POMMERN UND DAS ENDE DER WIKINGERZEIT. BRUCH ODER KONTINUITÄT?

Abstract

The article focuses on the question, to what extent the end of the Viking age in the second half of the eleventh century influenced western Pomerania. Based on archaeological and numismatic evidence as well as on written sources the development of the most significant settlements, Wollin, Stettin und Kołobrzeg-Budzistowo, is sketched. Thus, the number of hoards from Wollin suggests that the importance of the settlement complex decreased already at the turn of the tenth and eleventh century – before the Danish attack in 1043 and perhaps before the dating of burned layers inside the settlement complex. Stray finds of coins, in contrast, indicate some circulation until the end of the eleventh century – however, the influx of silver after c. 1050 seems weaker than during the tenth century. The archaeological and numismatic evidence from Stettin und Kołobrzeg-Budzistowo allows two conclusions: on one hand the number of hoard and stray finds is low. On the other hand, excavations illustrate an enlargement of these settlements in the second half of the eleventh century. Logically, the political turmoil taking place in the western part of the Baltic Sea around 1050 did not cause a collapse of economic and social structures in Pomerania.

Keywords

• Pomerania
• Viking Age
• Numismatics
• Archaeology