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The Viking Age in Denmark

Figuro 15 The Vorbasse settlemcnt (mid-Jylland) in the fourth century A.L). North is up. (Aftcr Hvass)

must have been casier to provide light for artisans working in these pit-houses than in the main buildings. The Vorbasse huts were used for making pottery and for weaving (on the usual vertical loom); weaving, incidentally, is the most common activity associatcd with this kind of construction.

The Vorbasse village is situated on poor soils but with access to large meadow areas; the cattle bones from these cxcavations reveal larger

Figurę 16 The Vorbasse settlement (rnid-Jylland) in the fifth century A.D. North is up. (After Hvass)

animals than are usual for the period. In sum, the crafts comprise iron-working, weaving, potting and the making of grinding Stones. Furthermore, gold has at least been polished in one of these huts, but there are no traces ofimported luxuries, in spite of the rich assemblage of west European glasses from the contemporary settlement at Dankirke, near the west coast of Jylland, less than 50 kms from Yorbasse.³³ A few morę sites of the same character, and from this