ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with an archaeology of Reformation in medieval Denmark. The change from Catholic to Protestant confession, which took place in 1536, has not been subject to elaborate investigation by archaeologists. In the year 1536 the Protestant Duke Christian III succeeded in gaining control over Denmark. The Danish 16th-century graveslabs have been the focus of research for the last 350 years. Artists like Siren Abildgaard and Carl Gustaf Gottfried Hilfeling collected and documented a great number of various prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval monuments during the 18th century. The post-medieval graveslabs can be seen as a kind of historical mediator, creating a link to curiosities like unknown individuals hidden under gravemounds or under unreadable graveslabs. In Europe a similar approach in research can be observed from the 1980s onwards. The point of departure is to look at the material culture as part of a process, like a burial-place with graves from a limited period of time.
