Markets in Early Medieval Europe

by Tim Pestell

  The finds

  Archaeological research at Tissø began in 1975 when the National Museum started the first metal-detector surveys, metal smallfinds confirming the existence of a large settlement area. Around 1993, three local amateur archaeologists began a systematic metal-detectors survey along the lakeshore. Cooperation was quickly established and from the start they have marked their finds on a map at a scale of 1:1000. FIGURE 15.7. shows the distribution of all the c. 1,000 mapped metal finds recovered by both the local detectorists and by the National Museum in connection with the excavations which have been conducted at Tissø every year since 1995. Their distribution appears to reflect the actual extent of settlement quite accurately and comprises a wide variety of material. About 75 percent of the objects are iron, including nails and rivets, but among the other finds are about 400 costume brooches, which show the functional lifetime of the site. The oldest are small equal-armed brooches from the mid sixth century while the numerous fibulae show that the settlement gradually began at some time in the sixth century before ending sometime in the first half of the eleventh century.

  FIGURE 15.6. Map showing the archaeological status of the Tissø area in the Viking Period. Just north of the bridge, extensive traces of craft activities have been found. The workshop area stretched along the whole coast to the manor in use between the seventh and the eleventh centuries, a distance of about 700m, covering an area of about 150,000 sq. m. To the north of the manor, a market area continued some 600m further north along the coast. Here too there are clear traces of workshop activities, albeit not to the same extent as south of the manor. In the north the first manor, dating from the sixth to seventh centuries, was excavated in autumn 2002. (see Postscript).

  FIGURE 15.7. The distribution of c.10,000 finds made at Tissø in the metal-detector surveys and archaeological excavations.

  The distribution of small sixth century equal-armed brooches shows a clear concentration just south of the manor in use in the sixth and seventh centuries which, with its limited distribution, suggests that activity originally began in this area (Fig. 15.8, crosses). The distribution of the so-called ‘beaked’ brooches dating from around 600 is quite different, these brooches being found across the whole site, indicating that the full settlement area was in operation from the beginning of the seventh century (Fig. 15.8, dots). Subsequent periods show the same pattern, and for the next 400 years the active settlement area covered the maximum possible extent, only becoming abandoned some time in the first half of the eleventh century. The latest find from the settlement area is a coin of King Harthacanute, c. 1035.

  FIGURE 15.8. Distribution map showing the equal-armed brooches from the middle of the sixth century (cross) and beaked brooches (circle) from c.600.

  FIGURE 15.9. Tissø: the excavated area with the manor, dating from the seventh to eleventh centuries, and adjacent market. Horizontal grey strips are the traces of a medieval ridge-and-furrow field system, laid out after the abandonment of the settlement. The scattered small round features are pit-houses, of which there are about seventy. In the middle isthe fenced croft area, the large manor and its central area with the large halls and smaller, separate, enclosures.

  After five years of excavation, we are now more able to understand the structure and chronological development of the settlement from its establishment in the sixth century to its abandonment in the eleventh century. For obvious reasons, the large later manor by the lakeshore has been the principal focus of excavations, from which have come the richest finds. Fig. 15.9 shows the central part of the excavation area with the whole manor complex and parts of the adjacent field areas. There are several phases within the complex, discernable through the clear horizontal stratigraphy. Four main phases have been identified, giving a unique insight into the development of a manor over 400 years. In general, the manor has a very high percentage of tin-plated and gilded bronze and silver objects, compared with other contemporary Danish metal-rich sites (Fig. 15.10), making it clear that aristocratic individuals lived at the site. A highly characteristic element in the finds inventory from the manor is weaponry, for example military arrowheads (Fig. 15.11). Sword hilts, pommels and other fittings have also been found, typically with inlays of silver and bronze, and the distribution of the one hundred or so weapons and weapon parts shows a clear concentration at the manor (Fig. 15.12). The aristocratic setting of the complex is stressed by cavalry equipment, in the form of bridles and spurs, which accords well with what we know of heavy cavalry graves from the Danish Viking Age.

  FIGURE 15.10. A selection of the fine pendants, brooches and strap-mounts of gilded silver and tin-plated bronze from the later manor at Tissø. (1) and (6) are of eighth-century date, the others are ninth to tenth century. Jewellery of this high quality is found in a clearly higher concentration within the area of the manor. Scale 1:1.

  (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  FIGURE 15.11. A selection of arrowheads from the later manor at Tissø. (Photograph: Danish National Museum)

  More general comparisons of material from the manor with the finds from the market and workshop areas make it clear that prestigious objects appear far more frequently at the manor. Sherds of Frankish and Carolingian drinking glasses are restricted still further, appearing only in the hall area: there is not a single glass sherd from the workshops of the manor or the large market areas. Another striking element is the presence of contemporary Insular and Carolingian objects. Among the latter are sword-belt fittings, cross-shaped and equal-armed brooches, and about ten coins minted under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. This material seems to be characteristically of late eighth-and ninth-century date.

  FIGURE 15.12. Distribution map showing the weapons and weapon parts at the Tissø complex. Note the accumulation within the later manor.

