Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:57:48.154Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The réseau opératoire of Urbanization: Craft Collaborations and Organization in an Early Medieval Workshop in Ribe, Denmark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Sarah Croix ,
Michael Neiß  and
Søren M. Sindbæk
Sarah Croix
Affiliation:
School of Culture and SocietyAarhus UniversityMoesgård allé 20 8270 HøjbjergDenmark Email: marksc@cas.au.dk
Michael Neiß
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient HistoryUppsala UniversityThunbergsvägen 3 752 38 UppsalaSweden Email: michael.neiss@arkeologi.uu.se
Søren M. Sindbæk
Affiliation:
School of Culture and SocietyAarhus UniversityMoesgård allé 20 8270 HøjbjergDenmark Email: farksms@cas.au.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper proposes that the organization of crafts may be a key catalyst in the emergence of urban communities. This is argued through a reassessment of finds from a non-ferrous metal workshop from the eighth century excavated in Ribe, Denmark. We analyse 3D laser scans in order to classify previously unidentified mould fragments, which show that the workshop produced a range of metal parts for composite products like wooden chests, belts and horse harnesses. Such production required an operational network, or réseau opératoire, to combine the necessary skills and expertise of several artisanal specializations. The need for collaboration between specialized craftspeople would have been a decisive incentive for the formation of permanent communities of an urban character. These observations point to a neglected bottom-up driver for the development of early urbanization.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 345 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrosiani, K., 1981. Viking Age Combs, Comb Making and Comb Makers in the Light of Finds from Birka and Ribe. (Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 2.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Andrews, P. (ed.), 1997. Excavations at Hamwic 2: Excavations at Six Dials. (CBA Research Report 109/Southampton Archaeology Monograph 7.). York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Arbman, H., 1940. Birka I: Tafeln. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Ashby, S.P., Coutu, A.N. & Sindbæk, S.M., 2015. Urban networks and Arctic outlands: craft specialists and reindeer antler in Viking towns. European Journal of Archaeology 18(4), 679–704.Google Scholar
Barfod, G., 2016. Micro-XRF Analysis of Crucible Fragments from ASR 7 Sct Nicolajgade 8, Ribe, Denmark. Unpublished report, Aarhus University.Google Scholar
Bencard, M. & Jørgensen, L.B., 1990. Excavations and stratigraphy, in Ribe Excavations 1970–76 4, eds. Bencard, M., Jørgensen, L.B. & Madsen, H.B.. Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag, 15–168.Google Scholar
Callmer, J., 2002. North-European trading centres and the early medieval craftsman: craftsmen at Åhus, north-eastern Scania, Sweden ca. AD 750–850+, in Central Places in the Migration and Merovingian Periods: Papers from the 52nd Sachsensymposium, Lund, August 2001, eds. Hårdh, B. & Larsson, L.. (Uppåkrastudier 6/Acta Archaeologica Lundensia Ser. in 8° 39) Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell, 125–58.Google Scholar
Callmer, J., 2003. Wayland: an essay on craft production in the early and high middle ages in Scandinavia, in Centrality – Regionality: The social structure of southern Sweden during the Iron Age, eds. Larsson, L. & Hårdh, B.. (Uppåkrastudier 7/Acta Archaeologica Lundensia Ser. in 8° 40.) Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell, 337–61.Google Scholar
Callmer, J., 2007. Urbanisation in northern and eastern Europe ca. AD 700–1100. Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium 1, 233–70.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G., 1950. The urban revolution. The Town Planning Review 21(1), 3–17.Google Scholar
Christensen, A.E., Ingstad, A.S. & Myhre, B., 1992. Osebergdronningens Grav: Vår Arkeologiske Nasjonalskatt i Nytt Lys. Oslo: Schibsted.Google Scholar
Christophersen, A., 1982. Den urbana varuproduktionens oppkomst og betydning for den tidigmiddelalderske byutviklingen. Bebyggelseshistorisk Tidskrift 3 (Den Medeltida Staden), 104–22.Google Scholar
Christophersen, A., 2015. Performing towns. Steps towards an understanding of medieval urban communities as social practice. Archaeological Dialogues 22, 109–32.Google Scholar
Clark, J.E., 2007. In craft specialization's penumbra: things, persons, action, value, and surplus. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 17(1), 20–35.Google Scholar
