THE SOCIETY FOR MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY MONOGRAPH 41 Series Editors ALEJANDRA GUTIÉRREZ GABOR THOMAS NEGOTIATING THE NORTH: MEETING-PLACES IN THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE NORTH SEA ZONE First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Sarah Semple, Alexandra Sanmark, Frode Iversen, and Natascha Mehler; individual sections, the contributors The right of Sarah Semple, Alexandra Sanmark, Frode Iversen, and Natascha Mehler to be identifed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISSN: 0583-9106 ISBN: 978-0-367-49311-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-04566-3 (ebk) Publisher’s Note This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by Sarah Semple, Alexandra Sanmark, Frode Iversen and Natascha Mehler The Society for Medieval Archaeology www.medievalarchaeology.co.uk Cover: Aerial photograph of the thing site at Anundshg, the proposed early top-level assembly of Västmanland in Sweden. Photograph by Daniel Lwenborg NEGOTIATING THE NORTH: MEETING-PLACES IN THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE NORTH SEA ZONE By SARAH SEMPLE ALEXANDRA SANMARK FRODE IVERSEN and NATASCHA MEHLER with HALLDIS HOBÆK, MARIE ØDEGAARD AND ALEXIS TUDOR SKINNER 2021 v CONTENTS List of figures . vii Preface . xi Summary . xv Acknowledgements . xvii Abbreviations . xviii 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Summary 1.2 Introduction 1.3 The thing 1.4 The value of studying early medieval assembly 1.5 The scope of this volume 2 Research histories . 24 2.1 Summary 2.2 Genesis: Assemblies and national consciousness 2.3 Romanticism, nationalism and the thing 2.4 Research traditions 1900 to present day 2.5 Conclusion 3 Methods and approaches . 58 3.1 Summary 3.2 Written sources 3.3 Mapping the thing 3.4 Limitations 4 Lawthings and inauguration sites in Scandinavia . 71 4.1 Summary 4.2 Reconstructing the thing system in Scandinavia 4.3 The laws, law provinces and things 4.4 The provincial thing sites in Scandinavia 4.5 Royal inauguration sites in Scandinavia 4.6 Discussion 5 Landscapes of law in Norway . 135 5.1 Summary 5.2 Introduction 5.3 The Norwegian kingdom: The historic thing system 5.4 The Borgarthing law province 5.5 Hålogaland law province 5.6 The Gulathing law province 5.7 Conclusions vi 6 Colonisation and control: Assembly systems in new territories . 180 6.1 Summary 6.2 Law and assembly in the Norse settlements 6.3 Iceland 6.4 Faroe Islands 6.5 Orkney and Shetland 6.6 The Danelaw 6.7 Discussion 7 Assembly and trade in Iceland and beyond . 232 7.1 Summary 7.2 Regulation and assembly in the Commonwealth Period 7.3 Regulation of trade in Iceland in the later Middle Ages 7.4 Trade and markets at the Icelandic local spring assemblies 7.5 Trade at the Icelandic general assembly of Þingvellir 7.6 The Icelandic model in context 7.7 Discussion 8 Things in the north . 248 8.1 Summary 8.2 The shadow of the past 8.3 Basic structures and beginnings? 8.4 Things in operation 8.5 Things in the landscape 8.6 Contemporary thing structures and features 8.7 Things in context 8.8 Kings, things and the church 8.9 Summary 9 Concluding thoughts . 291 Glossary . 299 Bibliography. 304 Index . 341 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Kingdoms/named political units in the north c. AD 1100. 1.2 Late Iron-Age tribes in northern Europe, as described by Tacitus in the 1st century AD. 1.3 Altar dedicated to Mars Thincsus and the Divinity of the Emperor, discovered at Housesteads Roman fort, Northumberland, England. 1.4 Runic inscription attesting to the thing, Aspa Lt, Sdermanland, Sweden. 1.5 The extent of Viking activity and interaction c. AD 1100. 1.6 The site of Tynwald Hill, Isle of Man. 1.7 The Assembly Project research regions and the location of our investigations. 1.8 The documented terms for the different types of administrative districts across all geographic areas studied. 1.9 The documented terms for the different types of thing sites across all geographic areas studied. 2.1 Jelling in Ole Worm’s Danicorum Monumentorum Libri Sex published in 1643. 2.2 The Forsa Rune Ring. 2.3 Þingvellir depicted in 1791, showing some booths. 2.4 The Stone of Destiny, used for the inauguration of English monarchs since its removal from Scone, Scotland, in 1296. 