Editing Viking Age (section)

== Central Europe ==
{{further|Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages}}
[[File:WalMenz.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Stone ship]]s at [[Altes Lager Menzlin]]]]

Viking Age Scandinavian settlements were set up along the southern coast of the [[Baltic Sea]], primarily for trade purposes. Their emergence appears to coincide with the settlement and consolidation of the coastal Slavic tribes in the respective areas.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=17}} The archaeological record indicates that substantial cultural exchange between Scandinavian and Slavic traditions and technologies occurred.<ref name="Jöns & Kowalska 2020">{{cite book |last1=Jöns |first1=Hauke |last2=Kowalska |first2=Anna |editor1-last=Aannestad |editor1-first=Hanne Lovise |editor2-last=Pedersen |editor2-first=Unn |editor3-last=Moen |editor3-first=Marianne |editor4-last=Naumann |editor4-first=Elise |editor5-last=Berg |editor5-first=Heidi Lund |title=Vikings Across Boundaries: Viking-Age Transformations – Volume II |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-20470-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sg8HEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |chapter=Scandinavians on the Southern Baltic Coast |page=43}}</ref> It is known that Slavic and Scandinavian craftsmen had different processes in crafts and productions. In the lagoons and delta of the eastern and southern Baltic there is evidence of Slavic boatbuilding practices somewhat divergent from the Viking tradition, and of a fusion of the two in a shipyard site from the Viking Age on the island of Falster in Denmark.<ref name="Hinkkanen & Kirby 2013">{{cite book |last1=Hinkkanen |first1=Merja-Liisa |last2=Kirby |first2=David |title=The Baltic and the North Seas |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-16954-0 |page=88 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bm9c02nBqOcC&pg=PA88 |chapter=Boats and Ships}}</ref>

Slavic-Scandinavian settlements on the [[Mecklenburg]]ian coast include the maritime trading center [[Reric]] ([[Groß Strömkendorf]]) on the eastern coast of [[Wismar Bay]],{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} and the multi-ethnic trade emporium [[Dierkow]] (near [[Rostock]]).{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Reric was set up around the year 700,{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} but following later warfare between [[Obodrites]] and [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Danes]], the inhabitants, who were subject to the Danish king, were resettled to [[Haithabu]] by him.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Dierkow apparently belongs to the late 8th to the early 9th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=15}}

Scandinavian settlements on the [[Pomerania]]n coast include [[Wolin (town)|Wolin]] (on the isle of [[Wolin]]), [[Ralswiek]] (on the isle of [[Rügen]]), [[Altes Lager Menzlin]] (on the lower [[Peene]] river),<ref name="Herrmann, pp.237ff,244ff">Herrmann, Joachim (1985) ''Die Slawen in Deutschland''. Akademie-Verlag Berlin. pp. 237ff, 244ff</ref> and [[Bardy-Świelubie]] near modern [[Kołobrzeg]].{{sfn|Kempke|2001|pp=15–16}} Menzlin was set up in the mid-8th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} Wolin and Ralswiek began to prosper in the course of the 9th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} A merchants' settlement has also been suggested near [[Cape Arkona|Arkona]], but no archeological evidence supports this theory.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=13}} Menzlin and Bardy-Świelubie were vacated in the late 9th century,{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=16}} Ralswiek survived into the new millennium, but by the time written chronicles reported news of the island of Rügen in the 12th century, it had lost all its importance.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Wolin, thought to be identical with the legendary [[Vineta]] and the semilegendary [[Jomsborg]],<ref name="Lübke2022">{{cite book |last1=Lübke |first1=Christian |editor1-last=Raffensperger |editor1-first=Christian |title=Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe |year=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-54834-1 |page=260 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-RXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT260 |chapter=Adam of Bremen's View at the Polabian Slavs}}</ref> base of the [[Jomsvikings]], was destroyed in 1043 by Dano-Norwegian king [[Magnus the Good]],<ref name="Chartrand et al">{{cite book |last1=Chartrand |first1=René |last2=Durham |first2=Keith |last3=Harrison |first3=Mark |last4=Heath |first4=Ian |title=The Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-1322-0 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mxizDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA51}}</ref> according to the ''[[Heimskringla]]''.<ref name="Sturlason2011">{{cite book |last1=Sturlason |first1=Snorre |title=Heimskringla – The Norse King Sagas |year=2011 |publisher=Read Books Ltd |isbn=978-1-4465-4805-9 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dFZ8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT153}}</ref> Castle building by the Slavs seems to have reached a high level on the southern Baltic coast in the 8th and 9th centuries, possibly explained by a threat coming from the sea or from the trade emporiums, as Scandinavian arrowheads found in the area indicate advances penetrating as far as the lake chains in the Mecklenburgian and Pomeranian hinterlands.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}}

{{Baltic emporia}}