Clarke, H., & Ambrosiani, B., 1991. Towns in the Viking Age. London: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Costin, C.L, 2001. Craft production systems, in Archaeology at the Millennium: A sourcebook, eds. Feinman, G.M. & Douglas, T.. New York (NY): Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 273–327.Google Scholar
Cotton, A.R., 1933. Saxon discoveries at Fetcham. Antiquaries Journal 13, 48–51.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G.L., 2004. Origins and development of urbanism: archaeological perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 525–49.Google Scholar
Croix, S., 2015. Permanency in early medieval emporia: reassessing Ribe. European Journal of Archaeology 18(3), 497–523.Google Scholar
Croix, S., forthcoming. Contextual analysis and site biography: an integrated approach to urban life in 8th century Ribe, in Urban Biographies, eds. Raja, R. & Sindbæk, S.M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dobres, M-A., 2000. Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a practice framework for archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dobres, M-A., 2014. Concluding and future thoughts on material crossovers, in Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World, ed. Rebay-Salisbury, K., Brysbaert, A. & Foxhall, L.. New York (NY): Routledge, 199–204.Google Scholar
Feveile, C., 2002. Støbning af ovale skålspænder i Ribe: type- og teknikvariation, in Metalhåndværk og Håndværkspladser fra Yngre Germansk Jernalder, Vikingetid og Tidlig Middelalder, ed. Henriksen, M.B.. (Rapport fra et seminar på Hollufgård den 22. oktober 2001: Skrifter fra Odense Bys Museer 9.) Odense: Odense Bys Museer, 17–26.Google Scholar
Feveile, C., 2006a. Ribe on the north side of the river, 8th–12th century, in Det Ældste Ribe: Udgravninger på Nordsiden af Ribe Å 1984–2000, ed. Feveile, C.. (Ribe Studier 1.1.) Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, 65–92.Google Scholar
Feveile, C., 2006b. ASR 1000 Ribelund II, in Det Ældste Ribe: Udgravninger på Nordsiden af Ribe Å 1984–2000, ed. Feveile, C.. (Ribe Studier 1.2.) Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, 267–86.Google Scholar
Feveile, C. (ed.), 2006c. Det Ældste Ribe: Udgravninger på Nordsiden af Ribe Å 1984–2000. (Ribe Studier 1.1 & 1.2.) Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.Google Scholar
Feveile, C., 2008. Series X and coin circulation in Ribe: two decades of discovery. Studies in Early Medieval Coinage 1, 53–68.Google Scholar
Feveile, C. & Jensen, S., 2006. ASR 9 Posthuset, in Det Ældste Ribe: Udgravninger på Nordsiden af Ribe Å 1984–2000, ed. Feveile, C.. (Ribe Studier 1.2.) Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, 119–89.Google Scholar
Flad, R.K. & Hruby, Z.X., 2007. ‘Specialized’ production in archaeological contexts: rethinking specialization, the social value of products, and the practice of production. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 17(1), 1–19.Google Scholar
Frandsen, L.B. & Jensen, S., 1988. Pre-Viking and early Viking age Ribe: excavations at Nicolajgade 8, 1985–1986. Journal of Danish Archaeology 6, 175–89.Google Scholar
Frandsen, L.B. & Jensen, S., 2006. ASR 7 Sct Nicolajgade 8, in Det Ældste Ribe: Udgravninger på Nordsiden af Ribe Å 1984–2000, ed. Feveile, C.. (Ribe Studier 1.2.) Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, 9–64.Google Scholar
Gebers, W., 2004. Auf dem Weg nach Walhal: Die Pferde der Altsachsen, Begleiter in Leben und Tod. Lohne: Industrie-Museum Lohne.Google Scholar
Helmbrecht, M., 2011. Wirkmächtige Kommunikationsmedien: Menschenbilder der Vendel- und Wikingerzeit und ihre Kontexte. Lund: Lunds Universitet.Google Scholar
Henderson, J., 2000. The Science and Archaeology of Materials: An investigation of inorganic materials. New York (NY): Routledge.Google Scholar
Hill, D., 2001. End piece: definitions and superficial analysis, in Wics: The early medieval trading centres of northern Europe, eds. Hill, D. & Cowie, R.. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 75–84.Google Scholar
Hodges, R., 2000. Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne. London: Bristol Classical Press.Google Scholar
Hodges, R., 2012. Dark Age Economics: A new audit. London: Bristol Classical Press.Google Scholar
Holback, T.J., (1999). Svårtolkade spår efter en metallurgisk process–ett danskt exempel och dess paralleller i omvärlden. By, marsk og geest 11, 5–12.Google Scholar
Hybel, N., & Poulsen, B., 2007. The Danish Resources c. 1000–1550. Growth and recession. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J., 2016. The Economy of Cities. New York (NY): Vintage.Google Scholar
