section_path: Central Europe
section_name: Central Europe
paragraph_text: Central Europe
  
  Viking Age Scandinavian settlements were set up along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, primarily for trade purposes. Their emergence appears to coincide with the settlement and consolidation of the coastal Slavic tribes in the respective areas. The archaeological record indicates that substantial cultural exchange between Scandinavian and Slavic traditions and technologies occurred. It is known that Slavic and Scandinavian craftsmen had different processes in crafts and productions. In the lagoons and delta of the eastern and southern Baltic there is evidence of Slavic boatbuilding practices somewhat divergent from the Viking tradition, and of a fusion of the two in a shipyard site from the Viking Age on the island of Falster in Denmark.
  
  Slavic-Scandinavian settlements on the Mecklenburgian coast include the maritime trading center Reric (Groß Strömkendorf) on the eastern coast of Wismar Bay, and the multi-ethnic trade emporium Dierkow (near Rostock). Reric was set up around the year 700, but following later warfare between Obodrites and Danes, the inhabitants, who were subject to the Danish king, were resettled to Haithabu by him. Dierkow apparently belongs to the late 8th to the early 9th century.
  
  Scandinavian settlements on the Pomeranian coast include Wolin (on the isle of Wolin), Ralswiek (on the isle of Rügen), Altes Lager Menzlin (on the lower Peene river), and Bardy-Świelubie near modern Kołobrzeg. Menzlin was set up in the mid-8th century. Wolin and Ralswiek began to prosper in the course of the 9th century. A merchants' settlement has also been suggested near Arkona, but no archeological evidence supports this theory. Menzlin and Bardy-Świelubie were vacated in the late 9th century, Ralswiek survived into the new millennium, but by the time written chronicles reported news of the island of Rügen in the 12th century, it had lost all its importance. Wolin, thought to be identical with the legendary Vineta and the semilegendary Jomsborg, base of the Jomsvikings, was destroyed in 1043 by Dano-Norwegian king Magnus the Good, according to the Heimskringla. Castle building by the Slavs seems to have reached a high level on the southern Baltic coast in the 8th and 9th centuries, possibly explained by a threat coming from the sea or from the trade emporiums, as Scandinavian arrowheads found in the area indicate advances penetrating as far as the lake chains in the Mecklenburgian and Pomeranian hinterlands.