Vedbæk

Vedbæk is a settlement in the parish congregation Vedbæk Sogn, (formerly Søllerød ) on the Øresund is the Rudersdal Municipality on the Danish island of Zealand.

Archaeological sites

There is a Vedbæk archaeological site of the Mesolithic Ertebølle culture, which is so dated to about 4000 BC in the final phase of the culture. It is located at Gøngehusvej Vedbaek between Rungsted and Skodsborg.

Vedbaek was excavated in the 1970s by Svend Erik Albrethsen and Erik Brinch Petersen. They found the remains of 17 people in rectangular or oval pits. One of the burials was a woman with a child. Her grave contained a rich grave goods, including about 200 wild boar and deer teeth, auger housing and red ocher. The child was lying on the wings of a swan. Vedbaek is seen as evidence of social stratification among hunters and gatherers.

There was in the Mesolithic different burial methods. On Gøngehusvej complete and burned bodies were found in single and double graves. They also included children's graves and the grave of a dog. A newborn baby was buried in a wooden plate. Around the child found traces of ocher.