Crafts and Social Networks in Viking Towns

Steve Ashby is a Senior Lecturer at the University of York specialising in the archaeology of medieval portable material culture and technology with a particular interest in the relationship between the various regions of Britain and Scandinavia before, during, and just after the Viking Age and application of scientific techniques and anthropological theory to the analysis of familiar materials. Søren M. Sindbæk is professor of archaeology at Aarhus University.

Highly relevant to anyone interested in the Viking Age, not just artefact and craft specialists. It sets out the basic research and chronologies, contains a wealth of new data, and importantly places these new results into the wider context of networks, thus adding individuals to the discussion. It's a book I will certainly return to.

• 1. Crafting the urban network Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk2. Craft: some pragmatic notes on the study of craft production andcraftspeople in early medieval northern Europe Johan Callmer3. Between domestic circles and urban networks Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk4. The emergence of professional pottery production: York, a case study Ailsa Mainman5. Textile networks in Viking-Age towns of Britain and Ireland Penelope Walton Rogers6. Constructing specialism Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk7. Combmaking in southern and eastern Scandinavia and theBaltic region (c. AD 700–900) Johan Callmer8. A history of combmaking: biographies of innovation in Britain,Ireland and Scandinavia Steven P. Ashby9. The archaeology of blacksmithing and the rise of urbanism inEngland and northern Europe c. 700–1100 Patrick Ottaway10. Collaboration and expert knowledge Steven P. Ashby and Søren M. Sindbæk11. From bronze-casting to non-ferrous metalworking: complexity,choices and cooperation in urban Scandinavian Viking-Age workshops Unn Pedersen12. Non-ferrous metalworking networks in Scandinavian-influencedtowns of Britain and Ireland Penelope Walton RogersList of contributors