Abstract:

Dorestad was the largest town of the Low Countries in the Carolingian era. As a riverine emporium on the northern edge of the Frankish Empire, it functioned as a European junction, connecting the Viking world with the Continent. In 2019, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden hosted its quinquennial international congress based around Dorestad, located at present-day Wijk bij Duurstede. This third edition, ‘Dorestad and its Networks’, coincided with the fiftieth birthday of finding the famous Dorestad brooch in July 1969, and with what would have been the hundredth birthday of prof.dr. Ina Isings, to whom a special session on early-medieval glass was dedicated.

The Third Dorestad Congress brought together scholars from the North Sea area to debate Dorestad and its counterparts in Scandinavia, the British Isles and the Rhineland, as well as the material culture, urbanisation and infrastructure of the Early Middle Ages. The contributions in these proceedings are devoted to new research into the Vikings at Dorestad, assemblages of jewellery, playing pieces and weaponry from the town, recent excavations at other Carolingian sites in the Low Countries, and the use and trade of glassware and broadswords in this era. They show the political, economic and cultural networks of Dorestad, the only town to be called ‘vicus famosus’ in contemporary sources.

Contents

Dorestad and its Networks: An Introduction
Annemarieke Willemsen

Vikings and Luxury at Dorestad

Viking Dorestad: A Haven for Hydrarchy?
Christian Cooijmans

Vikings beyond Dorestad: Rethinking some metal finds in, around and after the emporium
Nelleke IJssennagger – van der Pluijm

Trading Games? Playing with/without the Vikings in Dorestad
Mark A. Hall

A new gold ring from Dorestad?
Channa Cohen Stuart & Annemarieke Willemsen

Beads from Dorestad
Mette Langbroek

Mixed Emotions: The swords from Dorestad
Annemarieke Willemsen

The Medieval Netherlands

A Carolingian coin hoard from Wirdum (Friesland, the Netherlands) and the Dorestad mint
Simon Coupland

Timber! Opening up the landscape of Carolingian Leiderdorp
Menno Dijkstra

Charlemagne’s palace at Nijmegen: Some thoughts on the economic implications of itinerant kingship
Arjan den Braven

Beyond the planned/unplanned dichotomy: The development of the town plan of Utrecht until c.1560
Marcel IJsselstijn

Commerce and Conflict

Production of early medieval glass in Cologne and its export via Dorestad
Michael Dodt, Andreas Kronz & Klaus Simon

Glass vessels from the early medieval emporium at Ipswich
Rose Broadley

Non-funerary sword depositions in Carolingian Europe
Dušan Maczek

Form follows function: Reconstructing the use of Viking age swords
Ingo Petri