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›Rechtsräume‹ Historische und archäologische Annäherungen
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Vittorio Klostermann Frankfurt am Main 2020 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Caspar Ehlers Holger Grewe (Hg.)
›Rechtsräume‹
Historische und archäologische Annäherungen
Vittorio Klostermann Frankfurt am Main 2020 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Umschlagbild: Ingelheim, St. Remigiuskirche: Frühmittelalterliches Tauecken und Sarkophage des 11. Jahrhunderts im Grabungsfoto. Stadt Ingelheim am Rhein, Foto: Forschungsstelle Kaiserpfalz.
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elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Inhalt
H G und C E Vorwort ...... VII
Raum in der Geschichtswissenscha
J S Performiert oder integriert? Die Räume des Historikers ...... 3
J N Prekäre Macht – changierender Raum: Überlegungen zum Königreich Burgund (888–1032) ...... 21
S G Raum und Herrscha. Das Beispiel der Karolinger ...... 37
Neue Ansätze der Archäologie
P H Archäologische Methoden zur (Re-)Konstruktion von Raum und Landscha ...... 63
P J. G The Study of the »Langobard« Migration through Paleogenomics ...... 79
J K Die genetische Herkun der Europäer: Biologische Anpassung und Mobilität in der Vorgeschichte ...... 91
J C-K, K Z, F N, W P und H G Byzantinische Beziehungen? Bioarchäologische Untersuchungen an einer hochmittelalterlichen Grablege der Remigiuskirche zu Ingelheim als entscheidender Indikator für die historisch-archäologische Befundinterpretation ...... 105
Inhalt V elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Stadt und Palastbauten
J P und U W-R (†) Tradition und Innovation – Raumkonzepte im flavischen Palast. Gebauter Raum als Spiegel sozialer Herrschaspraxis am Beispiel des Palatin ...... 133
R F Alles wie am Tiber? Zur Topographie der Justiz in den Städten des römischen Reiches...... 169
J L und K P Antike Einflüsse in der karolingischen Bautechnik – Aachen und Lorsch. Überlegungen zur Herkun handwerklicher Kenntnisse im frühen Mittelalter ...... 189
Orte und Raum in Zentraleuropa
J S Das ›unsichtbare römische Reich‹. Zum Fortbestehen eines Raumes über seine Todesanzeige hinaus ...... 217
M G-N Der Ingelheimer Raum zwischen dem 6. und 8. Jahrhundert ...... 235
A S Die frühmittelalterliche Topografie des Pfalzortes Aachen aus archäologischer Sicht ...... 263
Raum in der Archäologie des nördlichen Europa
A S Legal Space in Late Iron Age and Early Medieval Scandinavia ...... 281
F I Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions...... 301
M C. B Central places and peripheral spaces in north-western Germany from the eighth to the twelh century ...... 319
Autorenverzeichnis ...... 335
VI Inhalt elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions
In this paper, we will examine the origin and developments of larger law- territories in Scandinavia in relation to tribal coalitions. Here, we will focus on the materiality and historical depth of thing-sites and the areas over which they had authority, drawing on the fields of cultural geography, history, archaeology, legal studies and landscape studies. The key material of the study is a group of approximately 30 assembly sites in western Scandinavia that date back to the first millennium. The thing in northern Europe was long established at the time of its first reference in 50 BC by Gaius Julius Caesar; the word exists in all of the Germanic languages and refers to »a gathering at a certain time in a certain place«.1 A tribal coalition consists of multiple autonomous tribes forming a mutual military defence as a response to external threats.2 The development of tribal coalitions in northern Europe, outside the Frankish and Carolingian realms, is poorly understood. Key questions are as follows: How was legal cooperation among north- European communities formalised, maintained and memorised in the first millennium? How was decision-making performed, ritualised and sanctioned? How stable were decision-making institutions, and what was their role in social and political developments? According to Jordanes’ De origine actibusque Geta- rum (the so-called Getica from AD 551) and the poem Widsith (compiled and composed in the late 6th century), our investigation areas were inhabited by tribes, such as the Augandzi (Egder), Eunixit and Aetel Rugi (Ryger), Arochi (Horder), Ranii (Raumer), Þrōwendas (Trøndere) and Adogit /Amothingas (Håløy- ger).3 We will investigate and discuss the approximately 30 assembly sites set in relation to these groups.4 The new contribution presented in this article concerns neither the onomas- tic identification of Jordanes’ groups nor the historically known law-provinces,
1I (2013). 2S (2004). 3M (1962); S (1967); I (2019a). 4I (2015a).