2.5 Pseudo-ancient monument at Abedare, Wales, constructed as a focus for the Gorsedd revival. 2.6 The assembly site at Árnes, Iceland. 2.7 Painting entitled ‘Aling (Althing) in Session’, 19th century. 2.8 The Thingstätte at Heidelberg, Germany. 2.9 The courtyard site at Leksaren at Reistad, Varhaug, Norway, was excavated by Jan Petersen 1938–39. It was in use in around AD 100–600. 2.10 The arrangements at the thing. After Brink 2004a, 210, fig. 9.2. 2.11 The medieval trading site of Gásir, northern Iceland, with booths and a church with circular enclosure. 2.12 Early medieval English palace complexes associated with assembly. 3.1 Norse terminologies for various things. 3.2 Example of map retrogression for Spellow Clump, East Riding, Yorkshire. 3.3 A site where excavation has revealed numerous hearths as well as standing monuments. Anundshg, Västmanland, Sweden. 3.4 LiDAR scan of the Law Ting Holm at Tingwall, Shetland. 3.5 List of attributes checked off at each site visit by The Assembly Project team. 3.6 Example of a photographic palimpsest. 180-degrees viewshed from the thing site í Ktlum in Noruroyar. 4.1 The law provinces of Sweden and Norway with the top-level assemblies. 4.2 The extent of the Law of Uppland. 4.3 The law province of Hälsingland. viii 4.4 Shifting assembly practices in Västmanland, Sweden. 4.5 Aerial photograph of the thing site at Anundshg, the proposed early top- level assembly of Västmanland. 4.6 3D reconstruction of the Anundshg-site. 4.7 The top-level assembly sites of the four lands of Hälsingland. 4.8 Map of Gamla Uppsala illustrating how the site was enclosed by a combination of the wooden monuments, watercourses and wetlands, as well as burials. 4.9 Suggested locations for the top-level thing sites of Attundaland. 4.10 Ullunda (‘the grove of the god Ull’), just west of modern Enkping, Sweden. 4.11 The location of the top-level assembly at Roma, Gotland. 4.12 Tingvalla, the top-level assembly in Värmland, Sweden. 4.13 Law provinces of Denmark with the top-level assemblies. 4.14 Lund, Sweden, and its surroundings. 4.15 Law provinces of Denmark with the top-level assemblies identified and labelled. 4.16 St Benedict’s Church, Ringsted, Denmark. 4.17 Seven or eight coastal towns in Norway partly or wholly attracted the functions of the rural lawthing. 4.18 View of the Gulathing. 4.19 Two large stone crosses may originally mark out the ‘thing peace’ area at the Gulathing. 4.20 Stemneb on the nearby island of Hisary, Norway. 4.21 Eide farm, Norway. 4.22 The Frostathing. 4.23 Sigar’s mound. 4.24 Frsn in Jämtland, Sweden. 4.25 The Eidsivathing law province prior to c. 1250. 4.26 The location of Mora thing in relation to the three folkland units of Uppland with their respective assemblies. 4.27 Mora thing. 4.28 The royal route of the Eriksgata through medieval Sweden with the top- level assembly sites and handover points along the route. 4.29 Denmark’s landsthings, also used for inaugurations. 4.30 ‘The thing stones’ (Tingstenene), located just outside St Benedict’s Church in Ringsted, Denmark. 4.31 Map of 1804 showing a straight road leading from the town of Hamar towards Disen and Åker, Norway. It may or may not be an old processional road. 4.32 Map of 1712 showing the medieval jurisdiction of Hamar town. 5.1 Patria or law provinces of coastal Norway: The coastal and mountain lands and the land of the Sámi. 5.2 Model showing the tiered relationships between named types of administrative unit in Norway. 5.3 The ssla districts and the county-churches of the Borgarthing. ix 5.4 The law districts c. 1200, divided into four fylkir (counties), with the thing sites mentioned in the text located. 5.5 The Borgarthing law province, divided in four law districts each with a law district thing connected to the towns or the administrative centres of Skien, Tnsberg, Oslo and Konghelle. 5.6 A detailed study of nine skipreiur in Borgarssla (present-day Østfold). 5.7 Thing sites in the skipreiur in Viken, Norway. 5.8 Lunde cooking-pit site under excavation, Norway. 5.9 A sequence of radiocarbon dates obtained from excavations of 30 pits at Lunde in Vestfold, Norway. 5.10 Location of the excavation of the southern mound at Haugathing, Norway.