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Cooking pits – in clusters or in rowsCooking pits can occur either arranged in one or more rows, following a roughly parallel course, or in clusters of up to several hundred closely-spaced examples with no apparent pattern in their location. This type of structure is known from Southern Scandinavia, Germany and Poland. Most cooking-pit systems belong to the Bronze Age, but occasional examples date from the Early Iron Age.The cooking-pit complexes are described according to the following characteristics: 1) location in the landscape, 2) proximity to water, 3) distance to contemporary settlements, hoards and graves, 4) uniformity of form and content and 5) paucity of finds (Heidelk-Schacht 1989).In recent years in Denmark, attention has become focussed on cooking-pit systems and many new examples have been investigated (fig. 1). There are at least 42 known sites (fig. 2) comprising a total of at least 4300 cooking pits. However, as most rows or clusters of cooking pits have not been fully excavated, the real number is much greater. There are virtually no datable finds from the pits, as a consequence of which there is a tendency to date these features alone on the basis of their form and structure. Radiocarbon dates are the most important source when dating and many new sites, especially with uni-seriate arrangements of cooking pits, have been scientifically dated.In this article, the cooking-pit question is examined with a point of departure in a uni-seriate system at Frammerslev in Salling and a complex system at Brokbakken, Bjerringbro.FrammerslevDuring Skive Museum’s investigations in 2002 and 2006, discoveries included a uni-seriate cooking-pit system and a 31 m-long row of postholes 200 m further to the east, parallel to the row of cooking pits. The row of cooking pits (fig. 3) lies on a plateau located on a large promontory. The promontory hosts several concentrations and a row of burial mounds, constituting a marked feature in the landscape, also in the Late Bronze Age. The row of cooking pits runs directly towards a burial mound in both directions. Six cremation graves were found in the burial mounds, indicating that they were also used for burial purposes in the Late Bronze Age. There is no settlement in the vicinity.The row of cooking pits comprises 33 pits located in extension of one another, forming a 67 m-long northeast-southwest oriented row (fig. 4). Towards the northeast, the row continues in a more scattered fashion with a further seven cooking pits. In the middle of the series there is a complex of at least four cooking pits ( fig. 4, no. 1), of which two are included in the row. Repeated re-cutting can be seen in the complex and this is the only site so far where repeated use can be documented. At Frammerslev, there are subsidiary cooking pits associated with the row – a feature also seen at Roerstensgård and Bækmarksgård.The other cooking pits in the Frammerslev row are circular or elongate-oval. On the basis of the deposits in the pits, a typology has been constructed (fig. 5).When the cooking pits are classified according to the presence or absence of a compact charcoal-rich layer at their base, as well as one or two overlying layers, two main types can be identified, one with three, and one with two sub-types:Type 1 includes cooking pits with a black, compact charcoal-rich basal layer. Type 1a has a basal layer of charcoal and over this a yellow to brownish-yellow layer with red-burnt areas and, uppermost, brown topsoil material with scattered fire-shattered stones and charcoal. There may be red-burnt soil at the edge of the pit. There are, accordingly, three layers within the cooking pit and the red-burnt layer over the charcoal is unbroken and follows the course of any subsidence in the pit. Type 1b has brown topsoil-like fill directly over the basal charcoal layer. There are, accordingly, only two layers in the cooking pit. Type 1c comprises a black charcoal-rich basal layer with a substantial content of fire-shattered stones in the same layer as the charcoal, by which it distinguishes itself from types 1a and 1b. Type 2 covers cooking pits lacking black charcoal layers and possibly also without fire-shattered stones. In the case of type 2a, the whole pit is filled with brown clay, possibly lacking, or with only occasional scattered, fire-shattered stones and with very little charcoal. There is no red-burnt subsoil associated with these pits. With type 2b, the basal layer comprises clay with a very low content of charcoal and occasional fire-shattered stones or yellow to brownish-yellow clay with many small pieces of fire-shattered stone but no charcoal and no red-burnt clay.As can be seen from the overview (fig. 6) of the cross-sections of the cooking pits, there is great uniformity within, respectively, types 1a and 2a.Cooking pits of type 1 were primarily hearths where the cooking stones were heated in situ and the subsoil has become coloured by the effect of the intense