Frode Iversen 301 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch both of which have already been comprehensively studied.5 However, the western Scandinavian thing sites have not been evaluated in of whether the provincial law areas, of which there were approximately 20 in Scandinavia around AD 1200, reflect the early developments of such coalitions. First, I will give a full overview of all courtyard sites in western Scandinavia and their connections to administrative landscapes, including the sites in Agder and Rogaland, which are not included in my earlier studies. The results from earlier published studies will be presented only briefly.
Background The thing was fundamental but not exclusive to Germanic tribes. Meeting sites and legal systems existed in many parts of the world, such as the Xeer of Somalia, believed to pre-date Islam;6 the Norraz of the Sami;7 the panchayati raj of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (first mentioned c. AD 250;8 and the ritsuryō of Japan in the c. 8th to 10th centuries9). In the last two decades, new thing-specific research has come to the forefront in Europe.10 The earliest examples of written law are found in the rural societies of the ancient Middle East in the late Neolithic and Bronze Age (Cuneiform law).11 From these laws, we learn that all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: free adults (lu) or slaves (arad m./geme f.). The king was called »the great man« (lugal). From the prologue of the Code of Ur-Nammu (2100– 2050 BC), we learn that the king had standardised various weights and set the monthly temple expenses to a fixed sum of 90 gur of barley, 30 sheep, and 30 sila of butter.12
5T (1898); S (1967); S /G (2008); A (2009); I (2015a; 2019a). 6A (2012). 7T (1929). 8M /S (1999). 9H (1994). 10 See B /M (eds.) (2003); P /S (eds.) (2004); S et al. (eds.) (2013; 2016); S et al. (2013). 11 The Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (2100–2050 BC) from Nippur holds the position as the earliest preserved law-code in the world. A total of 32 of 57 law- paragraphs have been successfully reconstructed: G /K (1965) 13–19. The Code of Uru-inimgina (2380–2360 BC) is oen celebrated as the earliest example of written law and was applied to the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash in present day Iraq. However, the code is only known from secondary sources. Of particular interest are the ways in which King Uru-inimgina’s reforms protected and improved the status of women in Lagash; T (2004) 8–10. 12 G /K (1965) 13–19.
302 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch There are, strikingly, many similarities between the early laws of the ancient Middle East and the laws appearing in northern Europe beginning in the 5th century. In general, the laws regulated »the concerns of rural societies« (i. e., murder, robbery, kidnapping, marriage between slaves and free persons, return- ing escaped slaves, sorcery, and adultery) and fines for bodily damage. We have less information about the formation of those areas where the laws applied and how tribes interacted militarily across these areas. In Germania (ch. 2), Tacitus conveys an allegedly old tradition transmitted in Germanic folklore and skaldic poetry around AD 98. He refers to three main larger Germanic gentes, namely, the Ingaevones, living nearest the sea; the Herminones in the middle; and the Istaevones beyond them. These gentes were named aer the sons of Mannus (the son of the earth-born god Tuisco), from whom the gentes descended. At the time, there was a discussion about whether the tribes Marsos, Gembrivios, Suebos and Vandilios also qualified as old groups originating from the god Mannus. Presumably, these gentes formed early tribal coalitions, and when several tribes joined forces, they set up a common thing in which the most skilled and wise thing-leaders, or delegates, met and appointed a leader who was in command only in times of conflict and crises. The finds from Danish bog offering sites indicate that military tribal coalitions may have existed in Scandinavia c. AD 200. In general, the finds show provenance to present-day southern Norway and western Sweden. 13 The bog offering in Illerup place A. (c. AD 200) might even have originated from a »south-west Norwegian« army defeated by »Danish« forces.14 Approximately 40 % of the Illerup A. site has been excavated, with finds of 410 spearheads and objects indicating three levels of military rank. From these findings, it has been suggested that the defeated army consisted of up to 1200 persons.15 Trond Løken and Oliver Grimm / Frans-Arne Stylegar16 connect the defeated army to the courtyard sites in western Scandinavia. If so, there potentially existed a stratified, highly sophisticated military organisation here in the early 3rd cen- tury, indicating the presence of a tribal coalition. Herein, we will investigate the courtyard sites further and the basic organisation of this coalition. The Roman political system radiated from the Mediterranean Sea and has been described as an open suzerain system, i. e., a system wherein a sovereign or state has some control over another political entity that is internally autono-
13 I (1993), fig. 153; C-B /I (1996) 296–298; I (2001) 348. 14 G /S (2004). 15 C-B (1997); I (2000) 144; G /S (2004). 16 L (2001); G /S (2004).
