Uppåkra
Uppåkra [ ɵpˈoːkra ] is the name of an Iron Age settlement as well as an earlier rural parish and a church parish still in existence today in Skåne in southern Sweden , about five kilometers south of Lund in the area of today's Staffanstorp . A place called Uppåkra no longer exists today, but the settlement Bergströmshusen is also unofficially referred to as Uppåkra.
The Iron Age settlement
Uppåkra has been inhabited since the Stone Age because of its strategic location on a hill in the Skåne Plain and near an ancient land route . The oldest remains of a permanent settlement, however, date from the centuries around the turn of the ages. Just a few centuries later, Uppåkra was the largest settlement in Skåne or in southern Sweden . Researchers assume that around AD 400 it already had around 1,000 inhabitants and a town-like settlement structure. Uppåkra took up an area of about 0.66 km² and consisted of about 30 to 40 courtyards with a hall , living quarters and storage buildings, workshop houses and stables, which makes the place a center of wealth examined by the Zentralplatz research .
During the excavations from 1997 around 3000 objects came to light. These are fittings, coins, jewelry, guldgubbers and other things. Most of the material belongs to the epochs from the Germanic Iron Age to the Viking Age . The period from the 7th to 10th centuries is particularly well represented. Primarily fibulae and 10 denarii date from the older Iron Age. Among other things, around 60 Arabic coins are documented from the more recent periods . The material, especially in the form of molten lumps and the like, indicates metalworking. A good 100 weights and numerous chopped up Arabic coins are evidence of trade. Gold- plated pieces of jewelry , some with almandine inlays , speak for a high social level. Cultic finds like a figure of Odin suggest a religious function of the place. Overall, the material bears witness to a place with diverse functions that can be associated with a central square.
The people in Uppåkra lived mainly from agriculture and livestock . With the exception of iron, the metals were imported from Central Europe. Uppåkra (similar to Gudme ) may have acted as a trading center . And although so far only a small part of the site has been investigated, archaeologists assume that Uppåkra was a political, economic and religious center. It is even assumed that the place was the royal seat of an early Skåne empire.
From the middle of the 10th century, there are suddenly no more rich and varied finds to be found. The youngest Arab coin was minted around this time, and younger German and English coins only appear sporadically. The hall is burned down, the function is transferred to the nearby Lund after the unification of Denmark and Christianization . During the Middle Ages (1050 to 1500), Uppåkra appeared to be a rural settlement. Excavations have been carried out in nearby Lund for the past 100 years. It can now be said with certainty that the oldest layers date back to the 990s. Knowing this, it seems certain that with Uppåkra we have the forerunner of the city of Lund in front of us, which emerged against the pagan center Uppåkra.
Gullåkra
Two kilometers east of Uppåkra is the Gullåkra bog, which played an important role as a sacrificial bog during the Bronze and Iron Ages. A number of artefacts were discovered here, mainly in connection with the peat extraction. A lure from the late Bronze Age is known. Although most of the finds are from earlier times, there are items from the Uppåkra period including a bronze necklace and spearheads.
Uppåkra municipality
With the introduction of local self-government in 1862, municipalities (communes) were created in Sweden. The municipality of Stora Uppåkra also belonged to these approximately 2000 new municipalities. This name was changed to Uppåkra in 1923. The suffix Stora was superfluous as there was no other municipality with the name Uppåkra and the village of Lilla Uppåkra belonged to the municipality. In the course of the local reorganization of Sweden, Uppåkra became part of the Staffanstorp municipality in 1952.
Uppåkra parish
Uppåkra parish is one of two parishes belonging to the Church of Sweden in the area of Staffanstorp parish. It belongs to the diocese of Lund and the contract of Bara and was formed in 2002 through the amalgamation of the parishes of Uppåkra, Görslöv, Knästorp, Mölleberga, Särslöv and Tottarp . The churches of the same name all belong to the Uppåkra parish, as does the Flackarp cemetery , which also housed a church until 1865 but was demolished. The bells stack the Church of Flackarp was inaugurated in 1954 has been restored again, and the bell of the Church of Flackarp, which until then had hung in the church of Uppåkra, came back to their original location.
literature
- Lars Larsson, Birgitta Hårdh: Uppåkra - an Iron Age central place in southern Sweden . Early Medieval Studies, 1998.
- Karsten Kjer Michaelsen: Politics bog om Danmarks oldtid . Copenhagen 2002 ISBN 87-567-6458-8 , p. 254.
Web links
- Research project with digital copies of the studies (Swedish)
- Uppåkra församling (Swedish)
- A ceremonial building as a 'home of the gods'? Central buildings in the central place of Uppåkra
Coordinates: 55 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ N , 13 ° 10 ′ 12 ″ E