Northern Networks

On the northern periphery of the Neolithic world, new trends were spreading. Related to the emergence of an agricultural society across Northern Jutland, another new phenomenon arrived: causewayed enclosures. These massive sites, encircled with ditches and palisades, seem to have only been intended for short-lived or periodic usage, but they changed society for the centuries to follow. This book includes an in-depth analysis of three of these enclosures from Northern Jutland. The analysis studies the sites from their introduction around 3700 BC and follows them as the landscape and society around them changed. Each site is studied in relation to its history, chronology, and its impact on the social development. It is argued that they – although not central places as traditionally understood – still created centres and an ordered landscape with clearings and a network of pathways. They facili¬tated interaction for a scattered population and solidified connections to other networks around Northwestern Europe. To explore these venues, this book also reworks the chronology of the Jutlandic part of the funnel beaker complex through the systematic use of typology and the modelling of radiocarbon dates.