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Tom Christensen, Lejre bag myten: De arkæologiske udgravninger . Højbjerg: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab for the Roskilde Museum, 2015. Pp. 564; many color figures. Kr. 448. ISBN: 978-87-88415-96-4.

2016; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/689705

2040-8072

John Hines,

Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies

The first principal chapter summarizes the primary sources, which reflect the special status of Lethra as a Danish royal center in early medieval tradition. (I use the term “early medieval” in the standard English sense of the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eleventh century, centuries counted as the end of the prehistoric Iron Age and the Viking period in Denmark.) Chapter 2 summarizes the fieldwork that has taken place around the preserved manorial complex of Gammel Lejre, focusing particularly on the series of buildings, including many large halls, discovered just west of the standing buildings in a series of excavations since 1986. The following chapters successively discuss the structures found (most of which are represented by patterns of post holes), the dating of these buildings and associated activities, and their functions, from palatial halls to possible slave housing and storehouses, concluding with the practical organization of the successive farm complexes. A few tenth-century graves found by the northern halls of the largest complex, Mysselhøjgård, are presented. Floral and faunal remains include evidence of the exploitation of wild animals as game, while large mounds of stone at either end of the multiperiod site suggest possible ritual practices. There are three chapters on the material artifacts found, followed by chapters offering steadily widening contextualization: within the landscape, within the agrarian society of the region, within the island of Sjælland, and finally within the context of Denmark as an emergent national territory. The final chapters in the first part of the book and an appendix contain an expansive review of Lejre’s changing position through the High Middle Ages to modern times and its role as an object of antiquarian interest. This part then concludes with its own notes and bibliography; the volume continues, however, with 227 pages of “catalogues” containing methodical descriptions and illustrations of the buildings and artifacts found, the graves, and the animal bone from the smaller Fredshøj area to the north.