New surveys

Survey 2008

In the summer of 2008, Skanderborg Museum conducted a survey aiming to rediscover Harald Andersen’s main excavation site from 1957-1960. Aided by Peter Jensen, from Aarhus University's Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, the area’s proposed location was allocated and two minor test pits were excavated. The test pits were placed at the edge of the old excavation site and were extended until the edge of the old site was found. In one of the pits approx. 1 meter of a previous registered profile was recognised and in a second pit a corner of the old site was located. This allowed the site and Harold Andersen's measurement system to be geo-referenced.
Another purpose was to look at conditions for the preservation of human bones. Since Harald Andersen's survey, there had been a cultivation of the meadow and the drainage resulted in a severe merging of the organic layer between ½ and 1 meter. Therefore, it was a great concern that the preservation conditions for bones had degraded strongly or even worse, that there was no bone material left in the meadow. During the investigation it became clear that the bottom meter was still below the groundwater table and that the bones were preserved in this very oxygen-poor environment. A 1x1m2 test pit was dug to examine the conditions and it yielded two sacrum, a femur, an upper arm bone, a rib and a finger bone. The state of preservation of the bones was found to be extremely good in this part of the Alken Enge lake. Two C-14 datings were performed on the new bone material which confirmed the dating to be around the birth of Christ.