FOUNDATIONAL WORK IN ARCHAEOLOGY - PRESENTATION COPY

FORCHHAMMER, G. (+) STEENSTRUP, J. (+) WORSAAE, J.

Undersøgelser i geologisk-antiqvarisk Retning. (Offprint from "Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger").

Kjøbenhavn, Bianco Luno, 1851.

8vo. In the original giftbinding (blue blank boards). With author's presentation to F. C. Danckwart to front free end-paper. Offprint from "Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger". Scratches and some spoling to boards. Spine with nicks and a bit of loss of paper. Internally with a few brownspots. 57 pp. 


Presentation copy, offprint, of this foundational work in Scandinavian geoarchaeology, uniting geology, archaeology and natural history in a systematic investigation of Denmark’s prehistoric coastal settlements and shell middens (køkkenmøddinger). It represents the collaborative effort of three leading Danish scholars: geologist J. G. Forchhammer, paleontologist and naturalist J. C. H. R. Steenstrup and archaeologist J. J. A. Worsaae. 
In 1848, a new source for these studies opened with the. At Steenstrup’s urging, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters appointed a committee consisting of Forchhammer, Steenstrup, and Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae to investigate the shell middens that had been found in several places in Denmark. The results, published here, established the shell-middens as made made structures, proved to be of the greatest significance for the development of archaeological research throughout the world.

The present copy was given, and signed, by Forchhammer to F. C. Danckwart, Director in the Foreign Department and known for his close ties to the monarchy. He served under several foreign ministers and retained influence even after his retirement.

“Forchhammer participated in the work of the so-called ‘Lejrekomite’, an interdisciplinary committee studying human remains along the shore. This commission gave the first – and now famous – description of the ‘køkkenmødding’ (kitchen midden), a mound consisting of shells of edible molluscs and other refuse, marking the site of a prehistoric human habitation (Hanks 1971). ‘Køkkenmødding’ is one of the few Danish international terms (Forchhammer et al. 1851). The work of the ‘Lejrekomité’ was concentrated on the marine molluscs in order to establish out whether the shell deposits were naturally based – oyster banks – or whether they were formed as waste deposits produced by men living at coastal sites” (Petersen, Late Quaternary environmental changes recorded in the Danish marine molluscan faunas, p.12).

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