  Following the excavations in 2000, Tissø has now produced over one hundred coins, the oldest of which is a late seventh-century sceatta – incidentally the first from eastern Denmark (Fig. 15.13:1). To this may be added a small group of early Norse coins from the first half of the eighth century, with Viking house and a ship motif (Fig. 15.13:2-3). Again, it is characteristic that the early coin types – sceattas, and Carolingian and Hedeby types – come mainly from the large manor (Fig. 15.14), the dominant coin type being ninth-and tenth-century Arab issues. These are often cut to varying sizes according to weight, and their distribution across the site shows that they were used in connection with trading and probably also workshop activities.

  FIGURE 15.13. Coins from Tissø. (1) Sceatta of Continental runic type. (2) and (3) Early Nordic or ‘Hedeby-coins’ from the early ninth century. Scale 3:2.

  (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt).

  The development of the manor

  Phase One of the second manor was probably established late in the seventh century. The manor area covers about 10,000 sq. m., and in its fencing were several entrances (Fig. 15.15). At the centre lay the hall building, which was about 36 X 11.2m – a total of about 350 sq. m. under the roof. A special fenced area was built together with the walls of the hall, and in this lay a small building of 6 X 5m with an odd west-facing entrance construction. On the eastern side of the fence there was an entrance to the area. A forge appears to have been by the fence at the northern edge of the manor. Although the eastern side of the manorial enclosure was destroyed by gravel digging, remarkably we can demonstrate there were no other large buildings in the complex. The layout is highly atypical for a Danish farm, and the available material has nothing to suggest agricultural production or permanent livestock – in short, the buildings do not represent a production unit. Only leaf-cutters and sickles testify to the feeding of animals, and in this case it seems most reasonable to think of stabled horses. It is not only the structure of the house that is odd. The pits dug for the roof-bearing posts in the hall were no less than up to three metres deep. This has not been seen before on a Danish prehistoric site, and the hall was clearly an exceptional structure. The very deeply dug posts, which
were about 0.6m in diameter, might indicate high wind pressure on the building – perhaps because it had two floors.

  FIGURE 15.14. Distribution map of the coins at Tissø.

  The picture of an atypical structure continued in Phase Two, from the eight and ninth centuries (Fig. 15.16). The manor’s area was extended to some 15,000 sq. m. and in the south fence a wide gate was built for wagons. The hall was also rebuilt, measuring 36 X i0m, and the separate fenced area was enlarged, although still being built together with the walls of the hall, and retaining the old entrance on the eastern side. The small house from Phase One disappeared and was replaced by a larger building of 20 X 6m. In the southern part of the fenced area a smallish block was separated with a transverse fence. As in Phase One, a forge remained at the northern end of the complex.

  FIGURE 15.15. The layout of the later manor at Tissø in Phase One, preliminarily dated to the seventh to eighth centuries. Gravel extraction has destroyed the eastern part of the manor but despite this uncertainty there was a very limited number of buildings.

  FIGURE 15.16. Tissø: the layout of the manor in Phase Two, preliminarily dated to the eighth to ninth centuries.

  FIGURE 15.17. The layout of the manor at Tissø in Phase Three, preliminarily dated to the ninth to tenth centuries.

  With Phase Three from the ninth to tenth century, apparently striking changes were made in the structure of the complex (Fig. 15.17). An increasing quantity of finds from the settlement suggests that this coincided with a rise in the level of activity at the site in the course of the ninth century. The area of the manor was now extended to about i8,000 sq. m., while its core structure was retained. The hall was simply rebuilt, as were the fenced separate area and related building. The separate area was, however, now detached from the hall although its original eastern entrance was retained. The forge was still placed by the north fence of the house complex but along the western fence new buildings were erected. By the end of Phase Three identical structures stood along this western fence and to the north lay a large barrack.

  FIGURE 15.18. A selection of the Thor’s hammers and a miniature strike-a-light from the later manor area at Tissø.

  FIGURE 15.19. Pendants depicting the valkyries of Norse mythology, in gilded silver with niello inlays. (1) Valkyrie, or perhaps the goddess Freya, with the famous jewel Brisingamen. (2) Pendant in the form of a rider being met by a shield-bearer. The rider carries a sword and on the horse the lance is attached to the harness. The rider has braids, and the standing person wears a dress. (3) Standing Valkyrie. Scale 1:1.

  (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  Perhaps most striking about the development from Phase One to Phase Three is the decided conservatism; over a period of almost 350 years the combination of hall, separate area and smaller building was maintained, as was the smithy. In the same period there was an ongoing development in ordinary Danish farms and while the hall may be interpreted as the prestigious main building, the separate area and the small building are clearly something special. It is therefore perhaps worth noting that there is an unusually high frequency within the manor of finds of heathen amulets and jewellery, with motifs taken from Norse mythology (Figs. 15.18–19). Together with the weapon offerings from the lake and the mention of Tyr in the lake’s name, it may be that cult activities were associated with the manor. In particular, the special fenced area of the manor was perhaps a heathen cult area – the hov of the sagas. The fact that a forge was a permanent fixture in the hall area could underline this supposition, because in Norse mythology the forge enjoyed a special position. In this connection we may refer to an interesting Swedish site at Borg in Ostergotland with substantial evidence for pagan cult rituals in a late Viking Age manor (A.-L. Nielsen 1997; Nielsen and Lindeblad 1999).

