Tempelhus fra stenalder

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Abstract
A Neolithic Temple In the neighbourhood of the village of Tustrup in the parish of Nørager on northwest Djursland (East Jutland) - upon a heather-clad terrace which slopes down towards the valley of the Hevring - lies a megalith cemetery, consisting, of two dolmens and a passage grave. The three graves lie on the circumference of a semicircle with a radius of 46---48 metres, and at the centre of the semicircle lies a cult building (Fig. 1). Before excavation this central site appeared only as a low heather-covered mound, formed of windblown sand which had drifted over a heap of stones, edged on three sides by a horseshoe-shaped stone setting (Fig. 2). On investigation the heap of stones proved to be collapsed house walling covering an inner wall construction of wood and orthostats. The rear wall of the house consisted of four orthostats, sunk in pits and supported by stone packing (Figs. 3--4). The orthostats had suffered considerably from erosion and breakage, but it was nevertheless possible to determine the original height of two of them as about 1.6 metres above the floor level of the house. The side walls of the house were distinguished by stones and charred post stumps, projecting up to 20 cms. above the ground surface (Fig. 5). Horizontal excavation and a series of vertical sections showed that the walls had consisted of closely placed segments of tree trunks, set in wall trenches and supported by stone packings (Figs. 6-7). In the southern wall the posts stood approximately vertically in the sections, whereas in the north wall they showed a considerable inward inclination (Fig. 9). The angle of inclination varied, however, considerably from post to post; the inclination is therefore presumably secondary, the result of considerable pressure from without. The course of the north wall was moreover very irregular. 2.8 metres from the rear wall the wall trench broadened out into a pit of about 2 metres in length, 1.3 metres wide and 0.75 metres deep. Thereafter it again resumed normal dimensions. In association with this pit the line of the wall was broken, being displaced to the inner edge of the pit. (Fig. 7). At the same time the wall of trunk segments was here replaced by a lighter walling, probably of wattle. In the northeastern opening between the line of the walls there was no trace of posts, but in the centre of the opening stood a large stone, sunk in a deep pit. If the building be reconstructed, ignoring for the moment the outer edge-stones and the heap of stones, it is thus seen to consist of a 5 metre long curved rear wall, consisting of four orthostats of about 1.6 metres in height, sunk in pits and with the intervals filled in with dry walling; and of two sidewalls at right angles to the rear wall, built up as palisade walls of presumably vertical, closely placed, trunk segments. The north wall, however, is broken by a reverse niche, the inner, rear, wall of which is of a lighter character, presumably of wattle. The length of the walls is a good 6 metres. Towards the northeast the house has been open but its limit is defined by the clear termination of the line of the side walls. But the horseshoe-shaped setting of edge stones, and the heap of stones which covered the site, have comprised an important part of the building, and by incorporating them into the reconstruction we change the architecture completely. A trench, and the dry walling, which was preserved in situ between the edge stones, showed that these originally stood vertically, forming a horseshoe-shaped wall about 1 metre high around the central complex. The distance between the edge stones and the line of the inner walls was, at the northeast end, 0.6 metres, and the distance increased steadily towards the rear wall, where it was no Jess than 1.1 metres. The sections through the house site (Figs. 10-11) showed that the heap of stones sloped gently down from the edge stones towards the centre of the house, and that the stone layer gradually diminished from the rear wall towards the open northeast end. These details, and the fact that no charcoal at all was found outside the lines of the walls, and that the inclined position of the wall-posts must be secondary, support the view that the orthostats and the palisade walls of the house must originally have been covered with stones, in such a way that the house, viewed from outside, has had the appearance of a stone building. The numerous flat slabs found in the heap of stones have therefore presumably been built up one above the other as dry walling, perhaps extending right up to the eaves, while the ordinary round pebbles were heaped up between this dry-wall construction and the edge stones, which thus in fact came to form the outer surface of the house walls (Fig. 13). The heap of stones does not appear to have been so high against the weaker wall in the niche as in the rest of the house, and the gaps in the edge stones at this point suggest that free access was here provided both to the niche and to the pit (Fig. 8). The excavation gave no indication of roof construction, but, as the low rear wall can hardly indicate the original height of the house, it would he reasonable to assume that there has been a hipped roof. In the centre of the floor of the house was an oval pit. It had been filled in before the house was burnt and contained no objects. Behind it, however, lay the furnishings of the house which consisted entirely of pottery. In two sharply distinct groups, clearly separated from each other by an area without objects, lay the sherds of thirty pottery vessels and pottery ladles (Figs. 8 and 14). The sherds of each vessel lay together, showing that, before the burning and collapse of the house, each vessel must have stood, complete and undisturbed, in its place (Fig. 15). The pottery is of fine quality and the shapes are extremely characteristic. Space unfortunately does not permit a detailed survey, but a summary of the...

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