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Emporia (early Medieval)
An emporium (plural: emporia) was one of the trading settlements that emerged in Northwestern Europe in the 6th to the 7th centuries and persisted into the 9th century. Also known in English as wics, they were characterised by their peripheral locations, usually on the shore at the edge of a kingdom, their lack of infrastructure (containing no churches) and their short-lived nature. By 1000, the emporia had been replaced by the revival of European towns. Examples include Dorestad, Quentovic, Gipeswic, Hamwic, and Lundenwic (for which see Anglo-Saxon London) at the North Sea, as well as Haithabu, Jumne and Truso on the Baltic Sea. Their role in the economic history of Western Europe remains debated. Their most famous exponent has been the British archaeologist Richard Hodges. See also * -wich town References * Anderton (Mike) (ed.). Anglo-Saxon Trading Centres: Beyond the Emporia. Cruithne Press. Glasgow. 1999. * Crabtree (Pamela J.) (ed.). Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia. Rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northwestern Europe
Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern and Western Europe. The region can be defined both geographically and ethnographically. Geographic definitions Geographically, Northwestern Europe usually consists of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Northern France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Switzerland, Finland, and Austria are also often considered part of Northwestern Europe. Southern France is not regarded as northwestern, as it is usually geographically and culturally considered part of the Mediterranean region or Southern Europe. Ethnographic definitions Germanic languages are widely spoken in most of Northwestern Europe, although other languages are also present, including Romance languages in Northern France, Southern Belgium, Luxembourg, and some parts of Switzerland; Celtic languages along the western fringes of the British Isles and in Brittany; and Ur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
-wich Town
A "-''wich'' town" is a settlement in Anglo-Saxon England characterised by extensive artisanal activity and tradean " emporium". The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix , signifying "a dwelling or fortified place". Such settlements were usually coastal and many have left material traces found during excavation. Eilert Ekwall wrote: As well as ''-wich'', ''-'' was the origin of the endings and , as, for example, in Papplewick, Nottinghamshire. Four former "-''wīc'' towns" are known in England as the consequence of excavation. Two of these Jorvik (Jorwic) in present-day York and Lundenwic near Londonare waterfront sites, while the other two, Hamwic in Southampton and Gipeswic (Gippeswic) in Ipswich are further inland.R. Hodges, ''The Anglo-Saxon Achievement: archaeology and the beginnings of English society'', 1989:69–104; and, as emporia, C. Scull, "Urban centres in pre-Viking England?" in J. Hines, ed. ''The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorestad
Dorestad (''Dorestat, Duristat'') was an early medieval emporium, located in the southeast of the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, close to the modern-day town of Wijk bij Duurstede. It flourished during the 8th to early 9th centuries, as an important port on the northeastern shipping routes due to its proximity to the fork in the Rhine, with access to Germany via the Nederrijn (the northernmost branch of the Rhine), to the southern Netherlands, northern France, and England (via the Lek), and to the northern Netherlands, northern Germany, and Scandinavia (via the Kromme Rijn). History The township was established at the base of the former Roman fortress of ''Levefanum'' in the 7th century. The Frankish Carolingian Empire and the Frisians fought for control of the territory, until the Franks gained control of the Frisian Coast in 719. Dorestad flourished between the 7th century and the mid-9th century. The settlement was well known for minting coins under the control o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quentovic
Quentovic was a Frankish emporium in the Early Middle Ages that was located on the European continent close to the English Channel. The town no longer exists, but it was thought to have been situated near the mouth of the Canche River in what is today the French commune of Étaples. Archaeological discoveries led by David Hill in the 1980s found that the actual location of Quentovic was east of Étaples, in what is now the commune of La Calotterie. It was an important trading place for the Franks and its port linked the continent to England, specifically to the southeastern county of Kent. From what we know today, Quentovic was founded by a Neustrian king in the early 6th century. It was one of the two most prominent Frankish ports in the north (the other being Dorestad) until it was abandoned, probably in the 11th century. Merchants were drawn to this place because the number of trading posts at the time was limited. Quentovic was also the place where Anglo-Saxon monks would cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon London
