31 (444)

56 The Viking Age in Denmark

pig

SO-

A

horse

B

50-

50

cattle

50"

sheep

(Qoat)

Figurę 13 A. Percentages of bonę fragments of, rcspectively, cattle and pig from rural scttlements (Appendix VII). (Sample: cattle, pig, sheep, goat and horse)

Figurę 13 B. Percentages of bonę fragments of, respectivcly, sheep (and goat) and horse from rural settlements (Appendix VII). (Sample as in Fig. 13 A.)

Figurę 13 C. Percentages of bonę fragments of, rcspcctivcly, the cattle-pig and the sheep (and goat)-horsc group from rural settlements (dots), towns (black sąuares), cast Holstein Slavonian fortress-towns (open squares) and fortresses (triangles). (Appendix VII.) (Sample as in Fig. 13 A.)

Both groups supply meat, milk, hides and draught power, though to quite varying degrees. From distribution maps of the ratio cow/pig, it is seen that pigs are dominant in the central Danish provinces, the most forested region, while cows are frcquent in the open lands of west Jylland and east Skane. Apparently the environment determines what meat animal is kept most often, and though cows may graze in woods these are the natural pig area. No elear picture emerges from the sheep/horse ratio, while the distinction between sheep and pig provinces, the sheep being dominant in west Jylland, for instance, is the most obvious of all.

Going back to the sites, it is seen that the towns have morę than 75 per cent cattle and pig bones (and less than 25 per cent sheep, etc.), while the rural settlements have less than 70 per cent cattle/pigs fragments (Fig. 13 and Appendix VII). Among the rural settlements are the Viking Age finds from Viborg and the finds from Lód-dckópinge in west Skane, a possiblc seasonal market. A single pit-housc, also from west Skane (Oxie), has a higher pcrcentage of cattle/pigs than any of the towns, but the deviation here is probably due to the uncertainties of the limited excavation. The Trelleborg fortress in western Sjaelland has percentages of 71 and 29 for the twx> sets, the horse fragments amounting to as much as 14 per cent. Another fortress, Lembecksburg, on the island of Fohr, off the coast of southernmost Jylland, has a cow/pig percentage of 44, less than any village, but a sheep percentage amounting to as much as 55. This site may constitute a third category of consumption, having also an unusual (but still modest) percentage of wild mammals, and many wild birds too. The Slavonian town fortresses in east Holstein, and further to the east, fit into the town cluster of Denmark, perhaps not unexpectedly.

The reason for the distinction between towns and rural settlements seems to be that the meat animals (cattle/pigs) w^rcre delivered in the towns (and fortresses), w^rhich were not able to meet their demand for food locally. At Hedeby, for instance, only one house has traces of a stall / The percentages of the same animals would then drop in the villages, which kept horses and sheep (but not the wool). It is notcworthy that much the same picture occurs if we omit horses; these, like sheep, are also morę difficult to keep in towns than pigs or even cows.

These observations are important, sińce they link up towns and countryside in the spherc of food output and consumption. The towns were not merely centres of luxury production and trade but were fully integrated on all levels with their surroundings. This is apparent from geographical data as well.

The basie ‘parish division' of Denmark probably took place in the eleventh century. The size of the parishes, as measured by the spread of churches, varies with the quality of the soil, sińce they tend to comprise the same number of souls whether the churches are situated on poor west Jylland soils, with a Iow population density, or on Sjaelland, with a high one. The first borders of the parishes are not known, but we can create hypothetical, and fairly accurate, boundaries by drawing lines, in a right angle, through the mid-points of the lines of sightings between the early medieval churches.

Looking at the homogeneous province in terms of soil around the city of Arhus in Jylland, it appears that the size of the Arhus parish, comprising both agrarians and townsmen, is the same as the other parishes in the area (Fig. 14). This shows that the population in the parish has simply not been able to feed itself from its agricultural area and must have received supplies from the whole province. An identical result is obtained from the city of Ribc.

In the Fledeby area, studies of animal bonę fragments from the town