Jankuhn, H., 1983. Vorbemerkungen zu den archäologischen Beiträgen, in Das Handwerk in vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Zeit. Teil II: Archäologische und philologische Beiträge, eds. Jankuhn, H., Janssen, W., Schmidt-Wiegand, R. & Tiefenbach, H.. (Bericht über die Kolloquien der Kommission für Altertumskunde Mittel- und Nordeuropas in den Jahren 1977–1980: Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 123). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 7–11.Google Scholar
Jansson, I., 1985. Ovala spännbucklor: en studie av vikingatida standardsmycken med utgångspunkt från Björkö-fynden. PhD thesis, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Jennings, J. & Earle, T.K., 2016. Urbanization, state formation, and cooperation: a reappraisal. Current Anthropology 57, 474–93.Google Scholar
Jensen, S., 1991. The Vikings of Ribe. Ribe: Den Antikvariske Samling.Google Scholar
Jervis, B., 2016. Assemblage theory and town foundation in Medieval England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26(3), 381–95.Google Scholar
Klindt-Jensen, O. & Wilson, D.M., 1965. Vikingetidens Kunst. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet.Google Scholar
Latham, A., 2009. Urban life, in Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, ed. Hutchison, R.. New York (NY): Sage, 891–4.Google Scholar
Latour, B., 2005. Reassembling the Social: An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, L., 1964. Le geste et la parole. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Linaa, J. 2015. Crafts in the landscape of the powerless. A combmaker's workshop at Viborg Soendersoe AD 1020–1024, in Everyday Products in the Middle Ages: Crafts, consumption and the individual in northern Europe c. AD 800–1600, eds. Hansen, G., Ashby, S.P. & Baug, I.. Oxford: Oxbow, 69–90.Google Scholar
Lønborg, B., 1994. Masseproduktion av urnesfibler! Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1992 (1994), 370–78.Google Scholar
Lønborg, B., 1998. Vikingetidens Metalbearbejdning. (Fynske studier 17.) Odense: Odense Bys Museer.Google Scholar
Madsen, H.B., 1984. Metal-casting, techniques, production and workshops, in Ribe Excavations 1970–1976 2, ed. Bencard, M.. Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag, 15–189.Google Scholar
Mainman, A.J. & Rogers, N.S.H., 2000. Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Finds from Anglo-Scandinavian York. York: Council for British Archaeology for York Archaeological Trust.Google Scholar
McCormick, M., 2007. Where do trading towns come from? Early medieval Venice and the northern emporia. Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium 1, 41–68.Google Scholar
Neiß, M., Wärmländer, S.K.T.S. & Sholts, S.B., 2012. 3D-laserskanning som verktyg vid vikingatidsstudier: rekonstruktion och analys av fyra barockspännen. Viking 75, 145–80.Google Scholar
Neiß, M., Wärmländer, S.K.T.S. & Sholts, S.B., 2013. 3D-laserscanning as a tool for Viking Age studies, in Virtual Archaeology: Nondestructive methods of prospections, modelling, reconstructions (Виртуальная археология: неразрушающие методы исследований, моделирование, реконструкции) (Proceedings of the First International Conference held at the State Hermitage Museum 4–6 June 2012 St. Petersburg/Материалы Первой Международной конференции, состоявшейся в Государственном Эрмитаже 4–6 июня 2012 г.), ed. Hookk, D.Yu.. St Petersburg: State Hermitage Publishers, 170–84.Google Scholar
Oexle, J., 1992. Studien zu merowingerzeitlichem Pferdegeschirr am Beispiel der Trensen. Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern.Google Scholar
Oldeberg, A., 1966. Metallteknik under vikingatid och medeltid. Stockholm: Seelig.Google Scholar
Orfanou, V. & Birch, T., 2018. Viking-age metals and urbanisation: the case of Ribe in Denmark, in Urban Network Evolutions. Towards a high-definition archaeology, eds. Raja, R. & Sindbæk, S.. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 189–95.Google Scholar
Ottaway, P., 2004. Ribe ironworks, in Ribe Excavations 1970–1976 2, eds. Bencard, M., Rasmussen, A.K. & Madsen, H.B.. Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag, 103–72.Google Scholar
Parkinson, W.A., Nakassis, D. & Galaty, M.L., 2013. Crafts, specialists, and markets in Mycenaean Greece: introduction. American Journal of Archaeology 117(3), 413–22.Google Scholar
Pedersen, U., 2015. Urban craftspeople at Viking-age Kaupang, in Everyday Products in the Middle Ages: Crafts, consumption and the individual in northern Europe c. AD 800–1600, eds. Hansen, G., Ashby, S.P. & Baug, I.. Oxford: Oxbow, 51–68.Google Scholar
