Næs

a Viking Age settlement with flax production

Abstract

Næs - a Viking Age settlement with flax production

Excavations carried out in 1997-1999 on a pronounced foreland, bounded on its western side by the inlet of Avnø Fjord, showed that during the late German Iron Age and Viking Age, a farm was located in the middle of the highest part of the foreland. The farm consisted of a longhouse and several out­buildings (figs. 1-6). Four different phases of the farm were established. Seventy-nine pit­houses were found in connection with the houses, and along the edge of the foreland, at some distance from the farm, fifty-eight wells were found. Also, underneath the head of the foreland, a more than 150-metres long canal with wells for accumulating water was found. Several wells were unusually well pre­served, with many well casings still in position.

The jewellery found shows that the settlement existed two centuries at the most, from the second half of the 8th century until the 10th century (figs. 7-9). Niels Bonde from Nationalmuseets Naturvidenskabelige Undersøgelser has dated oak wood samples from two of the wells using dendrochronology. The dates obtained, 784 and 785, lie within the expected time frame.

The finds from the pit-houses show that these mainly functioned as workshops. In most pit-houses either loom weights or spindle whirls -or both- were found in the floor layers (fig. 11). Some bone needles and two seam-flatteners of glass were also found in this context (fig. 10). One reasonable and expected explanation to the overall function of the pit-houses is thus that they were huts for textile processing. In the backfilling, broken moulds and scrapped bronze, iron slag with traces of a bellow's nozzle, and small iron scales from forging show that bronze and ironwork also took place in the area, although not in the pit-houses themselves. As a rule, the backfilling also contains many bones and many sherds, as with everyday waste. Articles for everyday use, such as pottery, soap stone sherds, knives, and whet­stones also make up a large group of finds (figs. 12-13), whereas personal items such as beads, combs, and jewellery are few (figs. 7-9).

The wells contained large amounts of wooden objects such as building timber, a complete ladder, and unfinished wooden bowls. Raw material for comb making also occurred. However, the most important finds were bunches of flax stems, which suggest that the wells were used for retting in connection with linen production (figs. 14-16 and 19-25). Retting is the fermenting process during which the bast fibres are liberated from the hard, wooden parts of the stem. The 150-metres long canal was no doubt also connected to this process (fig. 17). This explains why the canal and the wells were constructed at some distance from the settlement, as the process results in an awful stench.

After having been retted, the flax fibres must be dried, partly to stop the retting process, partly to prepare it for breaking. The drying is a difficult affair and it usually takes place outdoors over a ditch. Near the north­western well area at Næs, several oblong ditches and pits with large amounts of charcoal and stones made brittle by fire were found. These should probably be interpreted as the remains of such breaking ditches (figs. 18 and 25).

The many spindle whirls from the pit­houses show that spinning on a large scale was carried out at Næs, and that this and the weaving took place in the pit-houses. In this context it is interesting that theories on the possible connection between linen production and the pit-houses were put forward earlier. In Denmark, pit-houses are known from the late Roman Iron Age. This house type became more ordinary during the Germanic Iron Age and ended up being an important element in settlements from the late German Iron Age and Viking Age. This development seems to parallel the introduction and diffusion of linen. The fact that the houses are sunken into the ground could be attributed to the fact that flax processing as opposed to wool processing requires high humidity.

The oldest find of flax so far is from the early Bronze Age period II:A single flax seed of the species Linum usitatissimum was found at the Bronze Age settlement of Bjerre Enge in Thy. Flaxseeds are more common in the finds from the pre-roman Iron Age, thus suggesting a more widespread cultivation of flax. Also, analysis of the stomach content of the two bodies from this time, the Grauballe Man and the Tollund Man, who were both preserved in Danish bogs, established the presence of flax seeds. Flax seeds have been registered at thirteen Danish settlements from the Roman Iron Age. Even more interesting is the fact that the oldest finds of linen fragments and linen impressions are from the early Roman Iron Age. From the early Germanic Iron Age there are sixty-six Danish textile finds, but none of them is flax. From the late Germanic Iron Age, flax seeds have been registered at only two sites, but the textiles found in graves show that a new dress fashion was being introduced at this time. The Danish finds mirror a change during this period from wool being the prevailing material in the Roman Iron Age and early Germanic Iron Age to linen making up a fifth of the total textile material in the late Germanic Iron Age.

The Næs site might have been defined as a small farm unit representing an ordinary agrarian settlement, had it not included such a large number of pit-houses and wells. However, the finds suggest a large-scale production of fibre textiles, which is best described as being of an industrial character.

The positioning of Næs close to the contemporary coast might reflect a function as a place of call. If this is the case, its probable purposes included the transhipment of goods, shipyard activity and fishing, crafts and trading with everyday goods. The transhipment is difficult to establish, whereas the presence of a large amount of "clinker nails" might suggest shipyard activity. However, these are not necessarily from ships. Fishing does not seem to have played a major part, as only one fishing hook and very few fish bones were found, in spite of the good preservation conditions. On well-defined places of call there is usually an element of crafts and perhaps trade. At Næs, production waste and tools testify to workshop activity, whereas hacksilver and coins, weights and a pan from a scale suggest trade (fig. 26).

Goods for trading are normally redistributed from the place of call to the buying villages and farms in the vicinity and can therefore not be expected to manifest themselves clearly on the place of call itself. However, as opposed to other known places of call, Næs is also considered an agrarian settlement and thus a potential buyer of goods. This means that the traces of imported everyday objects could be expected to make up a larger part of the finds than what is the case at the specialised places of call. The find material includes soap stone sherds, basalt from the Rhine area (from a rotating quern), fragments of whetstones made from Norwegian slate, and glass beads. These finds confirm the status of the settlement as a normal agrarian site, too.

Archaeological and written sources suggest that a kind of "under way trade" was normal during the Viking Age: at the beginning of a trade journey, the trader acquired a large selection of goods. On his way to his destination, he sold from the cargo at places of call and trading places, but he also added to the stock by buying new items. At Næs, the large-scale linen production must have attracted these traders, and perhaps this commodity was the very reason for the settlement becoming a place of call (fig. 27).

The conclusion is that the Næs settlement should be considered an agrarian place of call specialising in linen production.

Apparently, Næs ceased to exist during the early 10th century for same unknown reason. Perhaps a fire ended the settlement, as a thin culture layer consisting for a large part of soot and charcoal covered large parts of the site.

Keld Møller Hansen and Henrik Høier