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72 The Viking Age in Denmark

including the ones. mentioning the bishop of the town, ‘Slesvig’ secms to have been exclusively in usc, as it was in the Continental writings of the ninth cen tury.⁷

Medieval Slesvig, beneath the present town, lies on the northern shore at the bottom of the Sli inlet (Fig. 21). The oldest deposits here are from the mid-cleventh century; but by a smaller inlet on the opposite, Southern shore of the Sli lies a larged walled site, the Viking Age Slesvig or Hedeby (Fig. 22). This settlement begins in the eighth century, but the regulated central part did not start until about 800; the wali around is still later, from the tenth century, and, incidentally, is connected with the main frontier wali of Danevirke, across Jylland. Hedeby declines at the end of the tenth century, and disappears completely in the first half of the eleventh century.

Ribe in south-west Jylland is mentioned in about 870 in a source referring to its first church in about 860; the town is here called a ^kvicus’.⁸ Archaeologically Ribe goes back as far as the eighth century. The episcopal nominations of 948 mention Slesvig, Ribe and Arhus, on the east coast of Jylland.⁹ The archaeological remains from the latter go back to the beginning of the tenth century and comprise, apart from remnants of pit-houses, an apparently circular wali. The settlement is a planned town, fortified from the start and probably set up by a royal house. The same seems to hołd true for Odense on Fyn, which had a nominated bishop by 988,¹⁰ where a tenth-century ringwall is found across the river from the early medieval centre of the present city, starting in the la te eleventh century. The ringwall, later ‘Nonnebakken’, is normally compared with the tenth-century for-tresses of Trelleborg type (Scction E, belo w), but the traces of buildings within the wali do not correspond to the regular pattern of the military sites. An almost contemporary parallel to early Arhus and Odense is, perhaps, the regulated, and fortified, ‘burhs’ of the English King Alfred from the close of the ninth century.¹¹

According to Adam of Bremen’s work from around 1070 a church was built at Roskilde on Sjaelland before the death of King Harald, no later than 987.¹² Archaeologically, tenth-century Roskilde is un-known, but access by water, through an inlet, is known to have been carefully blocked by worn-out ships at Skuldelcv, twenty kilometres to the north, some time in the early or mid-eleventh century.¹³ A better datę is given by the remnants from one of the stone churches ot the city, extending back to the 1030s, while the first church of stone, on the site of the cathedral, is said to have been begun by the sister of King Knud shortly after 1027.¹⁴ In Adam’s work (1070) Roskilde is mentioned as a bishop’s seat and as the royal ccntre of Denmark.¹⁵

The first Danish coins carrying the namc of the mint belong to the reign of King Knud (1018 (in Denmark) - 1035).¹⁶ Thcy comprise Lund (in Skane, far the largest mint), Roskilde (the second largest) and Hcdcby/Slesvig (probably), Ribe, Yiborg and 0rbaek, all in Jylland,

Odense on Fyn and also on Sjadland, Ringsted and Slagelse (Fig. 19). The archaeological remains of buildings from the city of Lund go back to about 1020, whilc a large graveyard, belonging - to judge by its character - to an urban settlement, not yet found, starts before 1000.¹⁷ Also to be mentioned are the many ‘ After Jelling’ runestones (dating to about 1000) from around and inside the town (Chapter3). The plots of early Lund seem to have been formally laid out; the city is mentioned in about 1070 by Adam as a bishop’s seat.¹⁸ In the Middle Ages Lund, like Ringsted on Sjaelland, Odense on Fyn and Viborg in north Jylland, was an important thing-place (court and political mccting-place).

The archaeological remains of Viking Age Viborg, also included by Adam in his list of bishops' seats,¹⁹ go back to the ninth century, but they are clearly of a non-urban kind and may, at most, comprise a larger farm. It is not until the late eleventh century that the medieval (and present-day) Street system was laid out. On the other hand, the name ‘Viborg’, meaning ^kVibjerg (hill)’, indicates the presence of a pagan religious centre (^Łvi’) on the site. The thing-function may be of the same datę, but we have no elear evidence. That ‘things’ werc in existence in Scandinavia at least in the ninth century is learned from Bishop Ansgar’s visit to the port of Birka in mid-Sweden.²⁰ Moreover Viborg’s geographical position in Jylland is central, lying at the northern end of the north-south extending watershed which carried the main road system; the site would easily become a meeting-place. Odense also holds a central position (for Fyn) and a name suggesting a pagan religious centre: ‘Odin’s vf (Odense), probably connected with the royal Odin-cult.²¹ The nomination of this site for a bishopric in 988 is a useful and illuminating piece of evidence.

Viking Age 0rbaek and Slagelse (a town, in the Middle Ages) are unknown, apart from the royals mints, but it is hardly an accident that the fortresses of Aggersborg, on the Limfjord in northern Jylland, and Trelleborg, at Storę Baclt, on the Sjaelland side, are only four or five kilometres away. Incidentally, the son of King Knud, Hardeknud (1035-42) had coins struck at Slesvig, Ribe, Arhus, Viborg, 0rbaek, Alborg (north Jylland), Slagelse, Roskilde, Lund and Gori (Fig. 19).²² Viking Age Alborg is also unknown, the oldest deposits so far, going back to about 11 (X). Adam ofBremen, in about 1070, mentions Alborg as a ‘civitas’ (city), but not as a bishop’s seat.²³ The locality of Gori is unknown, but it was probably located in Skanc, as there is a similarity between coins from there and the numerous Lund coins. The complete list of Adam’s ‘civitates’ runs: Slesvig, Ribe, Arhus, Viborg, Alborg, the otherwise unknown ‘Wendila’ (a name normally referring to the whole province of Vendsysscl lying to the north of Alborg), Odense, Roskilde and Lund.²⁴ When dealing with ninth-century events, Adam does not use the word ‘vicus’ for Hedeby/Slesvig and Ribe, but ‘portus’ (port).