Village Dynamics and a Deserted Medieval Farmstead

Abstract

This article discusses the dynamics of village borders based on the results from an excavation in 2001 of a high medieval farmstead that was found just outside the village of Västra Klagstorp in south-western Scania. The localization and dating of the farmstead was viewed as an anomaly in comparison with the models used to explain village formation in southern Scandinavia. The farmstead is discussed in relation to topographic features, the spatial organization of the farmstead itself and its relations to later land survey maps. Rather than dismissing the existing models, the results of the excavation stress that the variation in village formation processes is wider and it continues for a longer period of time.