Viking-Age Transformations ─ Trade, Craft and Resources in Western Scandinavia

The Viking Age was a period of profound change, as kingdoms were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cosmological framework and towns were formed. This book examines the central backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia. With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of uncultivated land and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing standardisation of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural areas and central markets.

Thematically organised into sections addressing the nature and extent of trade in both marginal and centralized areas; production and the social, legal and economic aspects of exploiting natural resources and distributing products; and the various markets and sites of trade and consumption, Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and economic practice, as the rural economy and monetary system developed in conjunction with nascent state power and the legal system.

A theoretically informed and empirically grounded collection that reveals the manner in which relationships of production and consumption transformed Scandinavian society with their influence on the legal and fiscal division of the landscape, this volume will appeal to scholars of archaeology, the history of trade and Viking studies.

Zanette Tsigaridas Glorstad is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.

Kjetil Loftsgarden, is a research fellow in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway.