Bäckaskog - a Norbertine Abbey in the Circary of Denmark and Norway

In the twelfth century the Norbertine order was introduced in parts of Scandinavia. One initiator in the north was Eskil, the powerful archbishop of Lund. However, in the beginning of the thirteenth century the mendicant orders were introduced by successors to the archbishopric. This led to a general decline of other orders. In spite of that the Norbertines managed to prosper in Bäckaskog, an abbey in the East Danish province of Scania. With Bäckaskog as a starting point I have studied the changing relationship between the Norbertines and the secular power, during the age of the Backsteingotik, and the consequences for the Norbertines in the eastern part of the Danish – Norwegian circary. In the study different methods and sources were used to obtain a cleared and more detailed picture of the past than is possible with more traditional archaeology. As well as traditional “on site” archaeology, the understanding of the landscape and its influence on the changing relationship between the Norbertines and the secular power has been taken in consideration. In the following article some of the results and methods are presented.