Markets in Early Medieval Europe

Recent collaboration between the archaeological and metal-detectorist communities has transformed our understanding of early medieval economies. The great coastal emporia or wics like Hamwic, Dorestadt and Quentovic have in the past been the centre of scholarly attention. However, the identification of 'productive sites', mostly through the detection and archaeological analysis of coins, has increasingly shown how economic and cultural exchange went on at a myriad of other places, many of them inland. This book is the first to survey the evidence for inland markets and trading sites, in Anglo-Saxon England and across Scandinavian and Frankish Europe. Historians, archaeologists and numismatists review the latest evidence for these sites, and for trading relations across Europe and Scandinavia. Markets, fairs and other high-status settlements were all centres of exchange, and many of them are examined here for the first time. The interpretation of productive sites remains controversial, and an important theme of the book is the role of metal-detection in archaeology. A fierce debate still rages about the problems and values associated with this mode of recovery. This interdisciplinary volume represents a milestone in understanding the complexities of economics and settlement in early medieval Europe. By moving the debate away for the analysis of the most important sites, it offers new insights into the overall patterns of trade and exchange, and sheds new light on the economic dimension of people's lives in the early medieval period.

Major sites such as Hamwic and Dorestad typically dominate any discussion of early medieval trade and emporia - this study is altogether atypical in many ways. Comprising nineteen papers taken from a conference held at Worcester College, Oxford in 2000, the focus here is very much on the smaller, more rural trading centres and inland markets of Northern Europe. The contributors reflect very different approaches to the material, including studies that examine up-to-date historical, archaeological and numismatic evidence from Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden dating from the 7th to 9th century. The authors consider the rather controversial use of metal-detecting in identifying and defining new sites and patterns of interaction and exchange, highlighting its positive contribution. Contributors include Mark Blackburn, David Griffiths, Lars Jorgensen, Michael Metcalf, Julian D Richards, Peter Sawyer and Astrid Tummuscheit.