Urnfields on the move: testing burial site-settlement relations in the eastern Netherlands (c. 1100-500 BC)

Abstract

In general models on Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (1100-500 BC) landscape organization, urnfields are interpreted as focal points that structured the movement of settlements across the landscape, and were located centrally within the settlement area. Urnfields were fixed, settlements shifted. These influential models are assumed to be valid  for large areas. However, they have never been formally tested. In this  paper an attempt is made to do so by using data from the eastern Netherlands. The analysis demonstrates that relations between urnfields and settlements are far more diverse than is generally assumed. Both spatial and chronological observations indicate that landscape organization  during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age was far more varied and dynamic than existing models make believe. Furthermore, new insights are gained with regard to the basic assumptions underneath the urnfield concept in itself. Urnfields are generally perceived as large, collective burial sites that were used for many centuries and consist of large numbers of urn burials with ditched structures. Many burial sites, however, do not conform to this traditional view at all, indicating that the uniformity of urnfields has been greatly exaggerated in the past.