Trelleborg in numbers

Huge amounts
The building of the fortress required enormous quantities of building materials, all gathered by simple means. It is not known how many people took part in the work, but in an age when the only tool for digging was a simple wooden spade and masses of earth had to be moved on carts or sledges, then several thousand people must have been involved.

8,000 cubic metres of clay-filled earth was used for raising and levelling the south-western area of the fortress prior to building.

Inside the rampart, a turf core was laid, made from the turf of 650,000 square metres of meadowland – equal to 130 football pitches.

For the stone packing of the gates and along the foot of the rampart, approximately 3,000 cubic metres of stone was required.

For the moat, about 12,500 cubic metres of clay-filled earth was dug out and used in the rampart along with some 5,500 cubic metres of material from other places.

Around 1,800 young ash trees were used for wickerwork at the foot of the rampart.

For the construction of palisades, houses and streets and so on, some 8,000 fully grown oak trees were used, the majority of which were about 200 years old, with a diameter of 120-130 cm and 8 to 10 metres in length.