Circular, D-Shaped and Other Fortifications in 9th-and 10th-Century Flanders and Zeeland as Markers of the Territorialisation of Power(s)

Abstract

During the 9th and 10th centuries a range of fortifications of circular, D-shaped and other types appeared in the territories of the Low Countries (Fig. 13.1). This phenomenon does not differ from other regions like the Northern Low Countries (Dijkstra and De Ridder 2009; Bartels 2006), northern France (Lançon et al . 2015), Lower Saxony (Schesckewitz 2009) or Holstein (Lemm and Wilschewski 2009) and, traditionally, archaeologists and historians have related the appearance of these structures to the historical master narrative of the Viking attacks on the Frankish and Frisian realms. Specifically, the years around AD 880–890 have long been