Bona i Bredestad – från en vikingatida storgård till en medeltida huvudgård

Abstract

Bona in Bredestad: From a Viking Age magnate farm to a medieval estateThe remains of a magnate farm from the late Vendel Period and the Viking Age have recently been excavated in the parish of Bredestad in northern Smaland, Sweden. Thanks to the unusually rich source material it has, moreover, been possible to reconstruct a medieval estate that existed in the parish during the Early Middle Ages. The manor on this estate was Bona, which is a stone’s throw from the Viking Age farm.This article presents expressions of power in settlement and landscape from the Vendel Period when a magnate farm was established, to its function as a manor on a major estate in the Early Middle Ages. The article thus highlights the site continuity evidenced at Bona. It also elucidates how land use interacts with changes in settlement and how it was affected during the Migration Period crisis and in the late medieval agrarian crisis.The study combines three different types of source material: archaeological material, evidence from early maps and written sources, and pollen analysis. The selected types of source material are complementary,