In this volume, Steven Ashby, well-known for his work on Viking Age craft production and technology, and Søren Sindbæk, noted for his research on Viking towns and early medieval urbanism, have teamed up to edit a wonderful and insightful volume on crafting and social networks during the Viking Age. The contributors to the volume are experts on the particular craft technologies that they discuss and, thus, have the depth of knowledge necessary to explore individual craft productions and put them into the wider context of the economic, communication, and social networks that developed in early medieval northern Europe. By using distinct classes of crafts, their production processes, and their contextual, spatial, and temporal variations, this book allows for a more informed understanding of Viking Age networks. This is all added to by the excellent use of high-quality images.

Craft production within both anthropology and archaeology has been relatively understudied, with the exception of within the realm of museums and collections (Greiner & Pöpper, Reference Greiner, Pröpper, Wonneberger, Gandelsman-Trier and Dorsch2016). The reinvigoration of artefact studies has led to recent works that incorporate the process of craft making in order to achieve a better social and economic understanding of the societies in which items were created (Abraham, Reference Abraham, Abraham, Gullapalli, Raczek and Rizvi2013; Stirling & Milek, Reference Stirling and Milek2015). This volume contributes to this overall trend in research, using theoretical frameworks to interpret the social and economic implications of craft production and specialization. The authors illuminate the complex nature of various craft activities that took place in Viking towns; and, by doing so, they illustrate the complex interplay of the social, commercial, and knowledge-based networks that existed in early medieval northern Europe.

The book begins with an introduction, ‘Crafting the Urban Network’, written by the editors in which they explore the theoretical premise of the volume with discussions on urbanism, actor-network-theory, and technology transfer. Ashby and Sindbæk put forth the suggestion that Viking towns are evidence of network urbanism as defined by Hohenberg and Lees (Reference Hohenberg and Lees1985). Although this is an interesting proposition, it does not seem to play a significant role in the rest of the book, other than to say that the Viking towns were connected to each other through numerous networks that are demonstrated by the various craft activities. In Chapter 2 Johan Callmer suggests the study of five foci in order to understand craft production on a more holistic level: materials, tools, activities, specific knowledge, and society. Both materials and tools are identifiable within the archaeological record and activities and specific knowledge can be ascertained through reconstructions; however, as the author points out, the fifth focus, society, is rather difficult to understand. That being said, throughout the volume these foci are examined, and more knowledge about Viking Age society as a whole is gained.

Following these two introductory chapters, the book is divided into three parts, with each having a short introduction written by the editors. Part One begins with Ashby and Sindbæk (Ch. 3) giving brief descriptions of Peacock's (Reference Peacock1982) many classifications for pre-modern craft production, all while pointing out the forms that likely existed during the Viking Age. The following chapters in Part One consider crafts that fall primarily within the household sphere. Ailsa Mainman (Chapter 4) uses early medieval (ad 700–1000) pottery assemblages from eastern England in order to examine the ways in which craft activities developed and the way communication networks formed within society. She centres her discussion on the case study of York, utilizing pottery, as well as other artefacts, in order to view the different craft practices that were established, and the shifting tastes and activities formed between ad 700–1000. While York itself did not produce evidence of a ceramic industry, there is ample evidence of the trade and communication networks that formed specifically for the purpose of procuring ceramics from other areas, most prominently Lincolnshire.

In Chapter 5, Penelope Walton Rogers explores the networks surrounding the textile trade and how this predominantly female activity might have led to differences in the nature and formation of the networks. While there appears to be little evidence of textile trade between Scandinavia and Britain and Ireland, long-distance trade of highly valued finished products and specialist items, e.g. silk and madder, utilized in the creation of more valuable textiles, is well known. However, the vast majority of textile-making materials were derived from the hinterlands and the final products tended to be traded on a local and regional level.

