page_title: History of Scania
section_title: Viking age
hierarchical_section_title: History of Scania / Viking age
context_page_description: The history of the province of Scania was for many hundred years, up until the 18th century, marked by the struggle between the two Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden over the hegemony in the Baltic area.
context_section_description: It was previously thought that society in Scania, like in the rest of Scandinavia, was made up of farmers mostly Fen farmers and cattle farmers, thralls, the farmer being free and equal, and having their say at the Things in the affairs of society. Archeological findings on Jutland, the Danish islands, and on the Scanian plains have modified this picture. It has now become clear that the distribution of wealth, at least from the early Migration Period, was very uneven. The plains were to a large extent divided up between large farms which were far bigger than smallholdings, and were often grouped in villages. Subsequently, only a small faction of the population can be presumed to have enjoyed full civic rights. It seems now more likely that this society ought to be perceived as a system of tribes, each led by chieftains, in Danish often called godes, whose authority depended on the size and wealth of the tribe. Scania had 5 main tribes each having had their own Thanes (leaders), and their own group of warriors, all under the command of the King of Scania.
caption: Ale's Stones, a stone ship (burial monument) from c. 500 AD on the coast at Kåseberga, around ten kilometres south east of Ystad in southern Skåne.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 40", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:06:05 16:12:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "354", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:06:05 16:12:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:06:05 16:12:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "8096", "EXIF Flash": "8112", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1260", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "492", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "50000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "50000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "56284", "EXIF SensingMethod": "4672", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "4704", "EXIF ExposureMode": "4720", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "4736", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "4768"}