DANISH JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 2018, VOL. 7, NO. 1, 69–116 https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2018.1464619 RESEARCH ARTICLE From a port for traders to a town of merchants: exploring the topography, activities and dynamics of early medieval Copenhagen Hanna Dahlströma, Bjørn Poulsena,b and Jesper Olsen a,c aCentre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), Aarhus University, Højbjerg, Denmark; bSchool of Culture and Society, Department of History, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; cDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Copenhagen’s earliest history has long been shrouded in uncertainties. This is mainly due to Received 6 April 2018 insufficient source material. Basic questions – how old is the town, how did it originate, and Accepted 11 April 2018 – where was the oldest settlement situated? are still under discussion, as are questions regarding KEYWORDS ’ specific features of the early medieval town. Was Absalon s twelfth-century castle preceded by an Medieval Copenhagen; earlier one? What does a centrally placed, early medieval horseshoe-shaped enclosure sur- trading centre; church rounded by a massive ditch represent? Using archaeological results from recent major excava- topography; medieval tions, combined with Bayesian modelling of new 14C dates from the two early cemeteries of towns; early medieval Sankt Clemens and Rådhuspladsen, older archaeological information and the medieval written Denmark; Bayesian sources on Copenhagen are revisited to form a new interpretation of the early development of modelling of radiocarbon the town. Three phases of topographical development from the eleventh to the early thirteenth dates 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. Introduction undertaken in central Copenhagen since 2008, have As the capital of Denmark from the fifteenth century vastly improved the archaeological source situation. onwards, Copenhagen’s importance in international The excavation at Rådhuspladsen (see Figure 1)in trade networks is well known, and evidence of the particular has yielded new information about funda- metropolitan lifestyles of its elites is plentiful (Riis mental aspects of the early town: its size and extent, 1994, p. 73ff). It is also known from written sources its church topography, the development of the town to have been an important medieval merchant town fortifications, and the types of activities taking place at this time, with a strong role in the Baltic trade and within the town. closely connected to German towns. The early Utilising the new and contextually well-documen- phases of the town are, however, much less well ted archaeological source materials, including Bayesian known. It has long been evident that there was modelling of new AMS dates taken together with some kind of activity in Copenhagen from the ele- information from the documentary sources, we discuss venth century and onwards, but the location, scale in this paper what it was that made this small, see- and functions of the settlement have been debated mingly anonymous early settlement into one of the for just as long. It is certainly problematic that very most important towns in Denmark. Who and what few written sources exist from the period before the were the driving forces in Copenhagen in the eleventh mid-thirteenth century, and the archaeological infor- and twelfth centuries? With the new material at our mation from the medieval period has until recently disposal, we hope to present a nuanced story about been quite meagre and fragmentary. some of the people, activities and networks that paved The results of the Metro Cityring excavations the way for the prosperous high and late medieval from 2009 onwards, together with other excavations town of Copenhagen. CONTACT Hanna Dahlström [email protected] Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, building 1522, Højbjerg DK-8270, Denmark © 2018 The Partnership of the Danish Journal of Archaeology 70 H. DAHLSTRÖM ET AL. Figure 1. Modern Copenhagen showing the late medieval extent of the town (with a dashed line) together with the seventeenth- century extent (with a solid line). Placement of the excavation at Rådhuspladsen (the Town Hall Square), yielding important information about the early phases of Copenhagen, is marked with a star. After Lyne and Dahlström (2015). Figure has been reproduced with permission from Museum of Copenhagen. A note of clarification: the term ‘early medieval’ 1253; DD 2. ser., vol. 1., no. 105, 113) or variations refers to the Scandinavian use of the concept, namely on this name (which means ‘the merchants’ port’), c. 1050–c. 1250. or simply as ‘Hafn’ (port, from Old Norse ‘höfn’). The first occurrence of the name is in the The written sources Knýtlingasaga, in