The Bishop of Ribe’s rural property in Lustrup

Abstract

In 1996, an archaeological trial excavation prior to an expansion of the Viking Centre in Lustrupholm led to the discovery of among other things a 54-m long, approximately N–S-oriented post-built house from the Middle Ages. The find gave rise to continued investigations, and in subsequent years the remains of a – by Danish standards – very extensive series of buildings were excavated. This can be identified from written sources as a farm site belonging to the Bishop of Ribe. The article presents the results of the archaeological investigations up to 2007. One or two large houses from the 1100s were succeeded around 1200 by a two-winged post-built complex which was expanded in later years with a brick-built house and a number of other large buildings apparently constructed according to a great variety of principles. The complex appears to have been demolished before the end of the thirteenth century.