Part Two focuses on specialist craft productions within urban settings. Ashby and Sindbæk (Ch. 6) introduce this section by presenting the crafts that appear to take place predominantly in urban settings, i.e. glass-bead making, non-ferrous metalworking, leather-making, and bone and antler working. The following Chapters 7 and 8 focus on comb-making during the Viking Age, with Callmer (Ch. 7) taking a macro-scale perspective with a discussion of the tools and techniques utilized and the introduction of a splitting-typology that includes sixty variants of combs from Scandinavia and the Baltic. Ashby (Ch. 8) applies a multi-scalar approach, mapping the technological innovations in comb-making and forming a new theoretical framework that he designates as ‘chains of innovation’ (Fig. 8.9). Ashby uses biographies of specific combs in order to develop this new theoretical apparatus and to illustrate its utility in artefact studies, seeking to reconstruct the various influences that act on technologies and ‘the network of choices through which a given comb-maker may have navigated’ (p. 167).

In Chapter 9, Patrick Ottaway presents an overview of developments in blacksmithing in early medieval England and northern Europe, which showed a steady increase in ironwork from the seventh century onwards. Through his observations of near continual innovation within blacksmithing, Ottaway sees the urban centres as the locations of communication between merchants and travellers, who brought new products and ideas, and the local populations, who chose what best suited them and made what modifications they found necessary. The innovations brought into iron work were not only stylistic, but also procedural, with a variety of manufacturing techniques and surface treatments being developed and used. His analysis highlights regional differences in blacksmithing techniques, but with an underlying commonality in certain methods which shows a degree of communication throughout northern Europe.

Part Three of the book begins with Ashby and Sindbæk (Ch. 10) outlining the complex nature of non-ferrous metal-working and the degree to which collaboration would have occurred. While gold and silversmiths were more than likely self-contained, copper-alloy work seems to have been more collaborative, showing more of a manufactory process than the other industries previously examined in the volume. The degree of collaboration exhibited seems to have necessitated the growth of the copper-alloy industry within an urban setting, which the authors suggest as one of the primary reasons for the establishment of craft production within urban settings. Chapters 11 and 12 continue in this vein, with discussions on non-ferrous metalworking. Unn Pedersen (Ch. 11) paints a complex picture of the non-ferrous metalworking process in Viking Age Scandinavian towns, illustrating the multiplicity of techniques that could be utilized in order to create the same item. The complexity of this type of craft production likely correlates with the variety of items being created, all of differing values, illustrating the complex economic system that existed in these multi-faceted communities.

In the final contribution (Ch. 12), Walton Rogers examines how ideas, objects, and technical innovations were exchanged by looking at local and long-distance commercial networks, outside influences on local populations, and the spread of artefacts from their location of production. In her concluding remarks she highlights four features that she observed in her research into non-ferrous metal-working: different kinds of networks can intersect within the same craft, networks can change rapidly, systems vary on a regional basis, and both one-way and reciprocal interchanges can occur (p. 278). While her comments are based on non-ferrous metal crafting research, they can be applied to most, if not all, of the other crafts discussed.

One of the outcomes of the volume is that the contributors have largely unravelled the traditional notion of itinerant craftspeople. The overarching view presented in the book is that of location-based craft production with networks that move the ideas and goods rather than individual, mobile craftspeople. Ashby and Sindbæk see the entanglement of different craft productions, both on a social and material level, as the driving factor for artisans moving to an urban setting. While their arguments are generally convincing, their rejection of the idea that specialized craftspeople operated in towns because they would have easier access to consumers seems problematic when compared to wider research on craft production and specialization. For example, Hirth's (Reference Hirth2009) work on craft specialization in Mesoamerica has shown that a lack of consistent demand for a product is likely to lead to intermittent production or a diversification in crafts. But with the constant demand that an urban setting would elicit, craftspeople would have been able to concentrate on honing their skills for their particular craft and expanding their breadth of knowledge and lines of communication.

To conclude, despite some minor critical remarks, this book is highly recommended: it is a fascinating read with contributions by several experts in Viking Age craft production. The importance of studying both the material remains of the craft making process and the social systems in which they are created is emphasized throughout. In laying out a framework for the study of production, the book has created a foundation for future studies on crafts and their place and influence within societies.