Who Wants to Live in a Bishop's Town?

On Archaeology and Change in Linköping

Abstract

How important were the church and the bishops for medieval urbanization in Sweden? How were relations between the ecclesiastical institutions and the secular society in towns dominated by the church? These questions are discussed in this article, dealing with the archaeological record of the diocesan centre of Linköping, Östergötland. Changes in the urban settlement are easily recognized in the archaeological excavations, although not previously seen in historical research. This initiates further questions about late medieval urban development in Sweden, previously almost totally neglected by archaeologists, and questions about the relation between history and archaeology.