• Viking Dorestad: A Haven for Hydrarchy?

    Author(s):
    Christian Cooijmans (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    Early Medieval
    Subject(s):
    Archaeology, Middle Ages, History, Economic history
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    conceptual models, Dorestad, hydrarchy, Medieval Low Countries, Early medieval archaeology, Early medieval history, Viking age
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/xbme-xq10
    Abstract:
    For over a century and a half, the assorted activities of viking hosts in and around the site of Dorestad have been subject to careful deliberation and debate, increasingly illuminating the early Scandinavian influence on this regional riverine landscape. Nevertheless, the material evidence for a ninth-century viking presence inside the settlement itself remains restricted, a shortfall which continues to tempt scholars to speculation when broaching the broader concept of a 'viking Dorestad'. Likewise, even though a notable corpus of documentary evidence affirms the local attendance and influence of Scandinavian agents in Dorestad, it is still largely unclear what this presence would have entailed in practice. As well as reiterating the documented and otherwise attested viking endeavour around Dorestad, this chapter examines these developments against a wider conceptual canvas of Franco-Scandinavian interaction, wherein viking fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities - or 'hydrarchies'. In doing so, it will allow these events to be more easily juxtaposed and judged against analogous processes of external encroachment across the European mainland, whilst providing greater insight into the strategies and motivations that governed them.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    Sidestone Press
    Pub. Date:
    2021
    Book Title:
    Dorestad and its Networks: Communities, Contact and Conflict in Early Medieval Europe
    Author/Editor:
    Annemarieke Willemsen, Hanneke Kik (eds.)
    Page Range:
    19 - 28
    ISBN:
    9789464260038
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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