Frode Iversen 303 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch mous.17 Earlier, I proposed that it cannot be ruled out that the proximity in AD 83/84 of Europe’s foremost military power near Elgin in Scotland, only a few days sail from western Scandinavia, might have stimulated better military organisation and coordination in western Scandinavia and the establishment of the courtyard sites.18 The upper central power of this open suzerain system changed radically with the Germanic migrations and collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century and the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century. The post-Roman period in western Europe saw a formation of »fairly close-knit kingdoms« gradually transforming into the Christian Europe we know from the High Middle Ages, which also included the northern Scandinavian kingdoms from the 11th century and, later, the Iberian Peninsula in the south. The suzerain system now gravitated from the successive sovereign power of the Frankish (481–751), Carolingian (751–987) and Holy Roman Empires (962–1806). While Frankish and Carolingian royal sovereign power was mainly organised through a system of interconnected and mostly non- fortified royal manors and palaces along large rivers, such as the Rhine, Rhone, Danube and Elbe, urban strongholds and royal forti fications were even more important for ruling the Holy Roman Empire. In contrast, the internally autonomous political entities in the northern peripheries were tied to this sovereign power by »treaties and threats«. The years 826 and 834 are important years in Scandinavian history. The Danish throne-pretender Harald Klakk (died 846), with his family and attend- ants, was the first Scandinavian king to be baptized, in 826 in Mainz.19 Harald converted to Christianity and swore allegiance to the emperor Louis the Pious (reign 814–840, except 834/35) who rewarded Harald with the fief of Rüstringen by the mouth of Weser. In Aachen, a few years later in 834, the emperor con- firmed the foundation of the Hamburg metropolitan seat with a »mission to mission« and by preaching Christianity in the Nordic region under the leader- ship of Archbishop Ansgar (801–865), who, in the initial years, worked in close cooperation with Harald Klakk (DD 1 R I no. 28).20 Facing the growing power of the Carolingians and the conquest of Saxony 777–785,21 we might assume that various political and military alliances were formed and activated among the 30–35 peoples in Scandinavia mentioned around the mid-6th century. 22 The Carolingian ban issued c.790 on Saxon
17 W (1977). 18 I (2015a) 103. 19 R (1992). 20 This specific charter is considered a counterfeit of an original charter. 21 E (2007). 22 I (2019b).
304 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch public thing meetings (generaliter conventus publicos) (Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae art. 34),23 must have intimidated Scandinavian landowners and elites, as this was a direct threat to their traditional way of governance, their moral and legal influence and their systems of defence and military alliances. The Scandinavian and Saxon thing was instrumental to the acceptance of new kings and the regulation of political and economic relations between the king and the people, and by forbidding the traditional institution of governance, the Carolingian ban seriously challenged local and regional elites. 24 The thing was the secular institution for justice, i. e., a ›multi-functional venue for discussion and determination of any matter of communal concern‹.25 From historical sources dating to the 12th and 13th centuries, we learn that the main thing for a shire was named shire thing (fylkisþing). In some provinces, halfshire things (hölfuþing) existed. The provinces were further subdivided into smaller units, i. e., quarter things (órðungsþing) and ship district things (skipreiðuþing). Most likely, to activate a tribal coalition in a given situation, internal and external decisions of consensus among the tribes were necessary. Such decisions must have taken place in the upper thing in a given entity before it could bind its members to take part in actions outside the law. Furthermore, there may have existed specific sites where neighbouring tribes met for discussions and agreements on joint actions. In Scandinavia, only scanty information exists about tribal coalitions across specific law-territories. However, the commitment made by each region of the Norwegian kingdom was recorded in the Gulathing law in the mid-12th century. The law states the number and size of the ships that each di fferent region was required to contribute. The law distinguishes between ›people from‹ Viken (Vikverir), Grenland (græna), Agder (Egðir), Rogaland (Rygir), Hordaland (Horðar), Sogn (Sygnir), Firda (Firðir), Møre (Mærer), Romsdal (Raumdæler), Nordmøre (Norðmærer), Trøndelag (Þrænder), Namdal (Naumdæler) and Håloga- land (Haleygir).26 A much greater attempt is made to stipulate the precise commitment of regions within the law area, whilst outside it, in other parts of the kingdom, only larger regions are named. In this way, the Gulathing law outlined how much a given area – both inside and outside the Gulathing area – should contribute to defence in the case of emergency. We do not know when these military unions arose, but it is likely that they built on older schemes that were scaled up incrementally to cover larger areas and were only made uniform in the 10th century. 27
23 M (2004). 24 E (2015). 25 V /E (2013) 152. 26 For Gulathinglaw, see E /R /U (eds.) (1994) 315. 27 I (2019a).
Frode Iversen 305 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Fig. 1: Approximately 30 courtyard sites in Norway constitute the first archaeologically known »parliaments« or »things« of Northern Europe.
306 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Material and methods – types of assembly sites Several types of archaeological sites have been archaeologically identified as assembly sites, such as grave fields, large cooking pit-fields, clusters of pit-houses at large manors and courtyard-sites. 28 In Scandinavia, two main types of archaeological sites have been identified as assembly, or thing, sites. The first type is the so-called cooking-pit site. Cooking- pit sites have remains of hundreds of, or sometimes more than a thousand, earth ovens for preparing meat. These sites normally date c. 300 BC – AD 600. 29 Such large fields (more than 200 pits) are most common in the middle and eastern parts of Scandinavia, while rarer in western Scandinavia. The second type of site is the so-called courtyard site, which is the main focus of this article. Courtyard sites are only found in western Scandinavia (AD c. 100–1000) and Iceland (AD c. 900–1250).30 The courtyard sites appear in various shapes but are oen defined as ›a collection of house foundations around an oval or semi-circular area (tun)‹. Approximately 30 courtyard sites have been identified on the west coast of Norway, stretching from Oddernes in the south to Bjarkøy in the north. These courtyard sites fell out of use during the period AD 600–1000. In early discussions, these sites were regarded as being related to royal power or minor chiefdoms. In recent years, however, they have been reinterpreted as thing sites for several local communities. The overall shape and layout of the units, especially the standardised width of the house- plots, are expressions of an egalitarian idea, which is consistent with a formalised decision-making process where all the attending local communities have equal influence. The view expressed by archaeologists Oliver Grimm and Frans-Arne Stylegar31 that courtyard sites were multifunctional and ›served […] social / cultural, judicial, ritual and military purposes and as places of trade / handicra‹ is convincing. My own research of the courtyard sites in Hålogaland,32 Trøndelag,33 Sogn and Fjordane34 and of selected sites in Rogaland35 has shown a possible connection between the courtyard sites and administrative areas known from the 12th to 13th century onwards. The number of houses at these sites oen
28 J et al. (2011); S /S (2013); S (2017). 29 S /B (2008) 252–256; S /S (2013) 519–524; Ø- (2015); S (2017). 30 See S (2006; 2010); O (2013; 2014); G /S (2004); G (2010); B et al. (2011); and I (2015a; 2017a). 31 G /S (2004) 123. 32 I (2015a). 33 I (2017b). 34 I (2019a). 35 I (2015b; 2017a).
Frode Iversen 307 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch corresponds to the number of local assembly units within historically docu- mented areas; this suggests that each local community had its own booth at the site, just as the system seems to have functioned in Iceland with a possible correspondence between the number of booths and the number of parishes.36 This correspondence indicates a representational system with attending dele- gations from a fixed number of cooperating communities. It also provides a possibility for new insights into the collective and decision-making processes in past societies of northern Europe and allows for more precise dating of societal formation processes during the first millennium than has hitherto been possible. When investigating the courtyard sites of western Scandinavia further in this paper, I will distinguish between (1) central sites for internal communication among the members of a tribe and (2) border sites where delegates from multiple tribes met, negotiated and made agreements. I will also evaluate the size of the sites and the potential areas they had authority within. Finally, I will evaluate the changing distribution of these courtyard sites in time and space.
