From central space to urban place, seminar 1 : social organisation of land in South Scandinavia AD 400-1100 : methods, challenges and possibilities

Report from an international seminar in Odense, 24th May 2018. The seminar "Social organisation of land in South Scandinavia AD 400-1100. Methods, challenges and possibilities" was the first of two international seminars associated with the project "From central space to urban place" which is being undertaken from 2017-2020 and is funded by the Velux Foundation. The aim of the project is to shed new light on the earliest urbanisation processes in South Scandinavia within a chronological frame of AD 400-1100. The means, using Odense and Aalborg as case studies, is an exploration of the development from the central spaces of the Late Iron Age, defined as concentrations of archaeological localities characterised by wealth and functions such as trade, crafts, cult and defence, to the urban places of the Middle Ages, where the structures of power are concentrated in one location. Program 4 Authors 5 Introduction / Mads Runge and Jesper Hansen 8 Part 1: Landscape reconstruction. Methods, perspectives and challenges Reconstructing the Iron Age landscape: Possibilities and limitations in new scientific methods / Søren Munch Kristiansen and Thomas Ljungberg 11 Aerial photographs, airborne remote sensing and landscape understanding / Lukas Banaszek & Dave Cowley 29 Reconstructing Iron Age infrastructure using historical and topographical sources / Per Grau Møller 51 Place names as a source for the Iron Age organisation of land / Sofie Laurine Albris 62 Portable antiquities as a source relative to the organisation of an Iron Age landscape: Limitations and possibilities. Spatial and functional organisation and dynamics / Mogens Bo Henriksen 77 The dialogue between research and communication of large-scale Iron Age cultural landscapes / Lene Feveile 93 Part 2: Social organization and manipulation of landscapes in the period Late Iron Age to Early Middle Age. Background, methods, results and unused potentials in large projects of landscape archaeology The Gamla Uppsala project: Reflections on landscape transformations / John Ljungkvist 106 Assemblies and kings – the inauguration sites of Norway: The case of Øyrathing / Frode Iversen 120 Non-urban vs urban. Social complexity in Anglo-Saxon England / Andrew Reynolds 142 Uppåkra, Lund and the landscape / Mats Anglert 148 The Truso project: From local landing place to Viking Age emporium / Mateusz Bogucki 156 Summary of the day / Mads D. Jessen 176