Prior to the foundation of towns, various sites in Denmark from the Germanic Iron Age (400-800) into the Viking Age (c. 750-c. 1050), served as markets and locations for trade and craft production. While they had some of the same functions as the later medieval towns, they cannot be characterized as such, as this chapter will show. Nevertheless, a brief discussion will be useful, as later economic developments have their roots in these settlement types. They can roughly be distinguished between the specialized sites connected with the local elite, and which have variously been referred to as central places, magnate farms, and metal rich sites, on the one hand, and the coastal sites, variously referred to as landing places, beaching places, transhipment places, trading sites, and gateway communities, on the other.

The Viking Age in Denmark was a period of significant social, political, economic, and religious change. It is worthwhile briefly reviewing some of these changes as they all played a role, either directly or indirectly, in the urbanization of Denmark. Society was divided into three main groups, the aristocracy, the free, and the unfree slaves. At the top of the hierarchy was the warrior aristocracy, which based its power on landed possessions, descent, and charisma. Common men had legal rights, but in order to claim them they had to use their social connections, either horizontal, such as kinship, or vertical, such as with lord or military commander. For those at the top of the hierarchy, such social connections were equally important. They needed the support of their followers in disputes and wars, as well as alliances with other members of the aristocracy in the wider political field. These horizontal and vertical connections were secured through friendship, loyalty, and gift-giving. Society was overwhelmingly rural, with most everyone living on a farm, many of them as either servants or slaves.

In terms of settlement structure, the Viking Age in Denmark was characterized by development towards larger farms located within regulated, wellplanned villages. An example can be found in the village of Vorbasse, which archaeologists have been able to follow from its initial settlement in the first century BC through to the eleventh century AD. Here, the farmhouses were grouped within regularly shaped crofts, which were demarcated by ditches or wooden enclosures.