Does anyone know of any/been to any?
Ibiza
Your fetish disturbs me.
yes, the archeological remains of the permanent settlements of migrating tribes are everywhere....
the charred layers of abandoned settlements in the 5th and 6th centuries make for fascinating field trips
It's a detour through time and space, but I'd recomend Plato's cave.
Quote from: Viking on March 08, 2011, 11:30:08 PM
yes, the archeological remains of the permanent settlements of migrating tribes are everywhere....
the charred layers of abandoned settlements in the 5th and 6th centuries make for fascinating field trips
Are there any you would recommend?
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 10:04:56 AM
Quote from: Viking on March 08, 2011, 11:30:08 PM
yes, the archeological remains of the permanent settlements of migrating tribes are everywhere....
the charred layers of abandoned settlements in the 5th and 6th centuries make for fascinating field trips
Are there any you would recommend?
Permanent Migrating Charred and Abandoned.
I'm suggesting that you should not expect there to be any.
Quote from: Viking on March 09, 2011, 10:25:16 AM
Permanent Migrating Charred and Abandoned.
I'm suggesting that you should not expect there to be any.
FWIW, I've been to sites where the place was burnt to the ground. That is often the most interesting period: they bury things that are important to them, leave things behind that are valuable, and they don't get built on top of.
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 12:24:37 PM
Quote from: Viking on March 09, 2011, 10:25:16 AM
Permanent Migrating Charred and Abandoned.
I'm suggesting that you should not expect there to be any.
FWIW, I've been to sites where the place was burnt to the ground. That is often the most interesting period: they bury things that are important to them, leave things behind that are valuable, and they don't get built on top of.
Cities are where they are for good reasons. They usually get rebuilt leaving a thin black layer of carbon.
Migration archeology is not so much in the prevalence of sites, but rather found artifacts. As my ancestors came into norway (the romans would have called them goths) in the 3rd and 4th centuries the shift is in distribution of clearly proto-norse artifacts and south-sami artifacts. In the earliest periods south-sami artifacts are everywhere, in the middle period proto-norse artifacts are in the valley bottoms and south-sami artifacts in the hills and mountains and by the early viking period south-sami artifacts are limited to the mountains as the norse have taken over the hills as well.
So, to try and answer your question as it is intended (rather than the snide comments I made above). Go to the local or regional history museum (I'd personally recommend the one in Copenhagen) and you can see the artifacts. What is from that period is usually man portable, even grave goods are man portable. You won't find ruins. Wood houses burned and rotted and stone was recycled.
Well to be fair there's about a shitton of old fortifications in the Swedish countryside, many of which were used and/or built at the time of the migrations. I've visited several of them.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi13.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fa299%2FSlayhem%2FIsmantorp.jpg&hash=9772fe5b6a4a1742b5e0be93c124acf83e1477df)
Thanks Viking.
Maybe there is misunderstanding--I was asking about the migration period to denote a period of time, not actual archeology of migrations. I would think agriculture, and therefore fixed settlements, dominated. I was thinking of the archeology of those.
There seem to be a few sites they've done up for tourists, but as far as I can tell they go earlier than that period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundenbach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biskupin
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:01:33 PM
Well to be fair there's about a shitton of old fortifications in the Swedish countryside, many of which were used and/or built at the time of the migrations. I've visited several of them.
That is what I was talking about.
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 01:14:31 PM
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:01:33 PM
Well to be fair there's about a shitton of old fortifications in the Swedish countryside, many of which were used and/or built at the time of the migrations. I've visited several of them.
That is what I was talking about.
There's about a thousand of these in total in Sweden, most of them somewhat less impressive than the one in the pic. Do you want to know more?
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:21:30 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 01:14:31 PM
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:01:33 PM
Well to be fair there's about a shitton of old fortifications in the Swedish countryside, many of which were used and/or built at the time of the migrations. I've visited several of them.
That is what I was talking about.
There's about a thousand of these in total in Sweden, most of them somewhat less impressive than the one in the pic. Do you want to know more?
YES!
As someone who is interested in this stuff but not so interested to see all 1,000, or even 5, do you have any insights into the best sites? Best meaning sites where I could harrass people with questions in English, they have a nice little museum, or a site with special significance or size.
If that is the kind of stuff you are looking for early viking (late völkerwanderung) sites include Kaupang and Birka with good museums.
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 01:29:39 PM
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:21:30 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on March 09, 2011, 01:14:31 PM
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2011, 01:01:33 PM
Well to be fair there's about a shitton of old fortifications in the Swedish countryside, many of which were used and/or built at the time of the migrations. I've visited several of them.
That is what I was talking about.
There's about a thousand of these in total in Sweden, most of them somewhat less impressive than the one in the pic. Do you want to know more?
YES!
As someone who is interested in this stuff but not so interested to see all 1,000, or even 5, do you have any insights into the best sites? Best meaning sites where I could harrass people with questions in English, they have a nice little museum, or a site with special significance or size.
I would recommend going to the island of Öland. They have Ismantorp (the one in the pic) which is impressive and undisturbed and Eketorp (which AFAIK is the only migration era fort in Sweden with real tourist stuff like gift shop and guided tours, but be warned: it was rebuilt in the 11th century so is not as pristine as Ismantorp).
http://www.rfk.nu/assets/dokument/Navigationsrundor/Olandsrunda.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismantorp_Fortress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eketorp
But observe that since there's so many of them around you can find some pretty much wherever you happen to be in central/southern Sweden. Of course most of them are just basically some stone wall foundations out in the woods. Some of them sit on spectacular sites though with great views.
As Viking pointed out if you are willing to be somewhat inclusive then Birka is a must, which is conveniently close to Stockholm and has a museum and everything.
Thanks guys, this is helpful.
I'd check out the Danish National Museeum. They have some bits from the migration period, as well as some earlier and later parts: http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw33830.asp
In local chronology the migration period is referred to as the "Iron Age" - after the "Bronze Age" but preceding the "Viking Age".
They even have some videos if you're interested: http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw59867.asp (haven't looked at them, they could be junk).
Denmark has some pretty nice viking related museums, but that's a little late for what you're after, right?
Quote from: Jacob on March 09, 2011, 10:55:22 PM
I'd check out the Danish National Museeum. They have some bits from the migration period, as well as some earlier and later parts: http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw33830.asp
In local chronology the migration period is referred to as the "Iron Age" - after the "Bronze Age" but preceding the "Viking Age".
They even have some videos if you're interested: http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw59867.asp (haven't looked at them, they could be junk).
Denmark has some pretty nice viking related museums, but that's a little late for what you're after, right?
As it probably won't surprise you, I'm a fairly hardcore history nerd. I'm interested in seeing / learning about almost every period.
If you think it is worth seeing, I probably will too (provided you can get a comparable experience in english).