churchyard wall in 1988 revealed a Viking Age estate with many and unusually large
buildings. This farm was encircled by a robust fence, making up an almost square plot.
In the centre of this plot the medieval stone church is situated, that probably had a
wooden predecessor. This was not just an ordinary manor but rather a royal estate
( Jeppesen and Madsen 1990 ). Similar sites have been excavated at other places in south
Scandinavia.
Remains or foundations of older wooden churches have sometimes been found
at investigations of medieval stone churches. For Sweden, several examples of this are
known from, for example, Gotland, Öland and Östergötland. In Karleby, Västergötland,
the remains of two rectangular wooden churches were found in 1986 , the younger
datable to the first half of the twelfth century, indicating a date for the older church
at the end of eleventh century or 1100 at the latest (Vretemark 1998 ). In Klåstad,
Östergötland, the foundations of a stave-church from the second half of the eleventh
Figure 46. 1. 1 The Eskilstuna sarcophagus (Sö 356 ), with ornamentation
and runic inscriptions on the slabs. (From Sö.)–– chapter 46 ( 1 ): The material culture of the Christianisation––