Branding iron from Ebberup
This branding iron, from the nineteenth century, for horses and cattle, belonged to Rasmus Rasmussen, Ebberup. The animals were branded RRS. The branding iron is now at Møntergården in Odense. Photo: Jens Gregers Aagaard.
Intro
Horses were employed as draught animals and were therefore the farmer’s most important animals. Young horses were often left to run free and they were branded with the farmer’s own symbols clearly indicating to whom they belonged.
From soil to table
Around 6,000 years ago, the first farmers on the isle of Funen began to cultivate the soil and keep livestock. Until 1950, agriculture was the main line of work on the island, but today only 5,000 of the island's inhabitants work in agriculture, market gardening and the food industry.
The village and communal cultivation, 1000-1800
Most farmers on the isle of Funen lived in villages with an average of 12 farms. The village was surrounded by arable fields, pasture and woodland which the farmers owned and cultivated. From c. 1200, they began to cultivate the soil communally according to a principle of sharing the village’s good and poor land between the individual farms.
This location is part of the exhibition 'Funen – at the centre of the universe', at Møntergården in Odense. Read more about the exhibition on our website.