Fig. 2. The surroundings of the Järrestad settlement with phosphate data according to Arrhenius 1934. Only values of 100 P0 and more are indicated. Some minor areas are not included in the survey of Arrhenius. They are not mapped here for reasons of the readability of the map. Contours are given for 5 m, 10 m, 20 m etc a.s.1.
direct access to wide hunting grounds. The his-tory of deer parks in Anglo-Saxon England and on the continent suggests a pre-Christian back-ground for them. They are documented from the Merowingian and Carolingian periods on the continent (Fenske 1997). There is also an intriguing indirect argument. This is exactly the period when antler in great amount becomes available fora specialised comb production. The most likely background for the high proportion of shed antler in workshop finds from Uppåkra (5th-6th centuries; cf. Lindell this volume) Ribe, Åhus (both 8th-9th centuries) and Hedeby (9th-10th centuries) is the keeping of deer under controlled conditions when the shed antler can be easily collected. When deer roam freely in unbounded woodland the likeliness that intact antler is found in numbers is very slight. A med-ieval deer park at Dalby may have pre-Christian roots and may have been an important part of the royal domain in western Scania.
'upporL thi interpretation. Already in Lhe 11th cenlllry an urban ce11tre is founded 011ly ca. 3 km to the west al Tommarp. This Medieval town later fell into decay and was superseded by Sim-rishamn on the coast in the 13th century. The monastery at Tommarp, like the town a royal foundation, was of great importance and had very considerable landed weallh in the neighbour-hood including the entire v.illage of Jä1Te tad.
The concentråtion of five torp-villages around Järrestad in the central part of an core area of historical and prehistoric settlement is a striking anorna ly compared wich the general distribuli n of place name . Although there is no compJete cor0na of torp-village around Jän·estad there is however three quruter. of one. To the ea t and also situated to the north of the river is Gröstorp with a small duster of phosphate nuclei. There is a find of an 8th century fibula from one of them (Callmer 19 6).Tothe outhoftheriverthereis Viarp with a mall clu ter of phosphate nuclei.
Vranarp lie to the outhwest and th phosphates are concemrated to the hi ·torical village ite and immediately to the east of it. To the west of Järrestad there is as already told Tommarp on the north side of the river and further away also Tågarp. The extension of pho phate ri b soi I at 1'ommarp i considerable. At Tågarp there is al o a mall duster of phosphate cores. Apan from the Medieval find material from Tommarp there is also a find of a fibula dated ca. AD 800.
Only to the north the relatively big village of Gladsax (4, 7/8 hides) reaches the territory of Järrestad. Gladsax has a history as a manor at least from the 13th century.
Recent excavations at Järrestad have confirm-ed the character of the site as a regional centre of the late Iron Age (excavations by Bengt Söder-berg, Uppdragsverksamheten ofRiksantikvarie-ämbetet 1999-2000). The name
*
JarlastaöiR probably designates the ettl.ement as the residence of a jarl. The surrounding land was organised as a manar with dependant minor torp-settlements. The relation hip ro Gladsax remains uncertain. Further to the north, the south and the west there are big villages with old names.Only the village of Nöbbelöv is an obvious intruder on the territory of Gislöv (no later than the 11th century). As in so many cases major
changes are connected with the formation of the Medieval kingdom of Denmark. In the late 10th or in the first half of the 11 th century the old centre at Järrestad was reduced to a farming village. The torps around the old centre were allotted more land than before. The need for a continued administrative and economic centre in the region combined with a reluctance to ac-cept the old loeation of the centre for the new initiative led to the establishment in the second half of the 11 th century of an urban centre and a mint at Tommarp immediately to the west of Järrestad. The procedure is very similar to that at Uppåkra/Lund. The traditional relative centrality of the site leads to a new location near the old centre but the exact site is chosen nearby.
Vä
The successful identification and subsequent partial excavation of a succession of Late Iron Age trading ite on lhe Jower reachc of the Holy River in north-ea rern Scania rnotivated effort to identify a political centre in the hinter-land (Callmer 1991). The size and the importance of .the si tes are difficult to explain if we do not suppose some sort of local centre of power in the region. Although there is a very plausible connection between trading places and centres the po ·ibility of lhe pontane u formation of trading pJaces cannot be ruled out cornpletely.
The Holy River flow through a wide coa tal plain (the plaio of Kri tian tad) which from all ides i. harply set off by geographicaJ featme . On the plnin the river has formed a erie of lakes, the largest one -the Holy Lake - occupies the centre of the fial land cape. Yä ha. an unusual name being the plural of vi i.e. sanctuary. Vä is not situated at the lake side but in the western part of the plain where a wedge of h.igher and gradually more and more infertile ground (the ea tern part of a horst) protrude into the plain (Fig. 3). The settlement at Vä early attracted inte-rest a. an unu. ually !arge and rich settlement (gold bracteate and Roman coin ). Excavations mainJy during two campaign in the 50 and 60s produced further evidence of the very ]arge ize ofthe ettlement(Stjernqui t 1950, Thun 1982).
The central character of Vä is also indicated
Fig. 3. The surroundings of the Vä settlement with phosphate data according to Arrhenius 1934. Only values of 100 P0 and more are indicated. Some minor areas are not included in the survey of Arrhenius. They are not mapped here for reasons of the readability of the map. Contours are given for 5 m, 10 m, 20 m etc a.s.l.
by the further development of the site. In the 12th century Vä was the centre of a royal monastic foundation. The magnificent church was however conceived during a pre-monastery phase when Vä was a royal estate consisting of a royal representative complex ( perhaps a small palace) including the church, a large village and possibly outlying torps or farms. The continuity ofrelative structures of centrality and power led to the later development of Vä in the 13th (12th?) century inta a regular Medieval town.
The settlement at Vä is situated in a cultural landscape which at least from the Middle Ages was dominated by relatively few but very large villages. These villages are however grouped closer along important lines through the land-scapes (mast notably the water courses and the shores of the lakes). To the north of Vä we find a group of relatively large and to judge from their names old villages (Skepparslöv, Öllsjö and
Här-löv). Settlement in or closely adjoining the histo-rie al village sites dates back to the Viking Period or earlier periods. Other conditions are met with to the east and south-east of Vä. Here we can note remarkably great distances to the nearest settlements. This observation suggests that for same reason settlements are missing in this sector. The existence ~f some eclipsed settle-ments to the east, the south-east and also the south is very likely. The fäet that Vä grew into a Medieval town (transferred to Kristianstad in AD 1613) could account for the reduction of settlements in the neighbourhood. The extinction of agrarian settlements in the close surroundings of Medieval towns is a familiar phenomenon in Medieval Europe. There are several likely locations below Vä along the small river flowing through the contemporary village. There are at least two phosphate nuclei at a distance of ca. 1 km from Vä. Similarly we find settlement indications
also to the south ofVä. They are however situated on less favourable soils and the size of the pho phate nuclei is smaller. ln Lhe ca. e of these Jatt r phosphate areas it could hardly be more than indications of two or three single farms. To the west of Vä there is the historical village of Mansdala (only 2 hides in the 16th century).
Some features of the boundaries of this village which almost reach the Vä settlement suggest a close relationship. Further work is certainly necessary in order to clarify the settlement development around Vä in the Late Iron Age and in the Early Middle Ages. Another important settlement with some features of centrality is Fjälk:inge 5 km to the east of the Holy Lake. So far however Fjälkinge cannot easily be compared to Vä