From a port for traders to a town of merchants: exploring the topography, activities and dynamics of early medieval Copenhagen

Abstract

ABSTRACT Copenhagen’s earliest history has long been shrouded in uncertainties. This is mainly due to insufficient source material. Basic questions – how old is the town, how did it originate, and where was the oldest settlement situated? – are still under discussion, as are questions regarding specific features of the early medieval town. Was Absalon’s twelfth-century castle preceded by an earlier one? What does a centrally placed, early medieval horseshoe-shaped enclosure surrounded by a massive ditch represent? Using archaeological results from recent major excavations, combined with Bayesian modelling of new 14C dates from the two early cemeteries of Sankt Clemens and Rådhuspladsen, older archaeological information and the medieval written sources on Copenhagen are revisited to form a new interpretation of the early development of the town. Three phases of topographical development from the eleventh to the early thirteenth century are recognised. The changes tell of a dynamic first two hundred years of the town’s history and of its changing role in Danish society. The article explores the people, activities and networks that lie behind the outstanding development from the small early settlement of the eleventh century to the flourishing merchant town of the thirteenth century.