Finding Sliesthorp?

Abstract

In 2003, a hitherto unknown Viking age settlement was discovered at Füsing in Northern Germany. Finds and building features suggest that the site was an estate centre and assembly place. As such, the site flourished from around 700 to the end of the 10th century. With Hedeby/Schleswig and the Danevirke in direct eyesight from the site, Füsing is embedded in a special topographical context. What would in other circumstances have been yet another high-status estate centre to be discovered in South Scandinavia thus takes on a different significance. It is suggested that Füsing – among other functions – fulfilled the role of a seasonal garrison and naval base in the defensive system of the Danevirke. As such, the site may be identical with the mystical Sliesthorp, which is mentioned in early written sources as the power-centre of the first Danish kings in this disputed border-region of their realm.