At the beginning of the ninth century a ditch was dug around the Ribe, c. 2 m wide
and 1 m deep (A). In several excavations the ditch was clearly seen to form the border
between the developed area on the inside and undeveloped area or graveyard on the
outside (Figure 8. 5. 1 ). Ditch A is so slight that it cannot be a fortification. Instead
the ditch was of a symbolic nature and merely marked the town limits. The ditch that
demarcates an area of c. 12 ha is well defined towards the east, while its northern
and possible western course is not known. Consequently it is not known whether the
ditch turns back to the Ribe River forming a semicircle, or whether the ditch stops at
the low-lying, wet area to the north of the marketplace. During the second half of the
ninth century or probably at the latest at the beginning of the tenth century the town
ditch was replaced in more or less the same place by a 6 – 7 m wide and 1 m deep and
flat-bottomed moat (B) with traces of a bank on the inside. During the second half of
the eleventh century the town was re-established on both sides of the Ribe River. On the
northern side the town now also covered an area in an eastern direction outside moat
B. Here a c. 10 – 12 m wide and 2 m deep moat with bank, moat C, was established.
This installation probably has to be seen in connection with other fortifications on the
southern side of the Ribe River.
Since the first excavations at the marketplace, at regular intervals sceattas have been
found, so that now 204 are known from Ribe (Bendixen 1981 , 1994 ; Feveile 2006 b,
2008 ). They have been found scattered and single, dropped in connection with trade.
The predominant type is ‘Wodan/Monster’ ( 85 %), followed by ‘Porcupine’ ( 11 %), ‘Con-
tinental Runic’ ( 2 %) as well as a few other types, all in one single copy. The coins are not
only found dropped in layers from the first half of the eighth century, but the dropping
- and thereby also the circulation of this type of coin – continues until the beginning
of the ninth century. While the British numismatist M. Metcalf thinks the sceattas of
the ‘Wodan/Monster’ type were minted in Ribe or south-western Denmark (Metcalf
1993 ), other researchers think they were minted somewhere in the Frisian area before
c. 755 (Malmer 2002 ).
BIBLIOGRAPHYAaby, B. ( 2006 ) ‘Pollenanalyser fra markedspladsen i Ribe, ASR 9 Posthuset og ASR 951
Plejehjemmet Riberhus’, in C. Feveile (ed.) ( 2006 a).
Bencard, M. ( 1978 ) ‘Wikingerzeitliches Handwerk in Ribe. Eine übersicht’, Acta Archaeologica,
49 : 113 – 38.
——(ed.) ( 1981 ) Ribe Excavations 1970 – 76 , vol. 1 , Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag.
——(ed.) ( 1984 ) Ribe Excavations 1970 – 76 , vol. 2 , Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag.
——( 1990 ) ‘The stratigraphy and dating of 8 th century Ribe’, Journal of Danish Archaeology,
7 : 225 – 8.
Bencard, M., Jørgensen, L.B. and Madsen, H.B. ( 1990 ) Ribe Excavations 1970 – 76 , vol. 4 , Esbjerg:
Sydjysk Universitetsforlag.
——( 1991 ) Ribe Excavations 1970 – 76 , vol. 3 , Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag.
Bencard, M., Rasmussen, A.K. and Madsen, H.B. ( 2004 ) Ribe Excavations 1970 – 76 , vol. 5 ,
Esbjerg: Jutland Archaeological Society.
Bendixen, K. ( 1981 ) ‘Sceattas and other coin finds’, in M. Bencard (ed.) ( 1981 ).
——( 1994 ) ‘The coins from the oldest Ribe (excavations 1985 and 1986 , “RibeII”)’, Nordisk
Numismatisk Årsskrift ( 1989 – 90 ): 27 – 43.
Dalsgaard, K. ( 2006 ) ‘Flygesandsaflejringer ved Ribe’, in C. Feveile (ed.) ( 2006 a).
–– chapter 8 ( 5 ): Ribe––