Results In the following results, the courtyard sites are present from south to north, starting in Agder and ending in Hålogaland. It is of great importance that the courtyard sites distribute to three larger patriae recorded 1150–75, namely, the Gulatingslag, Frostatingslag and Hålogaland. Furthermore, within these three patriae, 26 shires (»folklands« / provinces) existed, i. e., Rogaland (the land of the Rugii) and Hordaland (the land of the Arochi). There are known courtyard sites in 15 of the recorded 26 shires in the 12th century in western Scandinavia. Based on the size and period of usage of the courtyard sites, there clearly existed several levels in the system: a top level, corresponding to shire assemblies; a middle level, corresponding to half-shire assemblies; and, in the case of a few sites, a quarter level. Some sites are more difficult to relate to known administrative units. There were 15 ship districts in the Agder shire in 1277. Two courtyard sites are known to exist in Agder: Oddernes and Spangereid. Due to old and limited excavations, the dating evidence is scanty. Pottery finds from the walls in Spangereid may indicate use in the early Iron Age. 37 Finds and four radio- carbon datings from the Oddernes indicate use in the early Roman period (1–200 AD).38 In the Early Middle Ages, the Agder shire was divided into two half-shires: North Agder and East Agder, bordering between Kaddeland and
36 V (2013). 37 G (2010) 132. 38 G (2010) 130.
308 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Kalleland ship districts.39 North Agder may have included Råbyggelag (3 units). If so, there were, in total, 10 ship / thing-districts in North Agder and five in East Agder. Stylegar40 suggests that the courtyard site at Spangereid (North Agder) had approximately 10 houses. The somewhat more dubious courtyard site at Oddernes (East Agder) had at least 5 houses.41 Therefore, it does not seem unreasonable that the two courtyard sites Spangereid and Oddernes served as half-shire assemblies for North-Agder and East-Agder, respectively. The matter is somewhat more complex in Rogaland. Here, we know of eight courtyard sites. The five dated sites were all in use from around the 2nd and 3rd centuries to the 6th and 7th centuries, while the Klauhaugane site was in use until around the year 800. There were 32 ship districts in Rogaland in 1277. The Dysjane site was large enough to house the main shire assembly for this shire, which Dysjane is central to. However, in previous research, it was proposed that the site only had 17–19 houses. Clearly, this number is misleading. A recent Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) scan indicates that there are 34 wall banks and potentially at least 30 houses, of which two or three were separated by inner walls (Fig. 2). This finding fits with a shire thing for the 32 units in Rogaland. Furthermore, Rogaland was divided into two half shires (Ryfylke, 18 units and Jæren, 14 units). The Leksaren site (14–15 houses) is central to the southern half- shire (Jæren, 14 units) and may have served as a half-shire assembly for J æren. According to the Gulathing Code (c. 1150), Rogaland was further subdivided into four quarters. The Øygarden site (10 houses) fits with the quarter it is central to (with 10 or 11 ship districts). Ritland in Suldal is located in Foldøy quarter (8 units). A large part of the Ritland site was removed before it was documented, and only three houses are known. At first glance, the Suldal ship district seems too remote to house an assembly site for Foldøy quarter. However, there is a large common for reindeer hunting close to the site, which is also by a major medieval crossroad. The Ritland site may have served as the quarter assembly for Foldøy. The remaining sites in Rogaland are more difficult to relate to particular administrative units. The Kota site is central to the Ryfylke half-shire but has only four houses. If the Kota site served as a half-shire assembly, we may assume that the attending delegates represented the three or four eights / quarters in Ryfylke and not the 18 ship districts. This must, however, be regarded as an uncertain hypothesis. A quarter of Øygarden was subdivided into two parts in the Late Middle Ages, corresponding to eights: Karmsund (4 units) and Hesby (6 units). Close to the southern border of the Hesby eight (6 units) lays the Skjelbrei site
