Week 3: Dorestad and Viking world

• Dorestad


  • Proto-urban trading settlement connecting German Rhineland to England and Scandinavia
  • Part of north-European network of emporia
• History of Dorestad


  1. 650: Frisians conquer central Netherlands + Dorestad

  2. 689: Franks conquer

  3. 718: Martel drives out Frisians + added to Carolingian empire

  4. 834-837: Vikings plunder Dorestad four times
• How Dorestad was discovered

  • Bone digging in 1842 (people did this to make glue) + excavation by state service in 1967-1995 + 1000th trench dug in 2010 by commercial unity ADC
  • Unusual find of sarcophagi => possible special status
• Meaning of Dorestad


  • Originally Dorestat
  • Duron: Celtic = enclosed market, square, town
  • Stad: place
  • So: estuary / market / town / place
• Shape of Dorestad


  • Merovingian, 7th century = lost
  • Former Roman fortress in river Rhine
  • Evidence: gold coins (630-675) and silver coins (675) found
  • Carolingian (Northern Dorestad) => international trading settlement
  • Heydays 750-850 as harbours, vicus, agrarian settlement with cemeteries, and tolling station (archaeologically invisible)
• Function of Dorestad


  • Minting place = central function, silver came from France
  • Tolling station = 750 - 850, Dorestad as most important tolling station in Carolingian empire north of the Alps
  • Hub in international trade = 8th-9th century, important wares: glass, ceramics, quern stones, wine, metals (iron swords)
  • Long distance trade = Syrian glass
  • Central place for region (Hinterland)
  • Craft production: located west to the harbour, possible crafts = ship building, cloth, bone and antler working, smithing, carpentry, leather
  • Food production: barley, rye, wheat, beans, peas, and lentils, but Dorestad partly depended on exported food supply
  • Dorestat lost its function in 850: no longer an international trading settlement, minting place, harbour, and tolling station move to Tiel and Deventer, transformed into manorial state and curtis with a church and cemetery Steenstraat
• Dorestad lacked


  • Defence (it was an open settlement)
  • Market square
  • Public buildings (town hall)
  • Elite residence
  • Political autonomy
• Dorestad was not considered a city or town
• Hypotheses for the end of Dorestad


  • External factor: Vikings destroyed Dorestad
  • Nature: major flooding silting up river Rhine
  • Internal politics: Carolingian empire divided after 840, Dorestad in the middle
• Reality = Old Rhine system changing (most important factor) + Carolingian empire divided after 840, Dorestad in Middle Francia
• Pagan cosmologies


  Mythology, ritual, magic, and divination
• Many cosmologies existed in pre-Christian Europe
• Main source


  Poetic Edda
• 13th century Iceland in a Christian world
• Norse cosmology


  • Polytheistic: many gods
  • Two families of gods: aesir and wanir
• Aesir gods


  • Odin (ring, spear, 2 raven)
  • Thor (hammer mjölnir)
  • Loki (trickster god)
• Wanir gods


  • Njord and his children Freyr and Freya
• Creatures in Norse cosmology

  • Elves
  • Norns (controllers of destiny)
  • Dwarfs
  • Valkyries
• Materialisation of Norse cosmology


  • Pendants of Thor's hammer (mjölnir)
  • Bracteates (golden pendants)
  • Gold foil figures
  • Magic staffs' volur
  • Oracle sticks
• World serpent


  Midgard serpent, snake motive in Viking art common
• Halls and cult places


  • Goldgubbar: meaning and function not clear
• Offerings


  • Objects (from pre-800)
  • Animals (horse burials)
  • Humans (slave burials)
  • Magic (volur/magic staff, oracle sticks)
• volur/magic staff


  Usually found in women burials
• Picture stones from Gotland


  • c. 100 stones known, from 5th-11th century
  • Proof of existence of Nordic cosmology and their figures
• Where rituals were performed

  • Halls
  • Cults related to aristocratic centres
  • E.g. Tissø, Lejre, Uppåkra
• Strategies of conversions (Pagan to Christianity)

  • Rulers and elites converted first
  • Missionaries (Saint Patrick, Saint Willibord)
  • Conversion by force (Charlemagne conquered Saxons)
  • Syncretism: fusion of old Pagan and new Christian elements
  • Temples converted into churches
  • Days of the week, religious holidays Christianised
• Not always successful: Saxons revolted soon after conquest by Charlemagne (800), Lutici (Slavic group in Germany) revolted, Bishop Johannes Scotus killed 1066 in Mecklenburg + offered to god Ridegast => Lutici return to Pagan belief
• Nordic cosmology main pre-Christian in the north
• Numerous Viking raids from 800-900
• Colonisation of regions by Vikings from 9th century
• Recent discovery in Netherlands: treasure similar found to the one's in Denmark
• Sources for knowledge of Viking society


  • Historical sources
  • Archaeological sources (settlements, treasures, fortresses, towns, burials)
• Settlements in the Viking Age

  • Agrarian rural settlements (continuation of iron age)
  • Agrarian settlements with craft production
  • Aristocratic settlements, with cult place
• Bejsebakken


  Numerous sunken huts (crafts = textiles, metal working)
• Lejre


  Large halls, some with cult buildings, craft activities (until 11th century)
• All ships were rowing boats until 9th century
• End of Viking Age


  • Development of large 'magnate farms', later 11th century
  • One-aisled buildings: Trelleborg farms
  • Conversion to Christianity