to gather
in the low spots. This made attacking
the reindeer easier and increased their chances for a successful hunt. The
temperature at this time was rising and the local vegetation was changing. With rising sea levels, traveling farther
distances became more difficult (ex. one could no longer trek from Denmark to
England on foot). As temperatures rise again, once familiar animal and plant
life changed. The people were consistantly
adapting to the constantly changing climate and shape/quality of the land. Temperatures continued to rise and fish & mussels became the main sources of
food.
The temperature eventually began to drop (a total of a few degrees). People were
less dependent on fish and mussels. A new but not unfamiliar concept came into
play during this time. This concept was farming. People in Greece and Italy had
been farming for more than a millennium before the Danish. The early Danish
were quite slow getting on the farming bandwagon… but with good reason.
Farming, compared to fishing, took a long time to get going and it was extremely
hard and unknown manual labor. This is the first time where the early Danish
were not really classified as hunter-gatherers.
In this old lifestyle, the people were required to adapt their lifestyle
to their surrounding. When farming
began, people could finally choose their own surroundings. Their surroundings
and environment could be designed around what they needed. They had more control. Because of this, permanent houses began to emerge eventually leading into villages and then cities.
Thinking about
how the early settlers handled the land is really interesting and intricate. The hunter-gatherers of early Denmark did not
(or very rarely) tried to manipulate the land. Rather, they let the natural
landscape and climate dictate their way of life. They worked with what they were given and
eventually made it into an optimal space for agriculture and success.
 |
| The group walking to the next site. The Land of Legends has over 106 acres of beautiful land |
 |
| An oxen skull perched on top of a stick in a sacrificial bog. |
 |
| Me on top of the beautiful hill overlooking some of the last remaining "untouched" Denmark. |
