ROOTS Social Inequality Forum with Martin Mikkelsen (Viborg Museum)
Nov 26, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Virtual
ROOTS Social Inequality Forum with Martin Mikkelsen (Viborg Museum).
Title: "Were unfree families an integrated part of the Nordic Bronze Age?"
Abstract: Through an analysis of 333 threeaisled longhouses from EBA-LBA I suggest that unfree families were in the same longhouse (when a farm only had one longhouse) or in a separate longhouse (when farms had two longhouses) as their 'owners'. Except from very few examples I reject the interpretation of BA longhouses as "wohnstallhäuser". If we accept my interpretation then not only high status but also ordinary farms had an unfree family as part of the then extended households a number of questions arise. For instance: When started the presence of unfree and were they present during the Iron Age until the thralls/slaves of the Viking Age? What kind of activities were normally carried out by the unfree? Were young unfree men and women part of the trade in return for cobber/tin/bronze? These and more questions will be addressed.
All interested persons are welcome to attend. Please email tkerig@roots.uni-kiel.de for the Zoom room code.
