The Historical Archeology of the Medieval Crisis in Scandinavia

In the wake of the Black Death in 1350 Europe saw demographical disaster, economic decline, and social and political breakdown. Thousands of farms were deserted. This is the Medieval Agrarian Crisis. The latest decades of outland archaeology, primarily within the frames of rescue archaeology, have made it possible to outline the course of of the crisis in the forested parts of middle Scandinavia. The 14th and 15th centuries were a time of economic change rather than economic decline. However, various areas changed in different ways. When taking outland production into account the medieval crisis has to be conceptualised in anorther way; it was not solely an agrarian crisis. It was also eakry industrial expansion and change towards extensive farming.