Tracing the history of urbanization in Denmark from c. 500-c. 1350, the preceding chapters have shown that there was a multitude of elements that influenced the development and growth of towns. Rather than considering urbanization as purely either an organic, bottom-up process or one directed from the top down, this book has argued that both forces were at play, with interconnected political, religious, and economic factors all having a significant role in town development. ‘Town’ is also defined more broadly in this study than in previous medieval urban histories, which allows for change over time and the inclusion of urban forms not usually considered in studies of medieval towns. Consequently, a ‘town’ is defined as any permanent settlement forming a social unit distinct from the countryside and with a significant portion of its population living off non-agricultural occupations. This book follows an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together written as well as archaeological and numismatic sources, which allows for a much fuller picture of Danish medieval urban history.

In order to understand how urbanization got its start, it is necessary to begin before there were any towns in Denmark. Medieval towns would come to serve as the political, religious, and economic centres of the kingdom, but these functions had been carried out in other types of sites prior to the foundation of the first urban settlement. These non-urban sites served as locations for local authority, religious ritual, as well as craft production and local markets in the Late Iron Age and Viking Age. This was a period of great social and economic change, and many of the developments of this period would set the stage for later urbanization. Magnates consolidated both political and economic power, indicated by the trend towards larger farms and magnate complexes. Elites controlled large landed estates, with the magnate farm surrounded by smaller dependent farms. Agriculture was heavily animal based, with only a small portion of land under plough and large tracts of uncultivated land between settlements. This situation would change, however, in the following centuries.

Productive sites, which are characterized by the large quantities of coin and metalwork finds and typically located along major lines of transport and communication, proliferated across Denmark in the Iron Age.