Crafts and Social Networks in Viking Towns explores the interface between craft, communication networks, and urbanisation in Viking-Age northern Europe. Viking-period towns were the hubs of cross-cultural communication of their age, and innovations in specialised crafts provide archaeologists with some of the best evidence for studying this communication. The integrated results presented in these papers have been made possible through the sustained collaboration of a group of experts with complementary insights into individual crafts. Results emerge from recent scholarly advances in the study of artefacts and production: first, the application of new analytical techniques (e.g. metallographic, isotopic, and biomolecular techniques) and second, the shift in interpretative focus from a concern with object function to considerations of processes of production, and of the social agency of technology. Furthermore, the introduction of social network theory and actor-network theory has redirected attention toward the process of communication, and highlighted the significance of material culture in the learning and transmission of cultural knowledge, including technology. The volume brings together leading UK and Scandinavian archaeological specialists to explore crafted products and workshop-assemblages from Viking towns, in order to clarify how such long-range communication worked in pre-modern northern Europe. Contributors assess the implications for our understanding of early towns and the long-term societal change catalysed by them, including the initial steps towards commercial economies. Results are analysed in relation to social network theory, social and economic history, and models of communication, setting an agenda for further research. The volume provides a landmark statement on our knowledge of Viking-Age craft and communication.

The late Hellenistic period, spanning the 2nd and early 1st centuries BC, was a time of great tumult and violence thanks to nearly incessant warefare. At the same time the period saw the greatest expansion of 'Hellenistic' Greek culture, including ceramics. Papers in this volume explore problems of ceramic chronology (often based on evidence dependent on the violent nature of the period), survey trends in both production and consumption of Hellenistic ceramics particularly in Asia Minor and the Pontic region, and assess the impact of Hellenistic ceramic culture across much of the eastern Mediterranean and into the Black Sea.

The Viking Age is marked out as a watershed for profound cultural and social changes in northern societies: from the spread of Christianity to urbanization and political centralization. Interaction across boundaries or within communities constitutes the substance of the events of this dynamic period, and is prominently reflected in the legacy of the period. The investigation of social networks and cultural encounters has formed an active focus of Viking Studies in recent years, from the mapping of geographical interaction attested by the archaeological and scientific evidence to the analysis of social relations in written records and literature. Meanwhile, the memory and heritage of the Viking Age has been a matter of profound fascination for later generations, from medieval historians and saga writers to contemporary novelists, artists and popular media. The legacy of the Viking Age maintains a strong impact in the present as a matter of pride, but also prejudice. These themes are explored and linked in this major volume, which presents the proceedings from the 18th Viking Congress, held in Denmark in 2017. Since 1946 the Viking Congress has been a common forum for current research and theories within Viking-Age studies, bringing together leading scholars in the fields of Archaeology, History, Philology, Place-name studies, Numismatics, Runology and other disciplines, including the natural sciences, relevant to the study of the Viking Age.

The Viking Age was ignited by the art of building seaworthy sailing ships and the skills to sail them on the open sea. The growth in seafaring, trade, piracy, and exploration that began to gather momentum during the 8th century CE was not limited to Europe s northern seas, however. Ships, laden with cargo and with seafarers who met foreign cultures, created unexpected connections between people from the Arctic Circle to the oceans south of the equator. Travel accounts have handed down glimpses of these voyages to the present day. However, it is archaeological discoveries in particular which uncover the story of Viking-Age seafaring and voyages of exploration. The World in the Viking Age reveals a global history concerning ships, people and objects on the move. It is a story that challenges entrenched ideas about the past and present, and the skills and opportunities of previous generations."