Stensætninger - engelsk
Stensætning 1
Stensætning 2
Vandhul ved Stensætningerne.
Intro
In this north-western corner of the wood, two circular stone structures have been built. One of them is visible, the other one is covered in brambles.
In this north-western corner of the wood, two circular stone structures have been built. One of them is visible, the other one is covered in brambles. In former times, such stone structures were used for drying seaweed. After it had been dried, the seaweed was used to fertilize the fields.
As far back as the Viking Age, there’s evidence of seaweed being used as a fertilizer, and it was usual to mix the seaweed with animal manure before spreading it on the fields. This may also have been customary here on Tunø, since the story goes that the stone structures also doubled as storage for the excess manure that could not be stored back at the farm.
Seaweed was also used as fuel, for insulation, as a measure to prevent sand drift, as a supplement to animal fodder and as a starching agent in cooking. Contrary to the Eastern practice of including seaweed in the common diet, seaweed was only eaten in Europe at times when bread and meat were in short supply.
Back in the Middle Ages, bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) was used to extract salt. First the seaweed was dried and then burnt and the ashes were known as ‘salt ash’. Along the east coast of Jutland and well into the 1800s, large quantities of bladder wrack was burned in the open fields, and salt was then extracted by boiling or evaporation and used for curing pork fat and meat. This type of salt had a dark colour and was therefore known as ‘Black Salt’.