  The concluding Phase Four embraces the last half of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh century. In this period the complex reached its maximum area and volume, at least 25,000 sq. m., with the large carriage gate still in the southern fence and a spectacular large hall with 550 sq. m. under the roof (Fig. 15.20). Phase Four also saw radical change. The hall building was of a new type, the fenced ‘special’ area disappeared and the other house types were replaced, mainly by houses with external raking support posts. On the site of the ‘special’ area, a larger house was built, at right angles to the hall, with a small cross-shaped building (Fig. 15.21). The latter is very distinctive and, judging from its location, seems to be one of the most important buildings of the complex. To the north-west of the large hall were a collection of smaller buildings, all with an open gable (perhaps carriage sheds) and at the northern end of the complex were possible dwelling houses. Several other buildings belong to this phase, and adjacent to the southern fence was a thirty-five metre longhouse of uncertain function. The total built-up area of the complex was about 2000 sq. m., but not all the buildings were standing at the same time.

  FIGURE 15.20. The layout of the manor at Tissø in Phase Four, preliminarily dated to the late tenth to early eleventh centuries. The exact size of the manor at this date cannot be determined.

  FIGURE 15.21. Plan of the hall area with the three main buildings in Phase Four. The hall measures 48 × 12.5m. The outlines of the curved walls of the older halls, the holes for the roof-bearing posts and the related fence sections around the separate area can also be seen. It is clear that the large hall differs strikingly in construction from the older halls.

  Although great changes can be noted in the structure of the house complex over its 400-year history, there is one thing that never altered – it was never a production unit. Almost all the buildings in the various phases must be described as special, and many have never been seen before in Danish farm complexes. Furthermore, the halls are of a decidedly monumental type, and do not seem to be residential buildings of the type known from Lejre just seventy kilometres east of Tissø; while the halls at Lejre have many divisions into rooms (Fig. 15.5), those at Tissø have very few. They do not seem to have been permanent dwellings, and the whole central complex with hall and fencing was remarkably poor in finds. Clearly, it was kept clean compared to the other parts of the complex.?

  FIGURE 15.22. Distribution map of the molten bronze and lead from workshop activities at Tissø.

  The workshops and the market place

  Both south and north of the later manorial complex area there were extensive workshop and market areas, of relatively uniform structure. While thousands of post-holes have been excavated, it is extremely difficult to find any system, mainly because the site has been plough-damaged, leading to the truncation of post-holes and other features. This is true for all the forge furnaces, for example, and the only traces of these now are their characteristic slag in the ploughsoil or dumped in redundant pit-houses and wells. One safely identified building type in the market areas is the pit-house, of the type known from many other sites of the same character in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. To date, about seventy pit-houses have been excavated, but the whole area must originally have had several hundred. Another building type in these workshop areas consisted of small houses or booths and, judging from the number of post-holes, there had been many of these. A large quantity of rivets and nails, mainly from the workshop areas where these small buildings predominated, testifies to their frequent repair and renewal. In other parts of the site there are signs that circular or angled fences were simply erected to create shelter for a small working area. Excavation has shown that there are no traces of permanent dwellings in these market and workshop areas; the pit-houses and small buildings may of course have been reused several times, but apparently not for long periods of residence.

  FIGURE 15.23. (1)–(4) Three bronze and one lead model for the manufacture of moulds for plate brooches and a cross-shaped brooch. (5) Bronze patrix die for stamping sheet gold for dress ornaments. All tenth century, scale 1:1.

  (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  FIGURE 15.24. Distribution map showing the weights at T
issø.

  In the southern workshop area iron forging and bronze casting seems to have been the dominant activity. In the forging areas many characteristic slags from the refining of iron have been found, while semi-finished material for strike-a-lights, shears, knives and arrowheads are also common. Bronze casters worked in the same areas, and among other objects casting-moulds for bow-shaped brooches have been found, as well as miscast keys, brooches and Thor’s hammers. The distribution of bronze and lead melt shows, however, that jewellery was produced over most of the site (Fig. 15.22). The jewellers appear also to have worked at the large hall itself, where several models for making moulds have been found (Fig. 15.23). Tools in the form of burins and small chisels for metalwork have often appeared in the southern workshop area and, especially here, there are indications among the finds that the same craft types were practised year after year, probably by the same craftsmen.

  Trading activity is evident from the many weights, and fragments of silver and Arab coins that have been found across the site, indicating a very large part of the overall market area was functioning at the same time (Fig. 15.24). However, in contrast to town-like emporia such as Ribe, Hedeby, Kaupang and Birka, the quantity of finds is much smaller at Tissø, suggesting probably short, intense, periods of activity. Since such large areas were used in connection with these activities, it might suggest large numbers of people gathering at the site seasonally.