Reviews

Else Kragelund Holt &; Kirsten Nielsen (eds.), Bibelkundskab. Introduktion til Det Gamle Testamente. Aarhus Universitetsforlag 1997, pp 317.

Göran Eidevall, Grapes in the Desert. Metaphors, Models, and Themes in Hosea 4–14. CB Old Testament Series 43, Almqvist &; Wiksell, Stockholm 1996, pp xii + 274. ISBN 91 22 01709 7.

Mogens Müller, Det Garnie Testamente som kristen bog, Anis, Frederiksberg 1997, pp 92. ISBN 87 7457 200 8.

March Vervenne (ed.), Studies in the Book of Exodus. Redaction — Reception — Interpretation. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium CXXVI. Leuven University Press‐Uitgeverij Peeters, Leuven 1996, pp xi + 660. ISBN 90 6186 755 X1/90 6831 825 X.     

Abstracts

Steven L. McKenzie, The Trouble with Kings. The Composition of the Book of Kings in the Deuteronomistic History. Leiden‐New York‐København‐Köln: E.J. Brill 1991, XII &; 183 pp. [Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 421 ISSN 0083–5889, ISBN 90 04 09402 4. Price Gld. 98,‐.

Stefari Timm, Moab zwischen den Mächten. Studien zu historischen Denkmälern und Texten. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz 1989, VII &; 516 pp. [Ägypten und Altes Testament 17]. ISSN 0720–9061, ISBN 3–447–02940–4. Price DM 128,‐.     

A charcoal-rich horizon at Ø69, Greenland: evidence for vegetation burning during the Norse landnám?

It is often assumed that the colonisation of Greenland by Norse settlers in c. A.D. 985 had a sudden and dramatic effect on the environment, involving substantial vegetation clearance and environmental degradation. Consequently, it has been argued that charcoal-rich horizons, visible in many sections in Greenland, represent the initial burning of the vegetation by Norse farmers to create land suitable for agriculture. In this study a charcoal-rich layer, visible in a modern drainage ditch beside the Norse farm of Ø69, was analysed using archaeobotany, sedimentary analysis and radiocarbon dating to test the date and formation processes of the horizon. It is demonstrated that the charcoal-rich layer at Ø69 was not derived from in situ vegetation burning in the 10th century and concluded that the layer was probably formed by the addition of midden material to the infields around Ø69 in the 13th and 14th centuries cal AD, perhaps as part of a soil amendment strategy. It is argued that caution must be exercised when interpreting charcoal-rich horizons as time-specific chronological markers in palaeoenvironmental sequences in Greenland.