connection with an episode in the year 1043 when King Sven Estridsen was attacked out- What’s in a name? side Höfn on Zealand. The text of the Knýtlingasaga The written sources speaking of early medieval was written down in the thirteenth century, and its Copenhagen are few and, as so often, were written reference to Havn has often been seen as secondary, down some years after the period or events referred particularly as this information was for a long time not to. During its first two hundred years, the town is corroborated by any other eleventh-century archaeo- named either ‘Købmannahafn’ (first documented logical or historical source (Ægidius 1977,p.37f). DANISH JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 71 The oldest source in which the town of portus nominatur’ (the town which is called the Copenhagen is mentioned is a charter from Pope merchants’ port/harbour: Saxo 2005, p. 340). Urban, written in 1186, where it is termed ‘Hafn’ The appellative ‘havn’ (harbour/port) seems quite (DD 1. ser., vol. 3, no. 137). This is the famous letter logical and the addition of ‘købmand’ (merchant) in in which the Pope states that Bishop Absalon has front identifies and perhaps separates it from other been given the castle (‘castrum de Hafn’) by the King ‘havns’ on the Zealand coast, including the docu- (king Valdemar I), together with the town (‘villa’) mented settlement of Skåningehavn (Skaningæhafn, and a number of manors in the vicinity of the town now Kalvehave) in South Zealand (Kristensen and (DD 1. ser., vol. 3, no. 137). We shall return to this Poulsen 2016, p. 200). The two parts of the name charter later. Købmannahafn point to the two aspects that prob- The royal gift of Hafn to Absalon is commonly ably characterised the early settlement: its coastal believed to have taken place in the middle of the location, with its function as a port, and the presence twelfth century, perhaps in the year 1158. This is of merchants, which means it was a site for trade. based on descriptions in the Gesta Danorum The first part of the name ‘Køben’–‘køb’–can be (History of the Danes) by the chronicler Saxo seen in the same context as the contemporary and Grammaticus, writing around 1200. His Latin text well-known place name, ‘köping’. A number of describes Copenhagen as ‘vicus qui mercatorum ‘köpingar’ exist in the eastern Danish province of Søborg Helsingborg Löddeköpinge Borgeby København Lund Kalundborg Roskilde Lomma Lilla Köpinge Hököpinge Stora Köpinge Västra Köpinge et al. Arkona RUGEN Figure 2. The region of Zealand and western Scania, including some of the small early medieval trading sites and towns mentioned in the text. Ill: Ea Rasmussen, Moesgaard Museum and Ann-Lisa Pedersen. 72 H. DAHLSTRÖM ET AL. Scania, across the Øresund in western Sweden: one Gesta Danorum, gave the Bishop an almost mythical in Halland, one in Blekinge, with the best known role in the nation-building project that was led by being Löddeköpinge on the west coast (see Figure 2; patriotic nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Svanberg and Söderberg 2000). These are distributed historical researchers (Olrik 1908–9, Rerup et al. along the coast but, unlike Købmannahafn, not 1996). Even if Absalon’s role was toned down con- directly on the coast. It seems that these ‘köping’ siderably in later research, he is still regarded as trading places functioned mainly as local and regio- having a central role in the town’s early history nal trading centres, even if their function is not fully (Fabricius 1999, El-Sharnouby and Høst-Madsen clear (Svanberg and Söderberg 2000). The word 2008). It is evident that Absalon’s interest in ‘köping’ is believed to stem from the Old English Copenhagen gave the town a push forward and led, ‘ceaping’ or ‘chipping’ and is best known from the among other things, to the undertaking of large Norwegian Viking town Kaupang, which has the construction projects. The most important of these same etymological origin (Söderberg et al. 2009,p. were the castle and the Church of Our Lady (Vor 191, Sørensen 2017). A direct parallel to ‘Køben’ is, Frue Kirke). Absalon was also probably a driving for instance, the Jutlandic name ‘Københoved’ on force behind the large fortification project which the river Kongeåen. Such place names attesting to began construction in the early thirteenth century trade seem mostly to belong to a phase preceding the (see the following). near-monopolisation of trade to towns in the med- The main discussion points arising from the writ- ieval period, that is, before 1200. They can conse- ten sources relating to Absalon and the origin of quently be seen as elements of broad regional trade Copenhagen revolve around two questions. First, structures predating the medieval period (Nielsen what can be said about the status of Copenhagen at 2014, p.