The First Sparks and the Far Horizons Stirring up the Thinking on the Earliest Scandinavian Urbanization Processes – Again BY MATS MOGREN Mogren, Mats. 2013. The First Sparks and the Far Horizons. Stirring up the Thinking on Abstract the Earliest Scandinavian Urbanization Processes – Again. Lund Archaeological Review 18 (2012), pp. 73–88. The author stresses the need for new input into research on Early Medieval (6th–11th century) urbanization processes in Scandinavia. A multi-pronged approach is suggested, where the societal structure of the region and period must be re-evaluated using hitherto relatively untried theoretical tools, such as a heterarchical perspective, the heterogenetic- orthogenetic conceptual pair, and a deconstruction of the bewildering concept of central place. It also includes a necessary critique of the “power paradigm”, current for 30 years. It is further stressed that comparative material should be sought globally. The Swahili coast of East Africa and maritime Southeast Asia are presented as the most operative comparison regions, due to a number of similar traits shared by the three areas. Network building with the chosen areas aims at a shared future understanding of the causes of the first sparks of urbanization. Mats Mogren, The County Administrative Board of Scania, 205 15 Malmö. mats.mogren@ lansstyrelsen.se. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, Sandgatan 1, 223 50 Lund. [email protected] The paradigmatic nature of research someti- questioned. such a paradigm, or at least a line mes bears a certain resemblance to the labours of thought with certain paradigmatic features, of sisyphus. an understanding of a field of is the idea that the societal elite was decisive inquiry is gradually built up through lots of for the emergence of the earliest urban centres individual and collaborative work until it ac- in northern europe. This understanding is quires the shape of a paradigm. after a while part of a wider one, seeing society as a whole the debates enter a lull, most participants ack- during the period in question as explicitly hie- nowledge the understanding as valid, and si- rarchical. syphus himself, who has just reached the crest The line of thought was launched among of the hilltop, has a discreet smile on his face, historians in the 1970s and gathered conside- thinking that perhaps this time the task is ac- rable momentum within archaeology in the complished. That is the appropriate moment 1980s after the publication of a number of in- for zeus, if he values the dynamics and fresh- fluential dissertations and articles by historical ness of research, to push the stone downhill archaeologists in Lund and by the members again. of the research group connected to the project The paradigms sometimes seem to have Fra stamme til stat (Mortensen & rasmussen an astonishing longevity, without really being 1988, 1991) in denmark, to mention just a The FirsT sparks and The Far horizons 73 few of the most important advocates. still, sites like hodde, Vorbasse, and others may many take the hierarchical society and the ac- have had a population of up to 200 inhabi- tive role of the societal apex more or less for tants at any one time, which is equivalent to granted. That situation has to be stirred up a many smaller towns with charters from the bit. Late Middle ages and the early Modern pe- so much qualitative research has been car- riod in scandinavia. Certainly, just a few non- ried out on the societal structure and espe- agrarian households will not make an urban cially the early Medieval1 aristocracy during setting, so scale has some importance, but ur- the last 30 years or so, that any criticism may banity cannot be quantified in this way.i t is a seem utterly quixotic, but there are several as- very qualitative concept. pects of the paradigm that need questioning. For reasons of the comparison methodo- Three main aspects of early urbanization logy chosen in our study we also want a con- are at issue here. First of all, there is the con- cept that is operative outside of our limited cept itself and its temporal parameters and cultural setting. Urbanization as a concept trajectories in the scandinavian context. se- may sometimes seem elusive if we strive for condly, we must once again discuss the rela- a globally valid definition, and many resear- tionship of urbanization to power and societal chers have pointed out that trying to find the structure. and finally, we must find a new way lowest common denominators for phenome- forward. na called urban in widely different parts of the world is futile, but i maintain that we must keep trying; we must finally rid ourselves of An elusive concept the spectre of Max Weber before we can leap forward. This is also the reason why i avoid This is not the place to repeat the well-known criteria lists, which more often than not are ut- history of definition attempts in urbanization terly eurocentric. Towards the end of this text research. i trust that readers are well acquain- an operative level of comparison is suggested. ted with this more than century-old discus- For these reasons, my own definition is sion. suffice it to say that the main distin- kept simple. a place or area is becoming ur- guishing features of the discussion have been ban when a substantial number of people move the varying hypotheses on the causes of the together to meet two or more non-agrarian emergence of urban sites and the criteria for needs, in a context of social plurality. The lat- urbanization. ter parameter is of special importance in the Urbanization is not seen here as a mo- early Medieval period for distinguishing sites nolithic, unilinear concept. We must reckon that are in some respect urban from magnate’s with multiple urbanization processes, with residences, which will be apparent later on in differing characteristics, at work simultan- the text. eously or one after the other. The primary in downplaying morphology and structure parameters are function, with its connected you open up for the possibility of an urban concept of agency, and another factor of pa- site being seasonal and/or agglomerated/poly- ramount importance is communication (e.g. morphous. This is necessary if you are on the sindbæk 2007a; 2007b; 2008). parameters quest for the very first ignition of the process such as morphology and structure should be of urbanization in a certain region, the first regarded as secondary. sparks. population size, on the other hand, cannot another conceptual straitjacket can be av- have been decisive. Large danish iron age oided by regarding urban sites as not neces- 74 MaTs MoGREN sarily permanent features. The reason why we many other publications), and other sites with tend to think about permanence as natural evidence for ceremonial activities provided us and put all our efforts into explaining dis- with an embarrassment of riches never before continuities is of course the high Medieval seen in scandinavian archaeology, and when stone- and brick-built town and the inertia it one magnate’s residence site from the early provides, but a more fruitful approach to early Medieval period after the other enriched urbanization would be to turn the discussion our record, then the need to include this in upside-down and regard discontinuities as a a general discussion of the transformation of state of normality and instead try to explain north european society became evident, and relative permanence when it occurs. This imp- the term central place was coined. We have all lies that, while i more or less agree with Ma- used it, but do we know what it means? teusz Bogucki (2010) that the northern trade it may seem that my criticism of the con- and craft sites were not one leap in a long tra- cept is like preaching to the choir. Certainly, jectory from the urban centres of antiquity a well-informed and creative discussion has to the high Medieval town (hence no “proto- been current for some time (e.g. näsman towns”), but part of an independent urbaniza- 2011), and i make no claim to originality in tion process,2 i tend to disagree with his state- criticizing the concept, but it is important for ment that they were a cul-de-sac. interrupted all of us to establish a benchmark by repea- development was the natural state of things. ting the critique. “Central place” is the sort What needs to be explained, again, is the of cautionary term that comes to mind when fact that the establishments of the 10th–12th you understand that you have to widen your centuries lingered on. all this being said, it is scope, but actually do not understand fully evident that, at the end of the day, urbaniza- what you are talking about. no harm in that, tion and urbanity are very abstract concepts. at the outset of the discussion, but when the Maybe that is why we sometimes mix them term continues to be in use one long decade up with other phenomena. after another it will bewilder your thinking. it is high time to deconstruct this concept and instead try to understand what it comprises A bewildering concept and define its parts, at least if it is urbaniza- tion that is our concern. some decades ago, it became evident that Analytically, urban sites, magnates’ resi- medieval urbanization did not start at the ear- dences and ceremonial/religious centres are liest stratigraphical levels of the still existing three different phenomena. sometimes, and towns. a plethora of sites popped up that po- indeed quite often, they combine. a magnate’s sed a problem.