Click on the picture for information
See the map for the location of the trading places
See the map for the location of the trading places
At the time it must have been a rather big development scheme. On the banks of the river in the southwest of Jutland, a field was divided in small plots, surrounded by ditches of wattle and lanes, covered with wooden planks, leading to jetties were ships could shore.
On these plots crafstmen set up small combined houses and workshops, probably only for seasonal use. Their products could be sold to merchants arriving from other parts of Scandinavia and Frisia. This was a well organised development, which points to a central authority like a king who must have taken the initiative. The year-rings in the wood of a well date back to somewhere between 704 and 710, making Ribe the oldest town in Denmark.
In the 800's, trade came to an end, probably becoause of the Danish vikingraids on Frisia. Friendly visits may have become impossible. The Frisian connection At the time Frisians were trading people 'par excellence'. The word Frisian became synonimous for merchant and the Northsea - connecting Scandinavia with the British isles, Frisia and the Frankish Rhineland - was known as Mare Frisicum, sea of the Frisians. Yet the route through Skagerrak and Kattegat to the Baltic Sea was dangerous, maybe because of currents, probably because of pirates and it is likely that the Frisians asked a Danish king to organise a market place along the Northsea coast. At the site itself a lot of Danish coins have been found, although up to that point money had been in use by the Frisians only. The Marketplace with its division in small plots of land at a riverbank, resembles the Frisian trading centre of Dorestad in the 7th C., which also points at strong Frisian influences. Finally, the name Ribe is supposed to be stemming from the Frisian word Rip, meaning 'small hill' or 'by the steep slope', but I have no further confirmation on that. Go visit
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