Hedeby
Hedeby was on the Cimbrian peninsula at the end of the Schlei in Schleswig 's Enge ( isthmus ) between the North Sea and Baltic Sea near the historic ox path ( or Military Road ). The place was probably at that administrative unit Arens Harde. Today, the area belongs to Germany, and the site is a part of the community Busdorf Schleswig in Schleswig -Flensburg district.
The place for over nine centuries abandoned Hedeby is common with the Danewerk the most important archaeological monuments in Schleswig -Holstein.
History
After the barbarian invasions, during which the fishing and many Saxons migrated to England, Danes and Jutes invaded in the first half of the 8th century by the north front to the Schlei and the Bay of Eckernförder. The area seems to have been only sparsely populated at this time. No later than 770 Hedeby was founded and very soon the most important trading center of the Danes. In the 9th century a second settlement was established further north and therebetween, another settlement on Hedeby -Bach. End of the 9th century, the northern and southern part of the settlement were abandoned. The middle part of the Hedeby - stream was further used and incorporated by ramparts in the Danish border installations of Danevirke.
The destruction of the competing Slav trade Reric place near Wismar by the Danish king Gudfred in 808 and the subsequent forced relocation of the merchants Hedeby, the city developed rapidly into a trading city, even before Denmark became unit. Since the 811 a few miles south flowing Eider marked the border of the Frankish kingdom, reflecting the importance of Hedeby still enlarged. The location of the resort was very low, because the Schlei, a long arm of the Baltic Sea was navigable, and yet here was the ancient north-south route, the Ox Trail. Probably here trade goods were also loaded, which were brought over land just a few kilometers away to the Eider and further shipped from there to the North Sea - and vice versa.
From the 9th to the 10th century Hedeby was with his at least 1,000 permanent residents is an important, nationally known commercial center. Here also own coins were minted. Other commercial centers in Northern and Western Europe, without the Hedeby had no such meaning can acquire, at that time were, inter alia Västergarn ( previously Paviken ) and Vallhagar on Gotland, Avaldsnes, Kaupang, Skiringssal and Farsund (Norway ), Birka, Löddeköpinge and Sigtuna (Sweden), Domburg, Dorestad and Witla (Netherlands), Quentovic (France), Novgorod (Russia), Ribe and Tissø (Denmark) and on the southern Baltic coast Jomsborg ( Vineta ) Menzlin, Ralswiek, Truso ( near Gdansk ) and Wiskiauten ( from Cranz ), and Seeburg in the Baltics. To 890 undertook Wulfstan of Hedeby on behalf of King Alfred, a trip to Truso.
In the year 934 the East Frankish - Saxon King Henry I defeated the Danes under King Knut I. " Battle of Hedeby " and conquered the city then. Thus, the area between the Eider and the Schlei fell for about a century to the East Frankish or Roman- German Empire. However, the local Scandinavian dynasty remained a generation in office.
Hedeby was now definitively because of its location on the trade routes between the Frankish Empire and Scandinavia as well as between the Baltic and North Sea, a major commercial center. Adam of Bremen called " Heidiba " as portus maritimus, were sent from which ships to Sweden and in the Byzantine Empire. In particular, the production and processing of pottery (dishes ), glass and tool has been important for the importance Hedeby, which was visited and described ( as 965 of Ibrahim ibn Jaqub ) by Arab merchants and travelers.
948 was Hedeby bishopric after Emperor Otto had visited Hedeby. As early as 850, probably by Archbishop Ansgar of Hamburg, the first Christian church was built. The existence of this building is occupied is safe in the written sources, but could not yet be detected archaeologically. However, a certificate from the early 10th century church bell was salvaged.
In the 10th century Hedeby reached its heyday and was associated with at least 1,500 inhabitants, the most important commercial center for the western Baltic. In the year 983 the Danish king Harald Bluetooth conquered (also: Harold Gormson; Danish Harald Bluetooth ), which recognized the sovereignty of the empire since 948, Hedeby and in the decades around the year 1000, the settlement belonged to the sphere of the German Emperor. Under Emperor Conrad II the border was then probably by undertaken by Sven Forkbeard act of war by the loop back to the Eider moved back (→ Mark Schleswig ).
Detailed mention is Hedeby ( Heidiba ) in the chronicle of the Archdiocese of Hamburg, the Adam of Bremen completed it in 1076. The Saxons and Franks gave a newer settlement near Hedeby Sliaswig and Sliaswich ( settlement or bay on the Schlei), from which the name of the town of Schleswig and the duchy of Schleswig is derived.
Settlement
The hall houses made of wood and / or wattle walls were probably roofed with thatch or straw. The built-up surface areas varied between 3.5 × 17 meters and 7 × 17.5 meters.
In the settlement of different types of tombs were analyzed: Danish fire pits, Swedish chamber tombs, Saxon urn, Erdgräber Christian and Slavic urn. From this, the mixture of peoples Hedeby realize it, but also the influence of Christianity ( from 826 ). In addition, different workshops, fortifications, land bridges, floating bridges and storage buildings were found.
Trade
Hedeby was the crossroads of two important trade routes: A few kilometers west led the Ox Road (Danish Hærvejen, German Military Road ) past centuries the crucial north-south connection from Hamburg to Viborg in Jutland. In west-east direction, there was a Seehandelsroute between North and Baltic Sea: About the Eider and Treene were ships come until after Hollingstedt. Use of the Rheider Au with smaller ships after that was possible. Then the ships of the Au Rheider to Selker Noor ( southern continuation of the Haddebyer Noor ) had to be pulled over the country to get into the loop. According to other theories of Kograben can just south have served as a shipping channel of the Danevirke.
Goods from all over the known world were trading in Hedeby: from Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the Baltic States, Konstantin Opel, Baghdad and the Frankish Empire. Wines were ( Koblenz ) imported (5-7 century) from the Rhineland. We traded from Scandinavia mainly raw materials of the more remote areas more luxury goods. Through archaeological finds of iron foot and hand cuffs, a trade is occupied by slaves.
For the emergence of a growing city is the example of Hedeby, which was a trade hub on green meadow without urban infrastructure, atypical. Due to the forced settlement of the merchants of Rerik and the influx of artisans, there was a settlement compaction. Because the rural population sold their surplus grain to the town and the townspeople were therefore not rely on self-sufficiency, there could develop differentiated activities.
Downfall
Excavations
The abandoned settlement Hedeby lapsed at the end of the 11th century due to the rise of water and Baltic Schlei. The facilities and buildings in the settlement and harbor area, with the exception of the wall, went above ground completely. Finally, even forgotten where the place on Haddebyer Noor had found.
Hedeby is the best-researched early medieval harbor in Germany. With ship salvage and harbor studies until 1980, the excavations took a temporary end. So far, five percent of the settlement area and one percent of the port have been extensively studied. With the help of dendrochronology, it was found that the individual buildings on the damp ground only had a short lifetime and have been built over several times.
Since 2002 was created using magnetic geophysical prospecting a kind of map of Hedeby. It utilizes the fact that the remains of human activity other magnetic structures have than the surrounding soil. To check and confirm the results was again dug from 2005 to 2010 in Hedeby. In this case, inter alia, an erected on the remains of a burned pit house cupola furnace was found which could have been used for the manufacture of glass beads. As part of a three -year grant by the Volkswagen Foundation, the finds and findings from the excavation are analyzed.