Suchergebnisse

This paper concerns land use and peasant society relating to settlements, power, and state formation in Northern Europe in the period 500–1200 AD, combining archaeological and written evidence in spatial landscape studies. In the mainly rural society in the Middle Ages, political and economic power seems to have been based on control over land, including people, land, and estates. The king and his followers travelled between a limited numbers of royal villas, located in the coastal areas or by central rivers and important route-ways. Due to urbanisation and supra-regional state formation, this system gradually changed. Around 900–1100 AD, new towns were established as the main urban centres, which gradually became the king's residences and powerbase. During the High Middle Ages, the old rural manors and estates of the king were split into several units and donated to the king's secular allies and ecclesiastical institutions such as bishops, monasteries, and churches, often located in the towns.