heat. Subsequently, the pit served its purpose as, presumably, a cooking place for the roasting of meat. While the stones were still hot the fire was extinguished by being covered by thin layers of soil being thrown in; in several cases these can be seen to have acquired a reddish colour due to the effect of the heat. In several of the cooking pits there are very small fire-shattered stones, presumably the result of repeated use. Finally, the pit was either intentionally covered after its last usage or stood open and, with time, became filled with soil-rich culture layers. Accordingly, the cooking pit represents a complete series of events.The cooking pits of main type 2, with no or few fire-shattered stones, no or only a little charcoal and lacking red-coloured subsoil, must be explained in a different way. Either fire was never lit in the cooking pit – in which case it is difficult to maintain the term cooking pit and the pit could perhaps represent a kind of preliminary phase to its actual use, or the pit has been completely cleaned out after use, resulting in only the overlying layers being present. This type represents perhaps the pre- and post-phases of the actual cooking-pit activity.By examining the distribution of types 1 and 2, a pattern emerges which can provide the basis for an interpretation of the uni-seriate structure at Frammerslev (see fig. 4). Cooking pits of type 1 are the deepest and lie on both sides of the large central pit. Cooking pits of type 2 lie further away at both the northeastern and southwestern ends. This distribution of types suggest that the most commonly-used features are the central ones and that the row grew successively out from this core. Two shallow pits of type 2 furthest to the north could perhaps be the beginning of the next stage.The cooking pits at Frammerslev have not been archaeologically dated on the basis of artefacts. Two cooking pits of type 1 have been radiocarbon dated (fig. 7). If account is taken of the greatest uncertainty, the calibrated dates are, respectively, 860-790 BC and 1070-830 BC, i.e. Late Bronze Age, periods IV-V.Uni-seriate structures are found on Funen and Zealand and in Central and Northwestern Jutland and have many common features. They have often a marked location in the landscape, several occur on or near the highest point, for example on larger or smaller promontories extending out into a wetland area. Virtually all the uni-seriate cooking-pit rows lie in the vicinity of a wetland. Five out of 11 uni-seriate cooking-pit rows point in the direction of a burial mound. It is difficult to judge whether the cooking-pit rows lie remotely relative to settlements and burial grounds; investigation of even greater areas would be required in order to establish with certainty the absence of contemporary sites in the vicinity. This situation is further complicated by the fact that the houses from this period appear to be located quite a distance apart.The uni-seriate cooking-pit structures are, as a rule, lacking in finds. Nine uni-seriate cooking-pit rows have been radiocarbon dated (fig. 9). The radiocarbon dates reveal that the cooking-pit systems were used in the Late Bronze Age, periods IV-V, especially in the years between 950 and 800 BC.Brokbakken I-IIIIn the period between 1990 and 2008, Viborg Stiftsmuseum carried out several archaeological investigations on a 20 hectare site at Bjerringbro. These excavations have been named Brokbakken I-III. By way of the excavations at Brokbakken it has proved possible to demonstrate that large and small concentrations of cooking pits can be found in the vicinity of a multi-seriate system of cooking pits.Brokbakken comprises a delimited promontory (fig. 10), bordered on three sides by 8-10 m high steep slopes and gullies running out towards the flat Gudenå river valley. To the southeast, the promontory slopes gently without any natural boundary. The concentration of cooking pits at Brokbakken II lies a little withdrawn from the edge of the promontory, facing out towards a small gulley. The multi-seriate system of cooking pits, Brokbakken III, lies along the edge of an extensive valley which, 1.5 km distant, runs into the Gudenå.Brokbakken I yielded a concentration of 30 cooking pits, especially of type 1b, together with refuse pits from the Late Bronze Age, periods IV-V.At Brokbakken II, there is a concentration of 85 densely-placed cooking pits, primarily of type 1c (basal layer comprising a mixture of charcoal and fire-shattered stones), as well as several smaller clusters (fig. 11). There are a few finds, including a collection of sherds (fig. 12) from a c. 23 cm high vessel. Radiocarbon dating of a cooking pit shows that, when the greatest uncertainty is taken into account, it was in use between 1130 and 840 BC (see fig. 7), i.e. in Late Bronze Age, periods IV-V.At Brokbakken III, a multi-seriate system of cooking pits was investigated in 1997. This comprised 110 examples arranged in three to f
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