MARIANNE RASMUSSEN (ed.). Iron Age houses in flames: testing house reconstructions at Lejre (Studies in Technology and Culture 3). 192 pages, numerous colour & b&w illustrations, DVD. 2007. Lejre: Lejre Historical-Archaeological and Experimental Centre; 978-87-87567-55-5.
Review by John Coles
Cadbury, Devon, UK
When archaeologists of late prehistoric persuasions hear the word Lejre, they at once visualise Iron Age houses and house-building because it was at this place that the realities of archaeological evidence and its interpretations were confronted by those of experimental reconstruction, and neither came out of the meeting unscathed. Forty-two years ago, the Lejre Experimental Centre opened its gates to the public and I am happy to say that I was an early arrival, and had already witnessed even earlier attempts at the re-creation of prehistoric houses in Denmark.
In 1965 Hans-Ole Hansen set out to initiate the study of ancient structures and to work towards the presentation of reconstructed buildings to the archaeological community and to the wider public. In 1967 one of the houses was burned down as an experiment, to record and contemplate a whole host of matters - the speed and spread of the conflagration, the survival in recognisable form of materials and objects, and the temporary and more durable traces of the structure in the ground itself. In 1992-93 the site was excavated and now, finally, we have an account, historical, comparative and processual of the original work and its successors.
It is entirely appropriate that Hans-Ole Hansen should have the opportunity in the book to regale us with the house-burning event at Lejre, and reflect that it was an even earlier and accidental burning of an experimental house, in 1958, shortly after its construction, that ignited his desire to continue research into such buildings and their rates of decay and destruction. All the evidence from whatever source indicates that fire will rapidly overtake the turf and thatch and wood of such houses as these North European Iron Age structures. The Lejre experimental house was ablaze within 3 minutes of a planned escape of fire from an internal hearth, and violent flames pierced the roof. An intrepid photographer set up his camera close to the house, and used a reverse-motion vacuum cleaner to keep the camera cool so he could record the details of collapse. A CD accompanying the book records some of the events. In describing the day, Hansen has much to say about the development of interest in house-building and decay and destruction, and the messages thus sent to today's archaeologists. And emotion surfaces too; in the 1967 burning, the house should have logically had many more internal fittings and objects, as we envisage an ancient occupation would accumulate, but Hansen could not bring himself 'to burn the best items we had for teaching ... and for informing the public.'
The full report on the burning of the Lejre house in 1967 occupies half of the book and includes comment on the evidence from several burnt Iron Age houses in Denmark. The house selected at Lejre, originally built near Roskilde, dismantled and then rebuilt at Lejre was already 8-9 years old when set alight and it was in a somewhat dilapidated condition through heavy use by visitors and by the ageing process on the wooden components. A sequence of photographs shows the Lejre fire at work, emerging through the roof within 3 minutes, the roof partly collapsing at the 10-minute mark and almost completely gone in 15 minutes. After an hour only the wattle and daub walling remained upright and the fire continued to burn amidst the collapse for over 3 hours, baking parts of the earthen floor. The decision to create an opening in the structure for photography of the interior conflagration may have encouraged the flames but only minimally so, given the freeflow of air from other openings. Account of the event, the timing, speed and intensity of the flames, includes the bland comment that Hansen and a colleague were in the house, ignited the hearth fire, and watched it climb into a drying rack, and upwards to reach the roof. At this point the pair received a polite warning from the fire brigade to get out. They withdrew just as the roof was set ablaze, and within the hour the temperature inside had reached an astonishing 1100 degrees C. The course of the fire, the collapse, the intensity, are all exposed and explained throughout the book, and duplication of evidence and illustrations occurs here and there, but does not detract from the story. One of the essential conclusions, even granted the derelict condition of the house, was the speed of destruction. And it was the collapse of the roof, so soon after ignition, that can surely explain the amount of debris, both domestic and structural, that is recovered from those burnt prehistoric structures so far excavated properly in northern Europe. There was little time to extract precious possessions, animals, pots, tools, and even the very young and the very old inhabitants would be at risk.
One of the major papers in this compilation illustrates in dramatic fashion what a house fire in late prehistoric Denmark involved. A late Pre-Roman Iron Age long house at Nørre Tranders near Aalborg was excavated in 2000-01; it had 6 pairs of roof-bearing posts and walls built of chalk clay, with wooden supports, wattling along some walls, turf roofing, and a series of partitions and stalls, straw on floors and doubtless much more organic material both in the animal-housing end and the habitation zone. Somehow, a fire occurred and in the byre area, 5 lambing sheep, 2 horses, 7 cattle, a pig, a puppy and 5 humans were burned to death, 3 of the last being 12-18 years of age. It seems likely that the people were trying to save the animals but were overcome by smoke.
Following the firing at Lejre, record was made of some parts of the site, and the whole was then sealed beneath 10cm of soil. The site then became a repository of information for future work, at a time when more modern technologies of recovery could be applied. Some observations were already important. The roof collapse, before the walls fell in, could create an inverse stratigraphy, and an early fall of heavy turf could seal a floor with its debris.
In 1992-93 the site of the burnt Lejre house was investigated anew, without reference to the original plans of structure or artefacts, and thereby comparisons could be made between three sets of data: (1) the original experimentally-built Lejre house, as planned in detail, (2) its excavated destruction record after 25 years or so, and (3) the excavation plans of several Iron Age houses that had been destroyed by fire. There are positives - stratigraphic observations (2) broadly matched the reality of the evidence (1) and could therefore be applied to (3). But there are negatives too and post-abandonment disturbances by natural processes (soil creep, vegetation, animal activities, erosion) as well as human actions (economic, social) can severely distort the evidence that has survived. Such factors are always acknowledged in any excavation, of course, but the extent of movement, both horizontal and vertical (up as well as down), can be very great, inexplicably so; in addition, the uneven survival rates of similar materials across a site remain a puzzle unless micro-analyses can identify variable conditions. The Lejre archaeologists can only conclude that 'many factors must be taken into consideration in any interpretation', undoubtedly true and pointing again to the great value of well-preserved sites within any cultural tradition under investigation.
This book is clearly devoted to the work at Lejre and its north European exemplars, and the editor and her many authors demonstrate their deep commitment to the site; this work also includes 'virtual reconstructions', and tests on the climatic conditions within such houses or the variabilities experienced by the hardy volunteers. There is not so much reference to other regions where instructive results have emerged, in both prehistoric and experimental contexts. The short-lived Pfahlbauland experimental houses near Zurich were burned down, twice I think, by unplanned events and their destruction levels yielded useful data about speed, collapse and survival, and there are other sources of evidence emerging from modern explorations. But Lejre has the pre-eminent position in its pioneering efforts to establish the concept of experimental work in promotion of a deeper understanding of prehistoric structures, their histories and their survival.
