Paviken trading center

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The Paviken trading post - a former seaport on the west coast of the Swedish island of Gotland - was partially excavated and examined by Per Lundström between 1967 and 1983. The Viking Age settlement stretched near the mouth of the Idån River in the Paviken Bay. The trading post was about one and a half kilometers north of the Västergarn trading post and about a day's march (30 km) south of the Visby trading post . The abundant imported goods testify to extensive contacts both to Europe and to the Orient . The results of the excavation and the analysis of the findings laid the basis for research into the early trading centers.

Paviken

Find description

The trading center (also called Paviken I) with the settlement was partially investigated from 1967 to 1983. The Viking Age settlement stretched in the area of ​​the mouth of the Idån watercourse - which at that time drained the now drained Vikmoor (Vikmyr) - into the bay of Paviken, of which only a shallow lake remains today. Until the 10th century, Paviken I was a seaport in this bay, the entrance to which was about a hundred meters wide at the narrowest point. Paviken I was about one and a half kilometers north of the semicircular wall of Västergarn. The seaport was last used by the Vikings. The excavated imported goods testify to far-reaching trade relations with the Baltic States , the Rhineland and England , Italy and Northern Scandinavia as well as with the Middle East .

Per Lundström's investigation took place in the angle formed by the Idån river and the eastern beach of Pavikens. About one-seventh of the total area of ​​the settlement area, about one and a half hectares in size, was examined, with about 10,000 finds being made on this flat gravel ridge. The majority of the finds were seen by Lundström in connection with mainland Sweden. It is possible that the Stora Karlsö , a well-frequented port during the Viking Age, served as a trading post between mainland Sweden and Gotland Island. A temporary settlement of craftsmen and traders from mainland Sweden on Gotland is also conceivable.

The finds in Paviken show the typical range of types for such trading venues; Haiðaby , Kaupang and Ribe are comparable . In detail, the find material from the culture layer, which is only 20 to 30 centimeters thick, gave evidence of fishing and a boatyard as well as blacksmithing, metal, garnet and almandine processing and the production of glass beads . The building structures, which were only partially developed, were aligned along the river bank.

Sea trading place

Viking trading centers

Paviken I is one of the most important sea trading centers of the Vendel and Viking ages . Long before Lübeck and other cities of the Hanseatic League were founded on the Baltic Sea, the ports of Paviken and Fröjel, and later Visby on Gotland, were a fulcrum of goods traffic between the trading centers of Northern and Central Europe. It was made by sea from the Norwegian Kaupang and Avaldsnes (on Karmøy ), Swedish Birka and Sigtuna , Dutch Dorestad , from the then Danish Haiðabu, from Ribe and Tissø, and from Franconian Quentovic to Jomsburg (Vineta), Ralswiek , Reric , Truso and Wiskiauten on the southern Baltic coast, to Novgorod in Russia and to Seeburg in the Baltic States.

As with the sea trading centers at the same time, Paviken did not develop directly on the sea coast, but protected in the area of ​​a natural harbor. Although the settlement was inland, it was close to the coast and accessible via a waterway, the Västergarn River. In the 1980s, the remains of a pile barrier that secured access were found in the water. From Paviken it was also possible to ship inland.

The land uplift in the last millennium has changed the waterway system significantly, the former beach line was about two and a half meters above the current line, so that the distance between the settlement and the shore is currently up to 150 meters. The land uplift is seen by research as the reason that the port lost its importance in the Middle Ages . The trading center was abandoned at the end of the 10th century and the place was destroyed by fire. Apparently, according to one thesis, Västergarn, only one and a half kilometers south of Paviken - where a semicircular wall and the location suggest a Viking square - probably in competition with Visby, took over the sea trade.

Both Visby and Paviken and the neighboring town of Västergarn are on the west coast of Gotland near the prehistoric site of Roma . Other Gotland trading centers at the same time and even before the Vendel period were Bandlundeviken, Bogeviken and Fröjel. Before the land elevation, however, Paviken was probably one of the most attractive sea trading centers on Gotland due to the flat shore in a protected harbor bay with a pole barrier, which also enabled further transport by ship to the inland. In addition, the advantageous settlement location Pavikens offered access to the fresh water of Idån, dry land on a slight hill and a good connection to the central town of Roma.

