Lejre, "Land of Legends"

LEIJRE

So my Danish Greenspace class is awesome thus far, and each day we usually visit parks

or locations related to greenspace. Once we visit it, we write a response to a question our 

teacher posts. Today's question is...

 Based on your visit today to Lejre, summarize the impact that the Danish landscape has and on the Danish as a people, and vice versa.

The head of the tour did a fantastic job describing the transfer of styles of culture and methods of survival when she said something either they could follow the animals, lie down and die, or adapt. Each time they chose the first and last options, due to the human nature of survival. In the early years of Danish history the landscape had not been developed, as the glaciers from the ice age still covered the most of the landscape. Due to this, the people living in Denmark hunted the reindeer who could survive in the desolate climate. As time progressed, the temperature increased and the reindeer moved north with the cold weather and new animals, such as the aurochs, moved north to inhabit the newly grown grasslands.

The Danish people then either followed the reindeer north or stayed and hunted the new plains animals. People adapt to the changes they are presented with, and this first change was just a change in diet and hunting style. The next choice, when forests began to grow, was either to follow the aurochs or begin farming. This next step in human evolution is one of the most prominent decisions we made as the human race. Many of the Danish people chose to begin farming, which had both negative and positive repercussions. Some of the positive consequences were a very consistent source of food, a chance to begin creating a broader group society, and the introduction of art and culture. Art extends to both the drawn, written, and built forms of design and creativity. Some possibly negative penalties of the human race beginning to farm was the flattening of the natural landscape for the use of cultivating crops, the deforestation to create forms of architecture and transportation, and the allowance of diseases into the newly created society due to the close proximity in which people lived.

Over many years the Danish people continued to progress and adjust the landscape to their needs. Some of these ways were for religious purposes, defenses, and to use or abuse the natural resources. The Vikings and some earlier Danes built mounds where they buried their dead. These burial mounds consisted of the deceased person in a tree trunk casket, possibly a meal, and all their valuable possessions alongside them. Some of these valuables were later looted, but one very impressive thing was the way in which people were preserved to such an extent that archeologists have found enough leftovers to make some important discoveries. The Danish people also used the landscape as a defensive mechanism in times of war by building mounds to defend their towns. This very simple concept gave their people protection from raids by using a higher ground to defend their people. The final use I recognized as an important impact the Danish people had on their landscape was the use of wood for boats and almost clearing all their trees to do so.

So to conclude, Danes impacted the land through cultivation, religion, war, and trade, while the land impacted the Danes by forcing them to adapt as it changed, progressed, or regressed due to natural or human caused change.

 An early Danish tent (near the end of the ice age period)

 A hollowed out wood canoe with a lake created by glacial out wash.

 An iron age house, a recreation placed on top of an old one. (the other had been burned to test archaeologists theories and findings on other sites.) 

 A close up of the for mentioned house looking at the detail construction. This may be a theory of how it was built, but it is possibly the best idea currently held.

 An artsy photo of the oldest iron age recreated house. The height of the house is related to how tall the door had to be to get animals into the shelter and keep the warmest in the winter. After analysis, archaeologists came to discover animals were not kept in the house for heat, as the draft from the door broke the heat barrier provided by the animals. They were kept inside probably just to keep the animals themselves alive.

An iron age smithy. This building was separated from the village for a basic reason of preventing frequent fires, as the hot coals from the fire or from burning pieces of iron could stay lit for hours and possibly destroy everything.

This was a fantastic trip which was very informational (I haven't included all the pictures and facts to keep it semi short) and gave me a greater appreciation for historical architecture and recreated archaeological studies. A drawing of the pavilion will be coming soon, as I intend to do 5 sketches a week, one of which will include water color.