Page - 236 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

236 UlrichMüller Fig. 5:Schleswig, Old Town, recon- structionof theport around 1100. out onto the Schlei in front of platform 2 is especially noteworthy, as it clearly served as a marketplace. Beyond the existing connection to the shore, there is a visible public road,which not only extends towards the north, but also reaches out into the Schlei. Following this, the building developments continued through the 1090s. Inmanyplaces the damswere extended intotheshallows. Inaddition, therewasanincrease inthedensityofbuildingsontheshoreside. By themid-1090s, thesebuildingmeasureswerecompleted to thepointwhereastep-like terrac- ingof thedamshadbeencreated. These terraceddamsextendedabout 8mout into theSchlei in thewesternarea,andup toabout 18mout in theeasternarea.At theendof the 11th century, approximately 25 years after the initial buildingwork began, further andmore comprehensive building and restructuringwork on the land plots, the dams, and the roadswas undertaken. The harbour district reached the apex of its development. A reconstruction from the period around1100allowsus toobserve thearea’scomplexityanddifferentiatedformsofusageduring that time (Fig.5). Platform2 (measuring about 20m inwidth) and its dam-like extensionhave beenreferredtoas themarketplaceonthebasisof thevery lowbuildingdensity, theremarkable distribution of finds, and the background provided by written sources and analogous finds. These waterside developmentsmeant that from 1095 on,mid-sized cargo ships could also be despatchedwithoutproblems.Thedockingareawasnowequippedwithsuchdocking facilities along a total length of 300m.We know relatively little about the form of the rest of the city during the secondhalf of the 11th century.Nonetheless, there is evidence of settlement activity across thewhole peninsula from the 1070s onwards. Even though clear traces of the cathedral building, parish churches, and the aula regia only date from the 12th century, cemeteries, churches, and buildings of statemust have belonged to the earlier topography. Analogous to Haithabu, theharbourmarket inSchleswigcreatedasituationwherebytheportareawasdirect- ly connected to theurbanareas of the city. By the end of the 12th century, an increasing amount of restructuring could be observed in the city, demonstrating the area’s decrease in significance between the second half of the 12th century and the period around 1200. In current scholarship, these changes are taken as evidenceof thedeclineofSchleswigduring the13thcentury, seen inconnectionwithasystem-