This is a major work of cataloguing and synthesis of megalithic tombs, an important class of Neolithic monuments in Denmark, of which perhaps 30,000 were originally constructed and some 2,400 survive today. Dr Ebbesen is a senior scholar, and the volume under review is a culmination of several decades of study of these monuments. It therefore draws on numerous of his earlier works, including book-length treatments of particular types of megalithic tombs.
It is important to note that, massive though this two-part volume is, it has to be used in conjunction with the catalogue of megalithic burial sites published in 2008. Thus at the end of each of the chapters dealing with finds of artefacts in tombs there are notes referring the reader to the lists of sites in the 2008 catalogue. Fortunately, the catalogue has been made available by the author himself at 〈http://www.klaus-ebbesen.dk/all_web.pdf〉.
The volume begins with a useful summary of the research history of these sites, beginning with Saxo Grammaticus from around ad 1200; this is followed by a lengthy chapter (more than eighty pages) on definitions, chronology and typology, which might have been better as an appendix. Ebbesen then moves to a consideration of the nature and quality of the surviving evidence, better than in many countries because of the early start to registration and thus protection of sites, but still with more than 20,000 sites destroyed or damaged, to judge by the number of partially preserved sites and the place-name evidence. This is followed by an overview of the different types of megalithic tomb, based primarily on mound and chamber shape, and the presence or absence of a passage, from common to rare, with some regional variation.
The main part of the text is a discussion of the evidence broken down by chronological period; the early Neolithic sections include a good, full consideration of the interesting constructional features of the tombs such as pavements, dry-stone walling and bark packing, followed by an outline of grave goods. The later chapters on the middle Neolithic, late Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period focus on artefacts (predominantly pottery, lithics, metalwork and amber) of those dates, providing a full listing of objects. These are both found within the tombs and at their entrances, the former mostly interpreted as grave goods and the latter as offerings to the ancestors, although the sections on interpretation are generally rather brief.
These are followed by a short section on human remains, then by a conclusion which places the megalithic tombs in their chronological setting within Denmark and provides a brief overview of external contacts. The text ends with an English section: however, rather than being a summary in English of the key points of each chapter, this is a translation of the conclusion only.
Three areas which deserve further scrutiny, but can receive little at present owing to the nature of the available evidence, are the human remains from the tombs, unfortunately little studied even where they have been preserved; the lack of radiocarbon dating on the human and animal remains, which may in particular modify the current idea that later activity can be dated purely by the presence of artefacts (recent work has demonstrated that this is not the case for British stone-chambered tombs); and the lack of records of the distribution of material within the tombs, which could tell us about associations between people, animals and artefacts. This significant volume provides a base line for development of these further studies.
