Gothemshammar : a late Bronze Age coastal rampart on Gotland

• This paper reports the results of a project aiming to use survey and excavation of the Gothemshammar rampart in a digital reconstruction to understand the site inits original landscape setting. Excavations uncovered internal construction details and dateable materials from domestic animals and charcoal. Fifteen AMS dates indicate that the rampart was built and used in the Late Bronze Age, c. 950–700 cal AD.Its northern end is situated at a steep scarp towards the current sea shore, andthe southern end is in an open slightly sloping terrain, currently about a kilometre from the sea. LiDAR data and an up-to-date shoreline displacement model indicatethat the seashore was about 10 m higher when the rampart was built and used thanit is today. The landscape reconstruction shows that the rampart originally cut offa headland on an islet that was strategically located at the mouth of an inland watersystem.To further understand the site’s Bronze Age context we made a spatial analysis of features tied to the same time frame, including other monumental structures(stone ships, burial cairns, other ramparts/enclosures) and metalwork hoards. It became evident that all kinds of monuments were mainly located close to the seashore on capes and islets. We could also see that the monuments, especially the stone ships, were mostly on the north shore of the ancient waterway and that its entry/exit where Gothemshammar is situated served as an important control point for travel into Gotland as well as overseas.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- Archaeology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Murar

Vallgravar

Georadar

Laserteknik

3D-skanning

Fortifikation

Bronsåldern

Stenmonument

Sverige

Gotland

Gothem

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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