Hjarnø is a small
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
island at the mouth of
Horsens Fjord
Horsens Fjord is an East Jutland-type fjord in the east coast of the Danish peninsula of Jutland which stretches from the islands of Alrø and Hjarnø in the east to the town of Horsens on the mainland. It is some long. The navigational channe ...
on the east coast of
Jutland
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
in
Hedensted Municipality.
Geography
The island is about long with an area of ,
and a population of 104 (as of 10 July 2013). Its coastline extends
and its highest point measures .
The land consists mainly of marshes and sandbanks.
Hjarnø is surrounded by Hjarnø Sound, where the water is deep.
On Hjarnø, the main road runs from the eastern tip of the island to the western one. The road is lined by the island’s farms. The buildings along the road are the oldest on the island, while the newer buildings, dating from the 20th century, are located between the harbor and the church.
Within the town, there is a community center, a former dairy, a former school, a campground, a restaurant, and residential houses.
Economy
Hjarnø’s economy consists mainly of two components: agriculture and tourism.
The soil is quite fertile and most of the island is cultivated land.
Tourists visiting Hjarnø can engage in a variety of activities, including fishing, swimming, surfing, bird watching, and experiencing the history of the island by visiting its archaeological sites.
To reach Hjarnø
Småøernes Færgeselskaber(Small Island Ferries Operators) operates a ferry that runs between Snaptun, located on the mainland, and Hjarnø.
[FærgeInfo Danmarks Ø & Genvejsfærger. Retrieved 10 July 2013 from http://www.smaa-faergerne.dk/medlemmer.asp.] The ferry runs 25 times daily.
The boat measures by and was built in 1987.
Places of interest
Church
The church on Hjarnø is one of the smallest churches in the country;
it currently serves 87 parishioners.
[Fakta om Sognet eb page Retrieved 10 July 2013 from http://sogn.dk/hjarnoe/fakta_om_sognet.] The church building appears to date from the 16th century.
Although it originally lacked a bell tower, one was added in 1877
with a bell dating from 1425.
[Hjarnø Kirke eb blog post Retrieved 10 July 2013 from http://hjarnoekirke.blogspot.dk/.] Within the church, the granite
baptismal font is made in the
Romanesque style and dates from the 12th century.
The
altarpiece was carved by Jens Hiernøe in 1805.
Hanging from the ceiling, there is also a
model Viking ship, which was donated to the church by the Glud Museum in 1955.
Archaeological sites
Hjarnø is notable for two sites of archaeological interest. First, its coastline, which exhibits evidence of
Mesolithic Stone Age settlements of people of the
Ertebølle culture
(5200-3800 BCE),
and second, the
Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...
ship setting called ''Kalvestenene'', located at the southeast corner of the island.
Stone Age site
Along the coast of Hjarnø, archaeologists have discovered several finds that indicate previous coastline settlement by people of the Mesolithic Stone Age.
Due to changes in the shoreline caused by the end of the
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
, many of these settlements were submerged and therefore preserved. Although the relieved weight of the melted ice has led to most of Denmark’s shores rising, around Horsens Fjord, which sits in an area that is sinking due to fracture lines in the earth’s plates, the coastline is instead falling.
This depression of the coastline has resulted in the trapping of many artifacts in an anaerobic environment, called the
gyttja, which led to their preservation through the centuries.
In the past few decades, erosion along the seabed has been exposing previously covered Stone Age sites, a process that is evident at Hjarnø.
In 2008, Peter Astrup, of the
University of Aarhus
Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...
, during a survey of a previously known submerged Stone Age site along the coast of Hjarnø, noticed that erosion had exposed many layers of the gyttja.
In further exploring the site, he discovered a number of finds from the Stone Age.
Following this, the University of Aarhus, the
Moesgård Museum
Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) is a Danish regional museum dedicated to archaeology and ethnography. It is located in Beder, a suburb of Aarhus, Denmark.
MOMU cooperates with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology ...
, and the Horsens Museum cooperated in excavating the site.
The conclusion was that the site was likely from the Ertebølle period and had been settled due to its convenient location with regards to fishing.
Finds at the site included three wooden paddles made of ash wood, an antler axe, a dugout canoe, and a bow made of elmwood.
There were also numerous stakes made of hazel wood, hazelnut shells, plant seeds, string, and flint flakes and tools.
Carbon-14 analysis of the paddles dates them to about 4700-4540 BCE, which places them in the mid-Ertebølle culture.
All three paddles show evidence of painted decoration, and one paddle has a series of cut marks, which is thought to be the result of beheading fish on the paddle.
Using carbon-14 analysis, the bow was also dated and found to have come from a slightly earlier period than the paddles – 5200-5000 BCE.
The bow is believed to have been about long, although only survives to the present day.
Concerning the canoe, it was too large to be excavated given time and budget constraints, so it has been covered with fibertex linen until it can be excavated at a later date.
''Kalvestenene''
The ''Kalvestene'' is a ship setting located at the southeastern corner of Hjarnø. It is a cremation burial site, dating to the Viking Age. The site was known to the 12th/13th-century Danish historian,
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...
, who recorded a legend about its origins in his ''
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...
''. It is unlikely that Saxo ever visited the site personally, and rather learned about it from travelers and regional tradition.
Drawings by
Ole Worm
Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Lati ...
done in the 17th century
indicate that there were once 34 stones.
However, over time, residents of Hjarnø removed stones for other purposes, for example, the Kriger Monument in
Fredericia
Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vejle. It was founded in 16 ...
.
There are now 10 gravestones remaining.
In 1935, the
National Museum excavated two of the graves.
The finds included shards of iron and charcoal, as well as pottery shards that have been dated to about 600-900 CE.
After the excavation, the remaining stones were raised on foundations.
See also
*
List of islands of Denmark
This is a list of islands of Denmark.
Overview
There are about 406 islands in Denmark, not including the Faroe Islands or Greenland. Some 70 of them are populated while the rest are uninhabited. Some of the uninhabited islands have only become u ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
*http://www.hjarnoecamping.dk/
*http://www.hjarnø.dk/Cafe_den_gamle_smeide.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hjarno
Islands of Denmark
Geography of Hedensted Municipality
Danish islands in Kattegat