The importance of forest resources to the Stone Age populations of Northern Europe has not been comprehensively studied, despite wood raw materials forming the basis for life, settlement, mobility, and subsistence. In addition to firewood and construction needs, wood has been used for a wide range of purposes. The paucity of research is due to the limited preservation of organic materials at archaeological sites in drylands, whereas wetlands and submerged environments can remarkably preserve wood for thousands of years. Findings in such contexts demonstrate that Mesolithic populations in southern Scandinavia had already been using well-designed and functional wooden fishing structures, constructed using the wattle-and-stake principle, as early as 8500 years ago. The easily made, movable, composite, and elastic wattle modules were likely also used for various purposes in settlements and activity areas on drylands, where their remains have simply not survived. This paper examines the Stone Age origins of the wattling tradition associated with wooden fishing structures, represented in the archaeological record of the western Baltic Sea, with particular emphasis on findings from the prehistoric Syltholm Fjord on Lolland, southeast Denmark. The well-preserved organic evidence recovered from the waterlogged sites in this study area expands our previous knowledge of the uses of forest resources, wattle-making, and other manufacturing techniques, particularly from 3300–2600 cal BCE (the Middle Neolithic in Danish Stone Age chronology). Our results demonstrate that these multipurpose structural elements played a crucial role in the practice of an adaptive fishing strategy in a dynamic coastal landscape, involving the use of portable, composite wattle panel modules in fish weirs. Similar elements were presumably also used for a variety of other purposes, thereby significantly enhancing our understanding of woodworking methods and the utilisation of forest raw materials in Stone Age Northern Europe.
Eines der glanzvollsten Präludien zu Beginn der Vorbereitungen für die Hochzeit zwischen dem frisch gekrönten König Karl X. Gustav von Schweden und der jungen Gottorper Prinzessin Hedwig Eleonora war unter anderem das Portrait historié der Prinzessin Hedwig Eleonora von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, das im August 1654 von dem für den Gottorper Hof tätigen und in den Niederlanden ausgebildeten Maler Jürgen Ovens (1623-1678) geschaffen wurde. Prinzessin Hedwig Eleonora von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1636-1715) wird in einem ganzfigurigen Bildnis in allegorisch-historisierender Verkleidung dargestellt und von der Göttin Minerva, symbolisch als Königin der Tugend, gekrönt. Einige Aspekte der Komposition der sogenannten Tugendkrönung werden hier im Spannungsfeld zwischen höfischen Bildansprüchen und der christlichen Tradition von Lilien und Krone unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der zeitgenössischen Medaillenkunst näher vorgestellt.
Da Frauen in der Geschichte aus vielen Lebensbereichen verdrängt wurden, was sich in der schriftlichen Überlieferung niederschlug, bieten Werke der bildenden Kunst einen aufschlussreichen Zugang zu ihrer Arbeit. Denn die Förderung von Kunst und Künstlern bot Frauen Handlungsspielräume, die ihnen in anderen Bereichen nicht offenstanden. Häufiger als in schriftlichen Quellen belegt, waren fürstliche Frauen an repräsentativen Baumaßnahmen beteiligt - auch an der Errichtung oder Ausstattung von Hofkapellen, wie ausgewählte Beispiele aus Schleswig-Holstein und Dänemark zeigen. Die Schlosskirche in Sønderborg ist bis heute als ›Kapelle der Königin Dorothea‹ bekannt. In ihrer heutigen Form geht sie weitgehend auf die Umbauten der Königin Dorothea von Sachsen-Lauenburg zwischen 1568 und 1570 zurück. Die Hofkapelle von Schloss Gottorf wurde um 1590 im Rahmen des von Herzog Adolf begonnenen Umbaus des Nordflügels errichtet. Die Wappen Adolfs und seiner Gemahlin Christine von Hessen über dem Eingang deuten darauf hin, dass die Herzogin bei der Ausstattung der Gottorfer Kapelle nach dem Tod Herzog Adolfs eine wichtige Rolle spielte. Als Witwen haben Frauen einen größeren Handlungsspielraum. Das Wirken von Herzogin Auguste ist besonders in ihrem Witwensitz, dem Schloss Husum, sichtbar, wo sie zunächst eine Schlosskapelle errichten ließ. Der Herzogin Maria Elisabeth wird das Husumer Hofgesangbuch von 1676 zugeschrieben.
Viking proto-town Hedeby located in Northern Germany belongs to the archaeologically most intensively investigated Viking Age sites. Nevertheless, there is only very scarce information about landscape transformation in Hedeby during the Viking Age. This geoarchaeological research, which included coring transects, geochemical and micromorphological analyses as well as radiocarbon dating, revealed that inhabitants of Hedeby intentionally altered the landscape in the settlement to a much larger extent than thought before. A large buried valley-like feature was discovered in the western part of the settlement following the course of the Hedeby-brook, which represented an important element of the settlement landscape. Based on the estimated dimensions of the valley-like feature, its volume equalling at least 10,000 cubic meters was calculated. A number of considerations allowed excluding natural origin of this feature and suggested human activity to be responsible for its formation. Moreover, it was concluded that the valley-like feature was excavated during the settlement period in the Viking age. Possible reasons for the formation of the valley-like feature were discussed in detail with main hypotheses being material extraction for the construction of the semi-circular rampart and water management in the settlement. Regardless of the initial goal for the formation of the valley-like feature, it started to fill with various material already during the settlement period. On the one hand, waste material originating from neighbouring households and workshops was disposed there. On the other hand, natural sedimentation due to soil erosion from the neighbouring slopes took place there. The end of the settlement period was clearly marked in the stratigraphy by the onset of peat formation followed by a new phase of colluvium deposition triggered by agricultural land use in medieval and modern times. The valley-like feature was part of a large landscape engineering project in Hedeby and it undoubtedly played a major role in the organization and functioning of the proto-town at least in the early settlement phase.
A multi-method geoarchaeological investigation was performed to reconstruct multi-phase Neolithic settlement. Invasive and non-invasive surveys showed potential for providing archaeological and environmental landscape data in this complex setting. Large-area geophysical surveys showed potential for deriving stratigraphic information.
