Abstract

In the wake of the Black Death in i 1350 Europe saw demographic disaster, economic decline, and social and political breakdown. Thousands of farms were deserted. This is the Medieval Agrarian Crisis. The latest decadesof outland archaeology, primarily within the frames of rescue archaeology, have made it possible to outline the course of the crisis in the forested parts of middle Scandinavia. The 14th and 15th centuries were a time of economic change rather than economic decline. However, various areas changed in different ways. When taking outland production into account the medieval crisis has to be conceptualised in another way; it was not solely an agrarian crisis. It was also early industrial expansion and change towards extensive farming.

Highlights

  • In the wake of the Black Death in i g go Europe saw demographic disaster, economic decline, and social and political breakdown

  • The crisis was triggered by the Black Death that reached Europe in tg4y and Scandinavia in tg4g (Harrison zooo; Benedictow z.oo4)

  • That is what was recorded by the medieval bureaucracy, and the crisis is often denoted an agrarian crisis in Scandinavia

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Summary

THE MEDIEVAL CRISIS

The medieval crisis is recorded in data on harvests, trade, tenancy rents, taxes, and population size. The crisis was reconstructed as percentages of deserted farms and population decline from written records on ownership, buying and selling, and taxes and rents in relation to arable land. We will try to discuss the medieval crisis in middle Scandinavia go years after the Scandinavian Research Project on Deserted Farms and Villages. The increase in available data has been huge, and various kinds of sites that were hardly known in the zg6os have been recorded and excavated in large numbers. This is valid especially for areas outside the cultivated and urban parts of the country. Mats Widgren has suggested the same for all of southern Sweden (Widgren rygga)

The bistorical archaeology of the medieval crisisi n Scandinavia
OUTLAND ARCHAEOLOGY
THE RESEARCH AREA
The historical archaeology of the medieval crisisin Scandinavia
Gävleborgs län
PASTURE AND ARABLE LAND
Decline in agricultural activity
SUMMER FARMS
IRON PRODUCTION
The historical archaeology of the medieval crists in Scandinavia
TAR PRODUCTION
MASS CATCHING
Birgitta Berglund et al Jämtlands län
The historical archaeology of the rndiivva crisisin Scandinavia
MINING AND BLAST FURNACES
THE NEW ECONOMY AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF OUTLAND USE

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