The Sarup Enclosures: v. 1

This work presents two large enclosures from the neolithic - 3400 and 3200 BC - at Sarup on the island of Fyn in Denmark, surrounded by palisade fences and a series of large oblong ditches. The Sarup excavation is the largest of its kind in Europe. The enclosures are discussed in the context of a study of the local area, which shows that at this date the population had been spread across a number of small settlements and had built more than 100 megalithic graves (dolmens and passage graves). A comparative survey considers about 800 similar enclosures that have been found in Europe in the last 115 years. Niels H. Andersen concludes by interpreting the neolithic enclosures as sites at which a dispersed population temporarily, in an act of rites of passage, buried its dead, later to exhume them and re-inter parts of the bodies in megalithic graves closer to their settlements. Further publications will include a presentation of the finds and features from the Sarup site, and a volume on the survey work with excavations of megalithic sites and settlements.