Structure and organisation of the economy and society in the East Frisian coastal area during the early Middle Ages: The settlement area at Dunum, in the District of Wittmund, is taken as a regional model

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hauke Jöns
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2013 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235130850

The finds and features unearthed in the course of the archaeological study of settlements have shown that the communities settled in the southern part of the North Sea coastal region in the early Middle Ages played a special role in the organisation of supra-regional communication and trade. The extremely fertile pasture and arable land at the junction between the marshes and the areas of Pleistocene sandy soil permitted the production and processing of numerous agricultural commodities, far beyond the quantities required for mere subsistence. High-quality textiles were a particularly important item in the range of products. These textiles, known in contemporary sources as pallia fresonica, were traded via a wide-spread distribution network that covered large parts of central and northern Europe. Following a model generated by Detlev Ellmers, it is generally assumed that this trade was first organised by decentralized itinerant traders attached to feudal territories in the early Middle Ages and then developed into a system of trading centres with locally based professional craftsmen. However, the validity of this model has not been properly tested and neither a detailed analysis of the identifiable developments in the coastal regions during the early Middle Ages nor an investigation of the social and economic structures behind these developments has yet been undertaken. These are the subject of the project for which application is made here. The starting point is the area around Dunum, in the District of Wittmund, where a certain number of investigations into the vegetation, landscape and settlement history have already been carried out. During the early Middle Ages, this was a settlement area surrounded by lowlands and moors with direct access to the North Sea. Although there were at least eight separate settlements, the inhabitants buried their dead in a common graveyard from the 7th to 10th century, i.e. well beyond the phase of the first missionary efforts. The graveyard has already been almost completely investigated archaeologically. These earlier investigations revealed that the graves had been extensively covered by plaggen soil, which not only protected them from modern agricultural activity but also created a favourable chemical milieu for the preservation of metal grave goods and the organic substances adhering to them. The Dunum settlement area thus provides an excellent opportunity to test Ellmers above-mentioned model as well as to seek new information on the early medieval economy and the spiritual world attached to the countryside (imaginary landscapes) and their evolution. It can be assumed that the insights obtained within the framework of this project into the socio-cultural interaction among the inhabitants of this border area at the junction of the Pleistocene sandy soil and the marshes can be used as a model in understanding other settlement areas in the southern North Sea coastal region.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants