Leiderdorp: a Frisian settlement in the shadow of Dorestad

Free Frisian traders, living in the smaller settlements which existed alongside the large emporia of the Carolingian era, have received some attention in the work of Richard Hodges and others (Heidinga 1997; Hodges 2012: 10, 96-113; Lebecq 1983; Loveluck and Tys 2006). However, few of these sites are archaeologically attested. In 2013 an opportunity arose to investigate a part of one such settlement in the municipality of Leiderdorp (Dijkstra, Verhoeven and Van Straten 2017). In the following chapter we will briefly present the results of this investigation and address questions concerning the representativeness of the site. What can we tell about a settlement in the shadow of the emporium of Dorestad? Was the Dutch coast littered with comparable Frisian settlements? And how did Leiderdorp fit into the settlement hierarchy that would have existed in the coastal region (Loveluck and Tys 2006: 148)? Finally, we will review the evidence for the end of Leiderdorp in relation to current theories of economic and social change in the 9th century.