Fyrkat
| Viking castle Fyrkat | ||
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 Aerial view of the circular ramparts in Fyrkat |
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| Creation time : | Late Viking Age | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | small wall remains | |
| Construction: | Palisades, gates, ramparts (and ditches) | |
| Place: | at Hobro | |
| Geographical location | 56 ° 37 '23.5 " N , 9 ° 46' 13.6" E | |
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Fyrkat is the name of a circular Viking castle with a ring wall near the town of Hobro in Denmark . Fyrkat and the somewhat larger Trelleborg near Slagelse have so far been investigated best. Viking castles are not mentioned in the written sources.
Location and construction
The castle is located on a narrow headland in the brook valley of Osnild Å, a few kilometers from the Mariagerfjord near Hobro in North Jutland . In order to be able to build the castle on the headland, extensive backfilling work was necessary. It is not certain whether the castle was accessible by ship when it was built. The important road between Aalborg and Viborg ran nearby . Thanks to the terrain, the wall was a strong fortification, while the shallow ditch was of minor importance in terms of fortification. It was not completed. Access was through the west gate, in front of which there was a small “guard house”.
The facility measures 120 meters in diameter and was only laid out approximately symmetrically. In detail, it is noticeable that the position of the entrances, of which each house has two, changes. The houses had curved long sides. They were 28.5 meters long and 8.5 meters wide with a smaller width at the ends. About 66 large oaks were needed for one house. Inside, the houses had an 18-meter-long central hall and two small gable rooms with doors with a vestibule on the gable front and on the long sides. A Viking house, which was reconstructed in 1985, stands at the restored Fyrkat castle complex. The size of the buildings and the distribution of the hearths suggest that not all buildings were inhabited. Buildings without a fireplace are likely to have been storage rooms or stables. They were always directly inside the wall. In other houses gold, silver, bronze and iron were processed. During the excavations, a number of objects from everyday life came to light, which were discovered in the post holes, the moats and the houses. A large number of clay and wooden vessels, fishhooks, arrowheads, scissors, spindles and rotary mills, as well as tools and merchandise were found.
North of the castle is a burial ground with 29 graves. Most of them were arranged around a 40 meter long wooden structure, perhaps a boardwalk or a platform. It ran parallel to the east-west axis of the castle and was probably part of a comprehensive plan. One man's grave and three women's graves could be identified from the grave goods. Nine more are so small that they were probably children's graves. Two women were buried in car bodies. One of the women wore textiles interwoven with silver and gold and had many grave goods, including imports that prove contacts to the east. The coins are Danish-Nordic-Baltic as in Trelleborg.
Dating
Fyrkat, like the three other similar systems, is dendrochronologically dated to the reign of Harald Blauzahn between the years 970 and 980. The dating for the castle also applies to the burial ground.
The castle was only used for a short time, if at all. Typologically, the finds date from the end of the 10th century, the post holes show no signs of repair. The wall had sagged on the side of the embankment and was not replaced.
The plant burned down.
Vikingecenter Fyrkat open-air museum
In addition to the standardized "garrison house" built next to the ramparts in 1985, the farm of a large farmer was built about one kilometer away based on the findings of the excavations at Vorbasse , about 29 kilometers southwest of Jelling . In addition to the farmer's house, a long house completed in 1993 , there is a forge , a barn and other smaller outbuildings as well as a visitor center.
The facility is primarily used for museum educational activities and serves to convey the living environment of the Viking Age.
literature
- Karsten Kjer Michaelsen: Politics bog om Danmarks oldtid . Copenhagen 2002 ISBN 87-567-6458-8 , p. 76.
- Olaf Olsen: Fyrkat. A Viking camp in Jutland . National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen 1979, ISBN 8-74-800232-1 .
- Else Roesdahl : Fyrkat. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 10, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015102-2 , pp. 295-301.
See also
Web links
- Fyrkat homepage with pages about the Viking Center and the castle