39 S (1974) 31. 40 S (1999) 147–153. 41 G (2010) 131.
Frode Iversen 309 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch with 6 houses. The Skjelbrei location is practical if travelling to Dysjane for a larger meeting. Håvodl (with 5 houses) is close to the border of Dalane quarter (5 units). Also, Håvodl is practically located if the delegates from Dalane quarter needed to meet and coordinate their actions at a separate pre-meeting underway at the shire assembly at Dysjane. The large Klauhaugane site is not easily fitted with any known administrative units in R ogaland. It. consists of approximately 20 houses, the number of which equals the number of units in Jæren quarter (9 units) and the two neighbouring quarters (Dalane, 5 units and Hesby, 6 units). One could speculate whether this site was used for those three quarters only. There are not known courtyard sites in the Hordaland shire apart from that in Voss, which was one of the four quarters of Hordaland. Voss was further subdivided into eights. (The earliest reference of their existence is in a legal document from 1342 /or 1280–1299.)42 The Sausjord site (12 houses, AD 350– 550) is located east in Voss on the border of Aurland, which is one of the four quarters of the Sogn shire. The houses date to c. AD 350–550; however, traces of at least 135 cooking pits were discovered, of which only seven or eight have been dated. These pits suggest that the Sausjord site also functioned as a gathering place during the Viking Age and through the High Middle Ages.43 There were four ship districts in the Aurland quarter. The Sausjord site had 12 houses, and in total, there were twelve local communities in the two bordering societies. In 1769, the Voss area (which had a population of 5858) had over twice the population compared to the area corresponding to the medieval Aurland quarter (which had a population of 2777). A site of this size and this close to the border may have served as a meeting place for the twelve communities.44 The Gjerland site in Firda shire is located not far from the border of Sogn shire. At the site, four houses, datable to AD 200–600, have been excavated. According to Asle Bruen Olsen, there might have been four additional houses in the unexcavated areas close by. Each of these shires had four quarters, and the site at Gjerland would have been suitable for meetings among people coming from the eight quarter in Sogn and Firda. Alternatively, Gjerland had the same function as Sausjord, in that it was a meeting place for two bordering quarters in different shires. There were five ship districts in the Vik quarter in Sogn and, likewise, in the Brua quarter in Firda (Førde, Brandsøy,Vevring and Bremanger), adding up to eight units. Both interpretations are therefore possible.45
42 I (2019a). 43 O (2013). 44 I (2019a). 45 I (2019a).
310 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch Fig. 2: The courtyard site at Dysjane at Tinghaug, J æren. Photograph © Ragne Jonsrud, Arkeologisk Museum, Universitetet i Stavanger. LiDAR scan Dysjane 2016. Statens kartverk
Frode Iversen 311 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch The Hjelle site (AD 650–900) is also situated well as a meeting site for the quarters of Eid in Firda shire and Tønjum in Sogn shire. These quarters consisted of six (Eid quarter) and four (Tønjum quarter) ship districts, 10 units in total. Only three houses have been excavated at Hjelle. Based on the form and layout of the buildings, Asle Bruen Olsen46 has suggested that the site comprised eleven buildings. In conclusion, the size and location of the Hjelle site would make it suitable for a meeting place for the two quarters in different shires. Moving on to the Trøndelag area, in the mid-12th century, there were 11 shires within the Frostathing law area. A detailed investigation of the courtyard sites at Værem (13 houses), Skei (8 houses), Heggstad (4–5 houses) and Hustad (8 houses or more) (c. 600–1050) – set in relation to Øyrathing (established early 11th century) and Frostathing (the major law thing of Trøndelag) – establishes that the number of houses in the courtyard sites corresponds to the number of local administrative districts within the shires of Namdalen (13), Verdal (5), Sparbyggja (8) and, more uncertainly, Romsdalen (8).47 The Skei and Heggstad sites were still in use in the early 11th century and are the youngest sites in western Scandinavia. In contrast to the other law areas, the sites in Trøndelag lack evidence of usage during the early Iron Age. It is uncertain whether this is due to the lack of more comprehensive archaeological excavations or whether this is related to the later development of a tribal coalition. In Hålogaland, there were the 12–13 known courtyard sites (AD 200–900). In earlier studies, I have demonstrated that the number of houses at the sites corresponds to the number of local thing districts within shires and half-shires that was recorded in the Late Middle Ages.48 Prior to the 7th century, several small sites existed, which gradually became obsolete until only three large sites were le, each centrally located in a shire. A major shi occurred in the 10th century when the naval defence system (known as the leiðangr) was introduced and a new law thing for Hålogaland was later established at Steigen, Engeløya in the mid-region. I have argued that the former administrative landscape consisted of three shires, six half-shires and 44 local units, which were replaced by a single law area, 13 ship districts and 44 local units.
