Structure and organisation of the economy and society in the East Frisian coastal area during the early Middle Ages: The settlement area at Dunum, in the District of Wittmund, is taken as a regional model

在对聚落的考古研究过程中发现和出土的特征表明，中世纪早期北海沿海地区南部的聚落在组织跨区域的交流和贸易方面发挥了特殊的作用。在沼泽和更新世沙质土壤地区交界处的极其肥沃的牧场和可耕地允许生产和加工许多农业商品，远远超出仅仅维持生计所需的数量。高质量的纺织品是产品系列中特别重要的一项。这些纺织品，在当代资料中被称为pallia fresonica，通过覆盖中欧和北欧大部分地区的广泛分销网络进行交易。根据Detlev Ellmers提出的模型，人们普遍认为，中世纪早期，这种贸易首先是由附属于封建领土的分散流动商人组织的，然后发展成为一个由当地专业工匠组成的贸易中心系统。然而，这一模型的有效性还没有得到适当的检验，也没有对中世纪早期沿海地区可识别的发展进行详细分析，也没有对这些发展背后的社会和经济结构进行调查。这些都是在这里申请的项目的主题。研究的起点是Wittmund区的Dunum周边地区，在那里已经对植被、景观和定居历史进行了一定数量的调查。在中世纪早期，这是一个被低地和荒野包围的定居点，可以直接通往北海。虽然至少有8个独立的定居点，但从7世纪到10世纪，居民们把死者埋葬在一个共同的墓地里，也就是说，远远超过了第一次传教努力的阶段。这片墓地几乎已经经过了全面的考古调查。这些早期的调查显示，这些坟墓被真菌土广泛覆盖，这不仅保护它们免受现代农业活动的影响，而且为保存金属墓葬制品和附着在上面的有机物质创造了有利的化学环境。因此，杜姆定居区提供了一个绝佳的机会来检验埃尔默斯的上述模型，并寻求关于中世纪早期经济和附属于乡村的精神世界（想象的景观）及其演变的新信息。可以假设，在该项目框架内获得的关于更新世沙质土壤和沼泽交界处边境地区居民之间社会文化互动的见解可以用作理解北海南部沿海地区其他定居地区的模型。

The finds and features unearthed in the course of the archaeological study of settlements have shown that the communities settled in the southern part of the North Sea coastal region in the early Middle Ages played a special role in the organisation of supra-regional communication and trade. The extremely fertile pasture and arable land at the junction between the marshes and the areas of Pleistocene sandy soil permitted the production and processing of numerous agricultural commodities, far beyond the quantities required for mere subsistence. High-quality textiles were a particularly important item in the range of products. These textiles, known in contemporary sources as pallia fresonica, were traded via a wide-spread distribution network that covered large parts of central and northern Europe. Following a model generated by Detlev Ellmers, it is generally assumed that this trade was first organised by decentralized itinerant traders attached to feudal territories in the early Middle Ages and then developed into a system of trading centres with locally based professional craftsmen. However, the validity of this model has not been properly tested and neither a detailed analysis of the identifiable developments in the coastal regions during the early Middle Ages nor an investigation of the social and economic structures behind these developments has yet been undertaken. These are the subject of the project for which application is made here. The starting point is the area around Dunum, in the District of Wittmund, where a certain number of investigations into the vegetation, landscape and settlement history have already been carried out. During the early Middle Ages, this was a settlement area surrounded by lowlands and moors with direct access to the North Sea. Although there were at least eight separate settlements, the inhabitants buried their dead in a common graveyard from the 7th to 10th century, i.e. well beyond the phase of the first missionary efforts. The graveyard has already been almost completely investigated archaeologically. These earlier investigations revealed that the graves had been extensively covered by plaggen soil, which not only protected them from modern agricultural activity but also created a favourable chemical milieu for the preservation of metal grave goods and the organic substances adhering to them. The Dunum settlement area thus provides an excellent opportunity to test Ellmers above-mentioned model as well as to seek new information on the early medieval economy and the spiritual world attached to the countryside (imaginary landscapes) and their evolution. It can be assumed that the insights obtained within the framework of this project into the socio-cultural interaction among the inhabitants of this border area at the junction of the Pleistocene sandy soil and the marshes can be used as a model in understanding other settlement areas in the southern North Sea coastal region.