From Wilderness to Pasture - Bronze Age Grazing Landscapes in Thy, Northwest Denmark

More than five thousand years ago, the Neolithic communities of Northern Europe began to expand the open heather-based ecosystem that we know as heathlands. Through a combination of fire and grazing their livestock, humans cleared the post-glacial forests and expanded the niche for Calluna vulgaris (heather) and other heathland plants. Heather, an evergreen shrub, served as a vital resource – for winter grazing, for fuel, for tools, for thatch, for byre-bedding, and as fertiliser. The multiple affordances of heather meant that the Calluna heathlands, over time, became deeply embedded in the evolving domestic and funerary architecture. In these heathland landscapes, wide networks of mobility, transhumance and exchange developed.