Crafts and Social Networks in Viking Towns

A Viking-Age comb was a small object, but making one required materials, tools and skills that did not travel on their own. Workshop debris and unfinished objects can help archaeologists work out how crafts were learned, how makers exchanged knowledge and what connected towns across northern Europe.

Edited by Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk, this collection moves through comb-making, textile production, ceramics, blacksmithing and metalworking. The contributors examine the traces of production rather than just the finished goods, looking for relationships between craftspeople, workshops and places. An antler offcut or a metalworking tool can tell us something about how a town grew, one working connection at a time.