Project Manager
Andersson, ChristerProject manager
Halland county museumsAmount granted
250 000 SEKYear
2011
At the height of its development, Ås Monastery was the largest brick building in Halland, covering between 250 and 300 farms in northern Halland. After the Reformation, the church and other buildings were demolished and the material was reused at Varberg Fortress. In 2010, a ground-penetrating radar survey was carried out when we discovered the monastery, previously unknown in both location and extent. In the summer of 2011 an excavation was carried out which showed that the walls were in surprisingly good condition and a very fine stone floor was excavated. Lime samples that can date the age of the walls have been taken during this summer's excavation and a follow-up of this in future excavations provides reliable and highly interesting information about Ås monastery. For the project to be successful, in addition to the scientific report on the excavation in the form of an anthology, the written source material needs to be highlighted. A review of the medieval written source material needs to be made, i.e. collection of all evidence for farms in the two surrounding districts and for all the monastery's properties (which is not the same thing, since the monastery owned property in several places). The same farms will then be examined in the post-medieval map material. These examinations provide a basis for e.g. discussions on the role of the monastery in the local economy.