New excavations at the Barbar Temple, Bahrain

In 2004 excavations at the Barbar Temple dating to c. 2000 BC established that the function of the southeastern subterranean channel connected to the temple pool was to supply the pool with water and not to divert water away from the pool. North and west of the temple the oval terrace wall of its third phase was located. In the centre of the Northeast Temple the remains of a shaft-stairway leading down to a well-chamber was uncovered and shown to be furnished with two subterranean channels leading water into the chamber. South of the Northeast Temple a house with late pottery was excavated. Two stamp seals and two seal-impressed tokens were found.     

Book reviews

Robert Rinehart (ed.), Finland and the United States. Diplomatic Relations Through Seventy Years (Washington DC: 1993). Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 141 pp. ISBN 0–934742–63–4. USD 12.00.

Karl Molin, Omstridd neutralitet. Experternas kritik av svensk utrikespolitik 1948–1950 (Disputed neutrality. The experts’ criticism of Swedish foreign policy, 1948— 1950). (Stockholm: Tiden, 1991). 109 pp. ISBN 91–550–3808–5. SKR 150.00

Anders Berge, Flyktingpolitik i stormakts skugga. Sverige og de sovjetryska flyktingarna under andra världskriget (Refugee policies in the shadow of a great power. Sweden and the Soviet Russian refugees during World War II). Uppsala Multiethnic Papers 26. (Centre for Multiethnic Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 1992). III pp. ISBN 91–86624–07–5.

Már Jónsson, Blóoskömm á Íslandi 1270–1870 (Incest in Iceland, 1270–1870). (Reykjavík: Háskóli Íslands, Háskólaútgáfan, 1993). 311 pp. ISBN 9979–54–048–6.

Michael Bregnsbo, Gejstlighedens syn på sam fund og ?vrigked 1775–1800, belyst ved trykte pradikener og taler (The attitudes of the clergy to society and authorities 1775–1800, revealed by printed sermons and speeches). (Copenhagen: Den danske historiske Forening, 1992). 160+124 pp. ISBN 87–87462–31–1.

Pentti Laasonen &; Johannes Wallmann (eds), Der Pietismus in seiner europäischen und aussereuropäischen Ausstrahlung (Pietism in its European and extra‐european radiation) Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran, toimituksia 157/ Veröffentlichungen der finnischen Gesellschaft für Kirchengeschichte, 157 (Helsinki, 1992). 240 pp. ISBN 951–9021–87–6.

Ole Feldbaek (ed.), Dansk Identitetshistorie (History of the Danish national identity), vols 1–4. (Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel, 1991–92) 424 pp., 468 pp., 673 pp., 589 pp. ISBN 87–7421–696–1, DKR 1400 (all volumes). Summaries in English in vol. 4.

Conny Blom, Tiggare, tidstjuvar, lättingar och landstiykare. Studier αν attityder och vär‐deringar i skrån, stadgar,, ordningar och lagförslag gällande den of fentlia vården 1533–1664. (Lund: Lund University Press, 1992.) 271 pp.     

Neutron imaging study of ‘pattern-welded’ swords from the Viking Age

We present novel imaging results from a non-invasive examination of three ‘pattern-welded’ swords from the Viking Age belonging to the National Museum of Denmark, using white beam and energy resolved tomographies with neutrons. Pattern-welded blades are made by forge welding together thin strips of iron and steel that were twisted and joined in various ways, producing a decorative pattern on the surface. The study shed light on the inner structure of the composite material and manufacturing techniques of these admired examples of past technology, revealing some otherwise invisible details of their assembly methods, phase distribution and extent of the corrosion.     

Arsenic in Danish and Swedish Mesolithic and Neolithic human bones – diet or diagenesis?

Arsenic has previously been measured in a bone sample of a c. 5-year-old Mesolithic child from Nivaagaard in Denmark yielding an anomalously high value of 13 μg/g. In the present work we show that other individuals at a nearby site also exhibit elevated arsenic levels, whereas individuals from other Mesolithic sites in Denmark are found to have quite low As-concentrations. Several attempts to reveal the source of the arsenic are reported: A railway track near the site, where the railway sleepers were suspected to have been impregnated with As leading to transport or diffusion of As into the adjacent soil; Several food items, the remains of which were found at the site, and one food item not preserved in the excavation, i.e. seaweed. Finally, it is shown that the most likely explanation of the elevated arsenic levels in human bones at Nivaa is diagenesis.     

Selected physical parameters to characterize the state of preservation of waterlogged archaeological wood: a practical guide for their determination

Non-destructive and destructive methods for determining the physical parameters of waterlogged wood such as the porosity, the water content, the wet and dry bulk densities plus the density of the cell wall material are presented. Considerations in respect to determination of masses, volumes and sampling size are discussed.     

THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL RANK IN THE EARLY NEOLITHIC OF NORTHERN EUROPE

Klavs Randsborg has made important contributions to the archaeology of the Bronze Age and later prehistoric periods, but in the 1970s he also touched upon issues such as the formation of rank in Neolithic societies. In his article ‘Social Dimensions of Early Neolithic Denmark’, he suggested that a hierarchical society arose at the transition from the Early to Middle Neolithic, c. 3300–3200 BC. Since then, excavations and research have resulted in numerous publications about the Neolithic, but only rarely have these examined social development. In this article, the authors continue the debate, sharing the same starting point as Klavs Randsborg, but here approaching the question of emerging social inequality on the background of recent research into the early agricultural societies in Northern Europe, seen in a broader European context. The primary focus is upon burial monuments as manifestations of status and power, and parallels are drawn with similar construction activities amongst present‐day farming communities in such remote areas as the islands of Southeast Asia. The social organisation and ritual customs of these modern farming communities are considered relevant when interpreting the archaeological evidence for early agricultural societies in Northern Europe.     

Aspects of gift giving in Denmark in the sixteenth century and the case of the Rose Flower Cup

The concept of an ancient system of gift exchange gradually being replaced by a market economy during the middle ages and early modern period has been rightly challenged by many recent studies. As it will appear from this essay on gift giving at the Danish court of King Frederik II (1559-88), gifts and favours continued to play an important role in the organisation of power and society. Several examples from sixteenth-century Denmark are discussed, including Frederik II’s patronage of the astronomer Tycho Brahe. Special emphasis is put on a gift from the Danish noble couple Hans Skovgaard and Anne Parsberg on the occasion of the baptism in 1577 of their godson, the eldest son of Frederik II. Donations at rites of passage like baptism were a convention at the time, yet the huge gilt silver cup known as the ‘Rose Flower’ was more than that. It was an elegant way of reciprocating an earlier, royal wedding gift. At the same time the cup and its symbolism hinted at the ideal of the generous lord, stressing the hospitality and accessibility expected from the king, an ideal as common to king and nobility at the renaissance court of the sixteenth century as it had been in the previous centuries. The more humble gifts mentioned in private account books of the time point to the fact that people did not necessarily give someone a gift to obtain something in return. Sometimes gifts were simply given to sustain the social order of which the donors were a part.