Dorestad is the name of a Medieval coastal trading village, harbor and cemetery located in the delta region of the Rhine and Maas rivers in the Netherlands, near the modern town of Wijk bij Duurstede. The site was occupied between about 675-875 AD, when it was the capital of the Frisians (or Friesland) of Germany and the Netherlands, and a favorite target for marauding Vikings in the 830s.
Dorestad had an enormous emporium or trading center which ran for a good 3,000 meters along the banks of the Kromme Rijn River. Artifacts recovered from Dorestad include a wide array of fishing weights and querns (grinding stones), as well as Baltic amber, most likely a trade item. A Roman fortress underlies the Medieval city and some of the stone was used to build the harbor.
The site was excavated in the 1970s by Dutch archaeologist W.A. van Es.
Sources
Kars, H. 1985. Early Medieval Dorestad, an Archaeo-Petrological Study. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Viking Age and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
