Affiliated and antagonistic interactions

The accumulating number of metal detector sites within the last 40 years offers a nuance understanding on social organisation. It inspires a growing recognition that local communities in rural settlements influence, interact and participate in the formation, constitution, and development of social organisation. However, their character and role in relation to centralised locations and urban settlements, are ambiguous and undefined. A royal or aristocratic interest and control over trade and handicraft has long been seen as constituting centralisation whether in central places or urban sites. Also, ritual performance and economic institutions are argued to be central elements likewise controlled by royal interest (Pirenne and Halsey 1956; Weber 1978; Andrén 1983; 1985; 1994; Christophersen 1989; Callmer 1994; Christensen 2015; Krongaard Kristensen og Poulsen 2016). A comprehensive reconstruction of rural interactions, whether exchange in commodities, skills, partners, or rituals, has been called for (Sindbæk 2008). This study will explore the characteristics, functions and interactions in local communities surrounding the urban settlement of Ringsted in the heart of Zealand, Denmark in the formative period from Late Germanic Iron Age to the Middle Age (AD 550-1350).