Findings

Arabic coins: 7th century Sassanid drachmas

The fishing is attested by numerous fish hooks and fish fork tips at the site. About one - of a shipyard than 2000 rivets or Nietplatten and further tools are more grains for removing rivets and sharp chisel, a tool with two jaws (a so-called Kuhfuß) - obtained. Two elongated, flat hollows are conceived as a ship towing system.

Iron processing (evidenced by slag and iron ingots), bronze casting (evidenced by bronze ingots, casting residues and crucible fragments, such as a fragment with adhering gold drops and lead scrap) as well as bone processing (raw material and semi-finished products of combs , game pieces and dice ) could be identified as handicrafts. The findings also include whetstones made from Gotland sandstone or imported slate. The amber processing is proven by unprocessed raw material and numerous pearls made of amber. The 270 raw grenades that were collected in Paviken stand out, plus some cut pieces of almandine or garnet. The density of finds suggests a workshop or warehouse. Raw materials imported from the Mediterranean region, such as glass vessels and mosaic stones - tesserae - made of colored glass paste and clear glass, provide evidence of local pearl production. Fragments of hacked silver and around a hundred complete and fragmented coins, mostly of Arab origin, were found all over the settlement area .

Mosaic cube

Tesserae or mosaic stones

The pieces of glass found in Paviken are interpreted as raw materials imported from the Mediterranean region. These raw pieces - around 70 fragments of glass vessels and 42 mosaic stones (tesserae) made of colored glass paste or clear glass, one of which is covered with gold foil - were intended for local pearl production. This is proven by the findings on intermediate products such as glass melt, drops or sticks. Such workshops at Viking Age trading centers also existed in Haiðaby and Ribe as well as in Kaupang in Norway. This type of workshop is typical of the early urban settlements of the Viking Age in northern Europe, but they also occur on the continent, for example in the Palatinate complex in Paderborn , in Rome and in San Vincenzo al Volturna (monastery workshops) in southern Italy.

In the early Middle Ages, antique mosaics became important as a raw material for the manufacture of glass beads. The reusable mosaic stones from former antique wall or ceiling mosaics in the Roman provinces and directly in Italy or from the early Christian mosaic workshops have been traded in the 'early urban' trading centers in the North and Baltic Sea regions since the 7th century, where they were processed into pearls and Ring jewelry. Theophilus Presbyter , author of a Latin script in which various handicraft techniques of the Middle Ages are presented in detail, still speaks around 1100 of “mosaic stones made of opal white, green, saffron yellow, blue, red and purple glass mass, which come from 'the old houses of the pagans' should". These are probably mosaic stones from ruined Roman facilities that were remelted and reused.

Tesserae were found as amulets in northern European grave finds from the late 7th century. Such tesserae were also found at the Viking Age trading centers Haiðaby, Ribe and Aggersborg on Jutland , Stånga Annex and Paviken on Gotland, in Helgö and Birka in central Sweden, in Åhus in southern Sweden and in Kaupang in Norway. According to Heiko Steuer, the Tesserae in the northern European workshops probably came mainly from northern Italy until the 10th century.

On the continent, glass mosaic stones were found in San Vincenzio al Volturno in southern Italy, some of which were fused to the bottom of a crucible. They are said to come from Rome, from older Roman mosaics from the end of the 5th century. The melted glass cubes were demonstrably used to color the glass masses used elsewhere. The dating is based on traces of antimony , which was only used in Roman glass production until the 5th century. Different colored glass tesserae and drops as well as slag from Mediterranean soda-glass raw glass were also present in the glass workshops of the Palatinate in Paderborn. The mosaic cubes evidently served to change the color of the glass melt. Colors like green, blue, yellow, dark red and pink were achieved. In Paderborn, both Mediterranean soda-lime glass (such as the mosaic cubes) and local wood ash glass were processed. Crucibles and approx. 70 tesserae made of soda-lime glass of Roman origin were found in the workshop.

Hacked silver

Crushed Arab silver coins from a Viking Age find on the Baltic coast of the Baltic Sea

In Paviken, fragments of hacked silver and around 122 (complete and cut) coins were found all over the settlement area. The majority are Arabic coins from the 10th century. The oriental coins comprise six Sassanid drachms of the 7th and 8th centuries and 119 dirhems , including 41 safe and 13 questionable dirhems of the Samanids .

