Gunda Béla et al. (szerk.): Ideen, Objekte und Lebensformen. Gedenkschrift für Zsigmond Bátky - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 29. (Székesfehérvár, 1989)
Axel Sttensberg: Predecessors of the Chimney
The earliest fireplace in Farm No. 3 of Borup was of a rather sophisticated construction which could have been inspired through observations in France or other countries which the early Danish Vikings happened to visit for good or evil. Near the southwestern corner of the house, which wass of a stave construction resting on sill beams, was a fireplace with its back facing the south wall of the house and with two short side walls made of upright wooden planks (“staves”) like the house-wall itself. All cracks and crevices between the uprights had been plastered with clay so that no sparks from the fire could settle and cause the wood to be ingnited because of the upward draught in this kind of cheminée (Fig. 3). The lower pieces of plaster were hardened through burning and had dropped down upon the fireplace when this had been abandoned. Since a heap of pliable unburnt clay covered these pieces of plaster, there must have been a layer of rafters and clay on the top of the whole construction. This means that the smoke and heated air must have drifted out of the front-side of the structure. In front of the fireplace or hearth was a shallow pit with charcoal that would have been raked out after the cheminée had been heated, producing a nice warmth for people sitting in a semi-circle in front of it. Apparently the function of the total device was for a fire to be ignited for cooking etc. in the „niche”, and afterwards to let heat radiate from the structure itself as well as from the embers in the charcoal pit. Moreover it would be possible to bake flat-bread in the embers. From romanesque mural paintings in churches we know how people might sit on small three-legged stools when occupied by such work. As a medieval tale says “everybody would try to scrape the best embers to his own cake”. When this fireplace had been found, and the different types of burnt fire-proofing clay had been analysed, we had got an explanation of the construction of another fireplace that faced the northern wall of Farm No. 2. Here a similar construction obviously had stood. But there was a brandsten in front of it instead of a charcoal pit. In fact, every hearth-Fig. 4. In the Zealand village of Store Valby near Slagelse was preserved the stone walls of another type of Smoke Oven, fired from the left side. The smaller boulders that form the rear end were due to a repair because larger upright stone like those in front had been split and broken into pieces during the lifetime of the oven. It had been covered by other large flat stones and probably tightened by clay like the upright ovenFig. 3. This oven was dated to about 1500 A. D. It has been moved into the National Museum, Copenhagen, without being dismantled and placed in a show-case of glass. Ax. S. del. 80