Conclusions Let us return to the questions set out above: How was legal cooperation among north-European communities formalised, maintained and memorised in the first millennium? How was decision-making performed, ritualised and sanc-
46 O (2013). 47 I (2017b). 48 I (2015a; 2015b).
312 Law-territories in Scandinavia: reflections of tribal coalitions elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch tioned? How stable were decision-making institutions, and what was their role in social and political developments? The thing was first described in detail by Cornelius Tacitus in AD 98 in Germania (ch. 39). He gives an impression of meeting sites as having a cultic, as well as a legal and military, function. 49 Tacitus’s description suggests that things were annual delegate-based meetings and, thus, accords with much later sources describing Saxony (Marklo) and Scandinavia.50 Whereas European assembly studies have generally suffered from a lack of archaeological material, the Norwegian courtyard sites offer rich cultural deposits, a clearly defined layout, houses with multiple phases, remarkable central mounds (possibly for speakers) that contain animal bones and traces of ritual feasting, and nearby grave mounds. Some sites present documented activities spanning more than a half millennium. The findings reflect human survival essentials for shorter stays: food and drink containers (ceramic vessels), slaughtered animals (animal bones), and food preparation tools (knives and slates). These findings differ from inventories normally found in permanently settled farmhouses, thus reflecting recurring short-term »camping« activities. The courtyard sites were not merely designed as meeting places for supra-local societies; their ground plans are physically shaped, it seems, to memorise the geography of participating communities. Nearly all the courtyard sites are surrounded by several large burial mounds, and some exhibit traces of feasting. The courtyard sites were places where local politics were acted out, together with cultic and military matters, as politics, religion and law were closely interwoven. These sites were also important as places for ancestral worship. We see a complex system with three to four levels. In my view, in pre- Christian times, military and judicial power were executed at the shire level. Many of the early sites are located close to shire borders, while other sites were centrally located in the shires, indicating different functions in external and internal communication and coordination. It may be of importance that the early three-level system of the courtyard sites (shire – half shire – quarter) coincide with three levels of military rank evidenced in the Danish bog finds such as in Illerup. I would like to suggest that the highest ranked military leaders were appointed by the shire things , or even were thing leaders themselves, and that the middle ranked leaders led or were appointed by the half shire things. In this context, the Bø courtyard site at Engeløya, Nordland is illustrative. Here a richly furnished 3rd century (C1b) grave located 30–40 meter from the courtyard site contained among other things a sword of Roman origin and a shield with bronze mounts associated with the middle rank in the Illerup
49 T (1898); I (2013). 50 E (2016).
Frode Iversen 313 elektronischer Sonderdruck nur zum persönlichen Gebrauch finds.51 Earlier I have argued that the Bø courtyard site was a half shire assembly for the Salten area52 which matches very well the military rank reflected in the grave. The top-level shire things seem to have had the longest duration, while smaller sites went out of use c. 550. This finding may indicate the growth of larger permanent alliance areas and larger political entities. While the Frankish kingdom took shape as early as the 6th century, we can discern the contours of royal power in western Scandinavia in the Merovingian and Viking periods (AD 550–1030). The question remains as to whether the regional variations in the timing of the abandonment of the courtyard site tradition – from Roga- land (8th century) to Sogn (9th century) and Hålogaland (9th century) to Trøndelag (10th century) – reflect the pace of the progress of political con- solidation, culminating in a trans-regional kingdom in the Viking period and earlier Medieval period. Inger Storli53 argues that the abandonment of the smaller courtyard sites in Hålogaland went hand in hand with the emergence of a superior political entity associated with the Jarls of Hålogaland. From the 7–8th centuries the courtyard sites in Hålogaland were reduced to three major sites linked with later-known power centres such as Bjarkøy, Steigen, and Tj øtta. I associate the further abandonment of these three sites with Hålogaland’s integration into the king- dom and the establishment of the leidang system in the 10th century, when new ship districts with wapentakes under monarchical rule superseded the earlier military functions of the courtyard sites. The Trøndelag was not fully integrated into the Norwegian kingdom until the last Earl of Lade was exiled from Trøndelag and Norway in c. 1015, and it is in this period the Trøndelag sites were abandoned. To conclude: the courtyard sites were places where local politics were acted out, where cultic and religious matters were part of the proceedings, as politics, religion and law were closely interwoven. The various shires cooperated on several levels, but the courtyard sites were not run by any higher, formal institution. These were places of local shire power. The later law areas of Gulathing, Frostathing and Hålogaland may reflect the geographical extent of the tribal coalitions at the time they were formed. However, tribal coalitions were flexible, and the shires were the main building blocks of this system.
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51 G /S (2004). 52 I (2015a). 53 S (2010).
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