Smedersen

For thousands of years the Solling was an extensive forest, moor and pastureland region, remaining largely without settlements. It was however, an important economic hinterland for the inhabitants of the Weser and Leine valleys and the bordering basin areas, supporting woods and pastureland as well as hunting and fishing opportunity. The earliest traces of grave mounds, possible pasturelands as well as evidence of transhumance and scattered settlement probably date from the later Neolithic (4./3rd millennium B.C.) and most certainly to the Bronze Age (ca. 1500-800 B.C.) as indicated by finds of pottery and burials. In the Pre-roman Iron Age, this type of small settlement pattern seems to continue.

During the 8th-9th centuries, the population of the Weserbergland showed a considerable increase, and it was during this time that a majority settlements, still now existing, appear to have been founded or exhibited expansion. A network of small, medium and some larger villages was established, most likely by rich, important noble Saxon families such as the Billinge and the Immedinger. In marked contrast to the hilly landscape west of the river Weser, the Solling was only systematically settled along its borders and in the surrounds of the Uslar basin, so it is remarkable that in late Saxon or early Carolingian times, a settlement was founded 290 metres above sea level in the south-west Solling. The village was named after Smithered, perhaps a member of the princely family of the Engern (one of three parts of the Saxon tribal community). Around 800, a line of small, periodically-used sites appeared between the imperial palace of Herstelle and Hethis in the central Solling, the monastic predecessor of the imperial abbey of Corvey, and notably close to Smitheredeshusun.