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Notow (or Nothaw, Notau, probably a Germanization of Nautøy, which again may have evolved into the present Nottå) was a trading port located at the northeast of
Karmøy Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is southwest of the town of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kopervik. Most of the municipality lies on ...
, or more specifically located at the king's port area in
Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy (island), Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund (town), Hauge ...
. According to the 16th century book ''Die Nordische Saw'', the first
Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
Kontor A ''kontor'' (also Kontor; ) was a major foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League. Kontors were legal entities established in a foreign city (i.e. a city that did not belong to the Hanseatic League), with a degree of legal autonomy. Most kon ...
established in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
(before
Bryggen Bryggen (''the dock''), also known as Tyskebryggen (, ''the German dock''), is a series of Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings lining up the eastern side of the Vågen harbour in the city of Bergen, Norway. Bryggen has been on the UNESCO lis ...
in
Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
) was based in Notow.Elvestad, 2002, p. 4. However, despite a Hanseatic presence at Notow, the existence of a Hanseatic "Kontor" or permanent trading post there is not supported by contemporary sources, and not accepted among modern historians. At Bukkøy there currently exist places named Nora Nottå, Søra Nottå and Nåttåhavn which probably derives from the earlier Notow.


Contemporary writing

An early mention of the Hanseatics at Avaldsnes is in a letter by Norwegian king
Haakon VI Haakon VI (; ; August 1340 – 11 September 1380) was King of Norway from 1343 until his death and King of Sweden between 1362 and 1364. He is sometimes known as ''Haakon Magnusson the Younger'' to distinguish him from his great-grandfather, Ha ...
from around 1370. Here he writes about the Hanseatics which "at peacetime raided and burned the king's farms at Avaldsnes and others by the Karmsund, his forests near Selbjørn, the houses for poor travelers between Karmsund and Bergen, and also farms and houses at the Karmsund that belonged to the kings subjects". The Hanseatics has here apparently destroyed everything the king owns near the coast from Bergen to perhaps the Swedish border. The reasons for this attack by the Hansa was that the king had tried to limit the Hanseatics trade in Norway. ''Notow'' is also later specifically mentioned in numerous Hanseatic and Norwegian documents between 1425 and 1523. In a testament from 1425 it is written: "Item to ''Notow'' geve ik 2 tunnen teres to dem buwe" ("Likewise I give two barrels of tar for construction-purposes in ''Notow''"). This suggests that the Hansa wasn't only residing in the port, but also being involved in construction of new projects there.Elvestad, 2003, p. 21. In the winter of 1470/71 the Lübeck fleet for Bergen is known to have stayed at Notow.Elvestad, 2002, p. 4-5. In a letter from Lübeck, probably in or around 1486, it is described how in the years 1450-55 Hanseatic ships and people, in Bergen and other places, had been exposed to great violence and robberies. Among the places mentioned was ''Notouw'' where "Oloff Nyelsson" and Bishop "Torlaus de Engelschen" had attacked Hanseatic ships which held great values.Diplomatarium Norvegicum XVI p.317 Date: 1486? Place: Lübeck.
br> " ..Anno liiij jn den pinxten nemen de Engelschen by den , Schagen deme kopmanne viij schepe gheladen de werde van xvj , dusent marck, Dar na vth Engelland quemen to Notouw ij laden , schepe myt wande de werde van x dusent marck Lub. Dar na , makede de kopman vth volk vnde schepe, vnde dachte synen , schaden na tokamende, do entf#orde Here Oloff Nyelsson vnd , Bisschop Torlauus de Engelschen vnde nemen dar vor vjc Rin- , sche gulden ij scharlaken vnde jslick dener eyn halff laken , Do suluest te Scheringessunde vnde to Maestrande nam , Here Oloff vnde Nyelsz Petersson vnde ere zelschop vele, laden , schepe sunderges Clawes Ghysen Tho Seel#o xi schepe vnde ij , van Rostock bauen den vreden des Heren konynges vnde vor- , segelinge Schade x dusent marck .. Written sources, such as these, suggests that Notow in the 15th century was controlled by the Hansa of Bergen and Lübeck. In 1584 an unknown German people">German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
in
Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
wrote a curious text called ''Die Nordische Saw'' (''The Norwegian sow''Sow as in ''female'' pig). In the text, ''Nothaw'' is said to have been for a long time one of the four original Kontor of the Hansa, along with London, Novgorod and Bruges. The text thus implies that Notow was the first place where the Hansa was established in Norway, but from here they soon had to relocate to Bergen due to consistent trouble with "pirates". (It has been speculated that these "pirates" in reality were representatives for the Norwegian king.). This claim is, however, not supported by any other sources, and not generally accepted by historians.
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
maritime maps from the last part of the 16th and the 17th century also locate Notow at
Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy (island), Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund (town), Hauge ...
.


Archaeological excavations

At the bottom of the sea of the coast near
Avaldsnes church Avaldsnes Church (, formally ''St. Olav's Church at Avaldsnes'', ) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Karmøy Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Avaldsnes on the northern part of the Karmøy (island ...
(between Gloppenes and Fårøy) there has been found numerous
ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
of German and Dutch origins, in addition to
leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...
,
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
, animal bones and such. These objects are mostly just simple waste from the settlement of the port. Almost all of these items have been dated to the period between the 13th, and the 16th century.Elvestad, 2003, p. 4. Medieval shipwrecks have also been found, with one being radiocarbon-dated to between 1230 and 1280. This shipwreck is now about 17 meters long, but the ship was probably around 22 meters long when it was in use. As the ship was made of timber from
oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
, it was most likely built in southern Scandinavia.Elvestad, 2002, p. 7. More odd items found is a musical instrument known as a "Pilgrim's horn", made in the German town of
Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...
in the 15th century where such horns are known to have been used at coronation ceremonies or religious holidays, and a mortar made of
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
basalt. This is evidences of contact across the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
. There has not been found any certain traces of Notow on land, but Bukkøy presently is covered in a rather thick pine forest, making searches more difficult.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* *{{citation, url=https://secure.vikingkings.com/Shared/Image.aspx?IsDoc=true&imageID=aa782480-a398-46a7-84a0-212152fb8090, title=Middelalderhavnen ved Avaldsnes, publisher=Stavanger Sjøfartsmuseum, last=Elvestad, first=Endre, year=2003 Karmøy