Uppåkra

Uppåkra is a village located five kilometres south of Lund in Scania in southernmost Sweden.

History

Uppåkra was situated on the ancient main road between Trelleborg and Helsingborg in what was to become the Danish kingdom. The original foundation of Uppåkra is dated to the first century, although its importance appears to have increased in the fifth century AD. It seems likely that the rulers of Uppåkra by then yielded influence over most or all of West Scania, ie. the land along the Trelleborg–Helsingborg main road, known for extraordinarily fertile plains.

After having been burnt down, possibly by "Norwegians" in connection with power struggles between different magnates during the process of unification of Denmark, the town of Uppåkra was relocated to Lund in the 990s. Hence Uppåkra is held to be the direct predecessor of the city of Lund.

Archeology

Uppåkra hasn't been explored until recent years. There have been many factors behind that when compared to for example Birka, which is a site that has been more known and explored during a longer time. For one thing, Uppåkra doesn't exist in any official records of the time and isn't mentioned in any yet existing records from those days. Another factor has been that historians and archeologists alike in Scania have been more interested in studying Lund and Dalby, both having a history that is by Nordic standards very old from the 10th century. Third, Uppåkra is situated on one of the most fertile lands in Scania, which means that agricultural businesses have prevailed over historical.

What has been known for a long time is that Uppåkra has been a settlement for many ages. Geological studies carried out in the 1930s revealed that the site around the church of Uppåkra was rich in phosphate and had the highest concentration of it in whole Scania, which is an indicator that there have been many cattle and people at some longer time of history as excrement contains phosfate. Some excavations were carried out by then.

Archeological diggings of a 100 acres (0.40 km²) large field, intensified in 1996, shows Uppåkra to be the richest and largest Iron Age–Viking Age town of the Scandinavian Peninsula. For centuries, maybe for most of the first millennium, Uppåkra was a place of religious and political power as well as a big a cult place.

In 2007 archaeologists found an object from the 10th century that looks like Mickey Mouse. [http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.715298 Picture, Text in Swedish]

The present

Today, Uppåkra is a small church village.

External links

* [http://www.uppakra.se Uppåkra's website]