In choosing to write a book with ‘Viking-Age’ and ‘towns’ in the title, Sven Kalmring is boldly addressing one of the major issues in current research, central to the understanding of early medieval Scandinavian society—were places like Hedeby, Birka, Kaupang, and Ribe considered towns and, if so, what were their functions in their respective societies? The debate whether Viking towns were urban or not stems from a long-standing dichotomy between two perspectives: traditional archaeological interpretations of population densities and quantitative urban criteria on one side, versus more historical and definition-driven classifications of more ‘proper’ medieval, usually Christian, towns, supported by written sources on the other. From the outset, the book dives into this theme and confronts these pressing issues throughout.
Kalmring, now an associate professor at the National History Museum of Sweden, has had a long career in the archaeology of northern Europe, specialising in maritime archaeology and early medieval urbanization. Previously, he has published predominantly on Hedeby and Birka, mainly focusing on maritime and trade activities at these sites. Both are well-known and much-discussed sites among scholars thanks to a long-term and substantial body of research. Combining research history and new data from modern investigations and excavations of these sites, Kalmring, as a well-known scholar in his field, manages to bring together an impressive body of knowledge and literature in this book.
Throughout the twelve chapters of the book, Kalmring’s discussion on different aspects of Viking-Age urbanism unfolds. Following a very precise and clear—albeit a bit repetitive—line of reasoning based on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model, he seeks to define the ‘what, how, and why’ of Viking-Age towns. Starting by exploring the current body of knowledge, he first analyses ‘what’ these towns were in the context of Viking-Age Scandinavian society. He then addresses the question of ‘how’ by mapping the process of interconnectivity and the economic networks of the towns. Kalmring’s aim is to get closer to understanding the fundamental question of ‘why’ places like Hedeby, Birka, Ribe, and Kaupang first emerge in Scandinavia at this specific time (p. 3).
The author has a very good understanding of the trajectories in the field of urban archaeological research of the period, which is demonstrated both in his work to date, as well as in the initial chapters of the present book (predominantly in chapter 2). He somewhat surprisingly, but rightly, states that there ‘are but a few comprehensive publications on the Viking-age urban phenomenon’ (p. 2). It is thus necessary to link, as Kalmring does, any observations in Scandinavian towns to the continental sources and to use contemporary analogies in order to fill in gaps and expose differences.
Making his way through the research history, using definitions and terms such as ‘seehandelsplätze’, proto-towns, emporia, and Viking-Age towns the author arrives at the conclusion that ‘regardless of how these sites are defined academically, the question of the specific purpose of Viking-Age towns remains elementary to the problem’ (p. 20). Kalmring rightly points to the textual and material evidence of travellers from Scandinavia, both raiders and merchants, being in contact with many of the urban sites on the continent. These people were well aware of the ways of urban life in places like Byzantium, France, and the British Isles long before anything resembling ‘towns’ emerged in Scandinavia. Kalmring here offers a strong argument for why it is important to understand why these settlements, regardless of what we call them, appeared roughly at the same time around Scandinavia. This is especially apparent in chapter 3, where Kalmring provides a further introduction to the Viking world. The chapter presents a very good introduction to the central issues and debates in the field as well as to the geographical region, regardless of whether the reader is an undergraduate or an experienced researcher, and it lays the foundation for the following chapters.
Although Kalmring touches on the academic discussion of continental medieval and historically defined ‘proper’ towns and Christian urbanism, in many ways a different process, it is clearly not his ambition in this section of the book to delve further into this debate. For me, this is something of a missed opportunity to graft Kalmring’s research onto the current wider archaeological discussion on urbanism. For a reader who potentially and perhaps likely is not an expert on the subject, it would help to attempt to explain why the Viking Age in Scandinavia is usually defined differently than it is in the rest of Europe. While the period throughout most of Europe is seen as a part of the Middle Ages, Viking Age in Scandinavia is regarded as a separate period, characterised by an emerging but not yet dominant Christian world view, which ends with the arrival of more abundant historical sources and Christian institutions. It was not until the subsequent period, the ‘High Middle Ages’, that Scandinavia became more fully integrated with the urban and Christian networks on the continent. There has also been a tradition in Scandinavia that ‘Viking-Age towns’, such as Birka and Sigtuna, as well as other related proto- or pre-urban sites, are excavated mainly by institutions with a focus on prehistory that foremost employ Viking-Age specialists. Meanwhile, medieval and later towns, many still in use and under threat of heavy exploitation, are excavated by specialists in historical archaeology. Both have their respectively preferred traditions, methodologies, resources and juridical practices (Brendalsmo et al., Reference Brendalsmo, Eliassen and Gansum2009; see also Kjellberg, Reference Kjellberg2021: 30–34 with references). Thereby it is, and has been, a long-term desire within the discipline to explain and maintain the towns of the Viking-Age period as something different from the later ‘proper’ medieval towns in Scandinavia, focusing perhaps more on differences rather than similarities.
In the following chapters (4 to 8), Kalmring digs further into the different aspects of Viking-Age society. Here he gives a more detailed description, covering topics relevant for understanding the emerging urban landscape. Discussing topics such as the functions of traditional central-places, thing-sites, and regional fairs (chapter 4), the relationship between local rural society and Viking-Age towns (chapter 5), the functional aspects of harbours for urbanization (chapter 6), and the working mechanisms of jurisdiction and taxes (chapter 7). He concludes by mapping the narrow boundaries of free trade (chapter 8). According to Kalmring, the Viking world can be summarised as a ