Networks and nodal points: the emergence of towns in early Viking Age Scandinavia

• Autores: Søren M. Sindbæk
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 81, Nº 311, 2007, págs. 119-132
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Did towns return to early medieval Europe through political leadership or economic expansion? This paper turns the spotlight on a particular group of actors, the long-distance traders, and finds that they stimulated proto-towns of a special kind among the Vikings. While social and economic changes, and aristocratic advantage, were widespread, it was the largely self-directed actions of these intrepid merchants which created what the author calls �the nodal points.� One can think of many other periods and parts of the world in which this type of non-political initiative may well have proved pivotal.