Kaupang

Rasp

Senior Editor
[From: The Odinist, no. 7 (1973)]


KAUPANG


I am sure you all know where Bethlehem is, but I wonder if any of you have ever heard of Kaupang, even though it at one time figured prominently in the history of our ancestors.

Kaupang is not somewhere an Viet Nam, but the name of a busy Norwegian trading town, important mainly in the ninth and tenth century; it was located on the south coast of Norway at the entrance to Oslo fiord.

The name Kaupang was first mentioned by a Norwegian merchant, Ottar, who in the 9th century, in his report to King Alfred of Wessex, gave an account of how to get to this important Scandinavian trading town.

The location of the town provided an excellent protection against intruders and was also an ideal harbour for the Norwegian trading fleet. In our time the waters surrounding the area are rather shallow, but a thousand years ago, the water level was at least five to six feet higher and therefore comfortably accessible for the Viking ships with their shallow draught.

The row of small islands forming the archipelago served as an insurance against unwanted visitors, and the surrounding hills afforded excellent vantage points from which watch could be kept over the sea and thus give advance notice about ships entering the harbour.

In the nineteen fifties excavations were begun on a massive scale and many artifacts have been unearthed. They show the usual burial sites with potsheds, ornaments and many other objects proving that accounts of the brisk trading at Kaupang had not been exaggerated.

Many fragments of various kinds of metal, mostly iron, bronze and some gold show, that the area had a thriving metal industry. Also textiles were produced in quantity and findings of cooking pots indicate that these were produced on a scale larger than just for local usage. Wine seems to have been imported, evidenced by the findings of large pottery containers, mainly from the Rhineland area, thought to be the equivalent of todays wine barrels.

Most of the burial mounds indicate that cremation was the commonly used form for interment; in many graves costly objects showing a high quality of workmanship, most of native, Anglo-Saxon or Indo-European origin, were included with the remains of some rich merchant or chieftain.

The harbour itself has been excavated and remains of two piers have been found, they were slightly rounded out against the ocean, narrowing towards the land, providing a second, protection against strong winds and high seas. The piers seem to have been of a permanent structure, reinforced with stones on the land side.

The soil of the surrounding area consists of the so-called Black Earth which also was found around the well-known Swedish trading town of Birka. Remains of animal and fish bones are evidence that not only was Kaupang a central point for trading, but its citizens also brought loads of fish to the market place, and undoubtedly farming was carried out in the areas back of the town.

Kaupang enjoyed prosperity and prominence for at least two hundred years; but as the sea level dropped from year to year, the town had to be abandoned as it no longer was possible for larger ships to enter the harbour. The merchants had to move to a better location and today only archaeologists move around in the area which at one time was a teeming trading town.

[C.]
 
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