Description
Book SynopsisThis volume offers an interdisciplinary and geographically wide-ranging approach to understanding the emergence of towns and commerce in Viking-age Scandinavia and their eventual demise by the end of the period. It tracks the diverging characteristics of urban communities against the background of traditional social structures in the Viking world.
Trade Review'In world archaeology, the Baltic Sea in the Viking Age is blessed by 150 years of exceptional excavations and study. This compelling book maps the rise and importance of towns and trade, drawing on this research. It uniquely describes how special economic zones serviced the Viking homelands, intersecting with the sea kings in the West and the Caliphate in the East. More, Kalmring skilfully shows this was part of a larger European history, in which archaeological evidence brings to life the essential background to Viking piracy and colonisation. It is a tour de force worthy of the rich archaeology of the Baltic.' Richard Hodges, OBE, FSE, author of Dark Age Economics: A New Audit (2012)
Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The Viking-age town: Context and academic debate; 3. The Viking world; 4. Cult, jurisdiction and markets: Things and regional fairs at traditional centres of power; 5. Local society and Viking-age towns; 6. An urbanisation based on harbours; 7. Jurisdiction and taxes; 8. Free trade within narrow boundaries; 9. Special economic zones of their time; 10. Development after the inception phase; 11. Discussion: Hedeby's abandonment and the foundation of Slesvig; 12. Summary and conclusions.
