Amber was widely exchanged across prehistoric Europe and was transported long distances from primary sources on the Baltic and North Sea coasts. How did collection and working of amber develop and what were the effects of international exchange on local communities in Northern Europe? The authors present two recent, contrasting amber finds from Thy, northern Jutland: a cache of beads associated with the Early Neolithic Funnelbeaker Culture (4000–3300 BC); and evidence from a Late Bronze Age (1100–500 BC) non-elite settlement that suggests coastal amber collection was independent of elite control. Set within a review of amber's changing roles in prehistoric Thy, these finds evidence shifting local, regional and international connections.

The article presents a real-time study of standardization and regionalization processes with respect to the use of past participles of strong verbs in the western part of Denmark. Analyses of a large corpus of recordings of informants from two localities show that the use of the dialectal en form of the past participle suffix has been in decline during the last 30 years. The en forms are replaced by three other forms, one of which is (partly) dialectal, one regional and one standard Danish. The study indicates that a regionalization process has taken place prior to the time period studied, but that it has now been overtaken by a Copenhagen-based standardization process. The study also shows interesting differences between the two localities, arguably due to the geographical location and size, and to the status of the different participle forms in the traditional local dialects.

This article summarizes and discusses recent research into the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon c.2350–1950 BC. Its focus is on the meaning of material culture here represented by Bell Beakers and bifacial lanceolate flint daggers, both seen from a social perspective. The Bell Beaker pottery is known to have had a very wide distribution. However, questions remain as to why Bell Beakers were only adopted in some regions and what meaning this special pottery had? Similarly the Danish type I daggers, which were manufactured within the context of the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon in the northern parts of Jutland, had a wide distribution. Daggers of this type, which in general denote male identity, were exported in vast quantities, especially to Norway and the western parts of Sweden. In both case studies the evidence from a Danish Bell Beaker settlement site excavated in recent years – Bejsebakken – plays a major part.