The typical hacked silver hoards of the Viking Age consist of an ensemble of dismembered and unbroken coins, bars, jewelry and other silver items. The coins in these hoards , dated from the 7th to the second half of the 10th century, are usually of Arab origin. Research suggests the fragmentation in connection with the use of silver as a means of payment. As Wiechmann says: "Since both coins and jewelry appear in unfragmented and cut pieces, it is postulated that the denomination was carried out intentionally according to a certain system and not by chance."

The island of Gotland has a considerable amount of silver finds from the Viking Age by northern European standards. Often it is hacked silver. Per Lundström found that the results in the Gotland hoard finds are on average larger and heavier than in mainland Sweden.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Horst-Wolfgang Böhme : Thoughts on the early market and trading centers in southern Scandinavia. In: Ernst Pohl, Udo Recker , Claudia Theune (eds.): Archäologisches Zellwerk. Contributions to cultural history in Europe and Asia. Festschrift for Helmut Roth on his 60th birthday . (= International Archeology . Studia honoraria 16.). 2001, pp. 483-498.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Heiko Steuer :  Paviken. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 22, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017351-4 , pp. 537-538.
  3. ↑ Kerstin Cassel, Eva Nyman:  Västergarn. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018387-0 , pp. 6-8.
  4. ↑ Per Lundström: Paviken I near Västergarn. Port, trading center and shipyard . In: Herbert Jankuhn et al. (Ed.): Pre- and early forms of the European city . 1974.
  5. ↑ See Elisabeth Almgren: Utgrävningen i Norderhamn . In: Stora Karlsö . 1976, pp. 13-15; Elisabeth Almgren-Aiken: Stora Karlsö - rastplats eller frihamn? In: Arkeologi på Gotland . 1979, pp. 169-172.
  6. ^ Heiko Steuer :  Sea trading places. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 28, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018207-6 , pp. 20-25.
  7. ↑ Kerstin Cassel, Eva Nyman:  Västergarn. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018387-0 , p. 7.
  8. ↑ Horst-Wolfgang Böhme: Thoughts on the early market and trading centers in southern Scandinavia. In: Ernst Pohl, Udo Recker, Claudia Theune (eds.): Archäologisches Zellwerk. Contributions to cultural history in Europe and Asia. Festschrift for Helmut Roth on his 60th birthday . (= International Archeology . Studia honoraria 16.). 2001, p. 494.
  9. ↑ See the findings in Truso : Marek F. Jagodziński:  Truso. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 31, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018386-2 , pp. 291-295.
  10. ↑ On the Scandinavian origin of the Almandine: Birgit Arrhenius:  Granat. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 12, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , p. 587.
  11. ↑ a b c See Heiko Steuer :  Mosaik §5. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 20, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017164-3 , pp. 260-262.
  12. ↑ See Lars Jørgensen : Bækkegård and Glasergård. Two Cemeteries from the Late Iron Age on Bornholm . 1990
  13. ↑ a b Birgitta Hårdh:  Hacksilber. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 13, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1999, ISBN 3-11-016315-2 , pp. 256-262.

literature

  • Horst-Wolfgang Böhme : Thoughts on the early market and trading centers in southern Scandinavia. In: Ernst Pohl, Udo Recker, Claudia Theune (eds.): Archäologisches Zellwerk. Contributions to cultural history in Europe and Asia. Festschrift for Helmut Roth on his 60th birthday . (= International Archeology . Studia honoraria 16). Rahden 2001, pp. 483-498.
  • Johan Callmer : Urbanization in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region c. AD 700-1000. In: Björn Ambrosiani, Helen Clarke (Eds.): Developments around the Baltic and the North Sea in the Viking Age . Stockholm 1994, pp. 50-90.
  • Per Lundström: Paviken I near Västergarn. Port, trading center and shipyard. In: Herbert Jankuhn et al. (Ed.): Pre- and early forms of the European city. Goettingen 1974.
  • Per Lundström: De Kommo vida. Vikingars hamn vid Paviken på Gotland. Stockholm 1981.
  • Erik Sperber: The weights found at the Viking age site of Paviken, a metrological study . In: Fornvännen 84. 1989, pp. 129-134.
  • Heiko Steuer :  Paviken. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 22, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017351-4 , pp. 537-538.
  • Lena Thunmark-Nylén: Gotland's Viking Age. In: Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academies. Stockholm 2006, ISBN 91-7402-355-1 .

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Coordinates: 57 ° 27 ′ 17 ″  N , 18 ° 8 ′ 27 ″  E