Riksantikvarieämbetet

The aim of the project: This report on the position of urban archaeology in Söderköping is written as part of the project The Medieval Town: Implications of Early Urbanization for Modern Planning, under the auspices of Riksantikvarieämbetet and Statens historiska museer. The aim of the project is to make a detailed survey and documentation of the position of urban archaeology and its implications for physical planning and a scholarly evaluation of the uncovered material. The project deals mainly with those places which obtained town rights in the formal legal sense during the Middle Ages.

The arrangement of the report: Chapters 1 och 2 give an account of a number of data which in different ways are important for the early development of the town. The information has been collected from available literature (mainly as regards documentary material) as well as from primary material in the archives (archaeological data). In the first mentioned case no attempt has been made to correct possible faults through independent research. As regards the archaeological material, the aim has been to include all archaeological observations, even though for different reasons this has not always been possible.

One important aim during the work on the report has been to appraise and evaluate the archaeological material and the extent to which it throws light on essential problems concerning urban history. The basic idea is that archaeological material can provide information about chronology, function, social structure and economic bases. The material has been arranged on the assumption that the type of settlement which existed and is reflected in the archaeological material is the result of a functional adaptation to certain decisive pre-requisites such as topography, communications, and economical-geographical conditions.

The data have been chosen and structured on this basis. The selection gives both a general view of the available material concerning the development of the medieval town and a basis for further work on this material. This in turn will provide a foundation for the antiquarian evaluation in relation to future work.

The English summary gives a broad outline of the contents, mainly based on the maps of the report. [...]