ABSTRACT
Momentous changes took place in Denmark from the middle of the first millennium BC. Around 500 BC the widespread prestige-goods economy of which Denmark had been a part for nearly 2000 years seems to have suffered a considerable set-back. Perhaps this crisis was only transitory, for in the next few centuries there emerged a new agrarian society with a considerable potential for expansion. Everywhere in Denmark around the time of the birth of Christ, there are unmistakable indications of economic growth. This first stage culminated in the third and fourth centuries with the appearance of villages consisting of large farmsteads with a differentiated economy providing opportunities for vital secondary occupations. Agriculture now achieved a productivity hitherto unequalled in prehistoric Denmark. The stage was set for sweeping socio-economic changes which in future centuries would lead the archaic chiefdoms to pre-feudalism.