The history of Anglo-Saxon London relates to the history of the city of London during the Anglo-Saxon period, in the 7th to 11th centuries. Romano-British ''Londinium'' had been abandoned in the late 5th century, although the London Wall remained intact. There was an Anglo-Saxon settlement by the early 7th century, called ''Lundenwic'', about one mile west of Londinium, to the north of the present Strand. Lundenwic came under direct Mercian control in about 670. After the death of Offa of Mercia in 796, it was disputed between Mercia and Wessex. Viking invasions became frequent from the 830s, and a Viking army is believed to have camped in the old Roman walls during the winter of 871. Alfred the Great reestablished English control of London in 886, and renewed its fortifications. The old Roman walls were repaired and the defensive ditch was recut, and the old Roman city became the main site of population. The city now became known as ''Lundenburg'', marking the beginning of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haithabu
Hedeby (, Old Norse ''Heiðabýr'', German ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the most important archaeological site in Schleswig-Holstein. Around 965, chronicler Abraham ben Jacob visited Hedeby and described it as, "a very large city at the very end of the world's ocean." The settlement developed as a trading centre at the head of a narrow, navigable inlet known as the Schlei, which connects to the Baltic Sea. The location was favorable because there is a short portage of less than 15 km to the Treene River, which flows into the Eider with its North Sea estuary, making it a convenient place where goods and ships could be pulled on a corduroy road overland for an almost uninterrupted seaway between the Baltic and the North Sea and avoid a dangerous and time-consuming circumnavigation of Jutl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumne
Wolin (Polish pronouciation: ; formerly german: Wollin) is a town in northwestern Poland, situated on the southern tip of the Wolin island off the Baltic coast of the historic region of Western Pomerania. The island lies at the edge of the strait of Dziwna in Kamień County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The town, now a fishing port and gateway to the island's bathing resorts, has a population of approximately 4,900. Dating from the 9th century, it has been associated with the semi-legendary settlements of Jomsburg, Jumne, Julin and Vineta.Johannes Hoops, Herbert Jankuhn, Heinrich Beck, ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde Band 16'', 2nd edition, Walter de Gruyter, 2000, pp.120-121, It played an important role in the conversion of Pomerania and in 1140 became the first see of the Pomeranian diocese. Several ruins from the Slavic period occupy the area. The early medieval town fell victim to the late 12th century Danish raids, and was refounded in 1260. History The ford ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truso
Truso was a Viking Age port of trade (emporium) set up by the Scandinavians at the banks of the Nogat delta branch of the Vistula River, close to a bay (the modern Drużno lake), where it emptied into the shallow and brackish Vistula Lagoon. This sizeable lagoon is separated from the Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit at the southern Baltic Sea coast. In the 9th century, the merchant Wulfstan of Hedeby travelled to Truso in the service of the English King Alfred the Great and wrote his account of the place at a prominent location of the Amber Road, which attracted merchants from central and southern Europe, who supplied the markets in the Mediterranean and the Middle East with the highly valued commodity. The account of the voyage to the town of Truso in the land of the ''Pruzzens'' around the year 890 by Wulfstan of Hedeby has been included in Alfred the Great's translation of Orosius' ''Histories''. Moreover, Wulfstan named Truso as being near ''Estmere'' (which is his rendition of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean world, the Roman Empire (Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire), and medieval "Christendom" (Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity). Beginning with the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery, roughly from the 15th century, the concept of ''Europe'' as "the West" slowly became distinguished from and eventually replaced the dominant use of "Christendom" as the preferred endonym within the region. By the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, the concepts of "Eastern Europe" and "Western Europe" were more regularly used. Historical divisions Classical antiquity and medieval origins Prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. As the Roman domain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Hodges (archaeologist)
Richard Hodges, (born 29 September 1952) is a British archaeology, archaeologist and past president of The American University of Rome. A former professor and director of the Institute of World Archaeology at the University of East Anglia (1996–2007), Hodges is also the former Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia (October 2007- 2012). His published research primarily concerns trade and economics during the early part of the Middle Ages in Europe. His earlier works include ''Dark Age Economics'' (1982), ''Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe'' (1983) and ''Light in the Dark Ages: The Rise and Fall of San Vincenzo Al Volturno'' (1997). Academic career Hodges’s academic career has focussed upon the archaeology of the later Roman world and the early Middle Ages in western Europe. Many of his excavations and publications have highlighted the transformation of classical antiquity and the birth of Europ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Society
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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