Pedersen, U., 2016. Into the Melting Pot: Non-ferrous metalworkers in Viking-period Kaupang. (Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series 4.) Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Pirenne, H., [1927] 2014. Medieval Cities: Their origins and the revival of trade. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ramquist, P.H., 1992. Högom 1. Neumünster: Wachholtz.Google Scholar
Rebay-Salisbury, K., Brysbaert, A. & Foxhall, L., 2014. Material crossovers: Introduction, in Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World, ed. Rebay-Salisbury, K., Brysbaert, A. & Foxhall, L.. New York (NY): Routledge, 11–16.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., 1994. Childe and the study of culture process, in The Archaeology of V. Gordon Childe, ed. Harris, D.R.. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press, 121–33.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., 2008. The city through time and space: transformations of centrality, in The Ancient City: New perspectives on urbanism in the Old and New World, eds. Marcus, J. & Sabloff, J.A.. Santa Fe (NM): School for Advanced Research Press, 29–52.Google Scholar
Rimbert, G.W., 1961. Vita Anskarii, in Quellen des 9. und 11. Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der hamburgischen Kirche und des Reiches, eds. Trillmich, W. & Buchner, R.. (Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters 11.) Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 16–133.Google Scholar
Sage, W., Helmuth, H., Ankner, D. & Hundt, H.-J., 1984. Das Reihengråberfeld von Altenerding in Oberbayern. Berlin: Mann.Google Scholar
Schortman, E.M. & Urban, P.A., 2004. Modeling the roles of craft production in ancient political economies. Journal of Archaeological Research 12(2), 185–226.Google Scholar
Sindbæk, S.M. 2007. Networks and nodal points: the emergence of towns in early Viking Age Scandinavia. Antiquity 81, 119–32.Google Scholar
Sindbæk, S.M., 2011. Urban crafts and oval brooches: style, innovation and social networks in Viking age towns, in Viking Settlements and Viking Society, ed. Sigmundsson, S.. (Papers from the Proceedings of the 16th Viking Congress.) Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press, 409–23.Google Scholar
Skre, D., 2007a. Towns and markets, kings and central places in south-western Scandinavia, in Kaupang in Skiringssal, ed. Skre, D.. (Kaupang Excavation Project Publications Series 1.) Oslo: Aarhus University Press, 445–69.Google Scholar
Skre, D., 2007b. Preparing the new campaign, in Kaupang in Skiringssal, ed. Skre, D.. (Kaupang Excavation Project Publications Series 1.) Oslo: Aarhus University Press, 43–51.Google Scholar
Smith, M.E., 2009. V. Gordon Childe and the urban revolution: a historical perspective on a revolution in urban studies. Town Planning Review 80(1), 3–29.Google Scholar
Smith, M.E., 2017. How can archaeologists identify early cities: definitions, types, and attributes, in Eurasia at the Dawn of History: Urbanization and social change, eds. Fernández-Götz, M. & Krausse, D.. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press, 153–68.Google Scholar
Taylor, P.J., 2012. Extraordinary cities: early ‘city-ness’ and the origins of agriculture and states. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36(3), 415–47.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G., 1986. The role of technology in V. Gordon Childe's archaeology. Norwegian Archaeological Review 19(1), 1–14.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G., 2003. Understanding Early Civilizations: A comparative study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ulbricht, I., 1978. Die Geweihverarbeitung in Haithabu. (Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu 7.). Neumünster: Wachholtz.Google Scholar
Ur, J. 2014. Households and the emergence of cities in ancient Mesopotamia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 24(2), 249–68.Google Scholar
Verhulst, A., 2002. The Carolingian Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
von Carnap-Bornheim, C. & Ilkjær, J., 1996. Illerup Ådal 5: Die Prachtausrüstungen. Århus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Wailes, B., 1996. Gordon Childe and the relations of production, in Craft Specialization and Social Evolution: In memory of V. Gordon Childe, ed. Wailes, B.. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3–16.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1921. Die Stadt. Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 47(3), 621–772.Google Scholar
Wickham, C., 2009. The Inheritance of Rome. A history of Europe from 400 to 1000. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Wirth, L., 1938. Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology 44(1), 1–24.Google Scholar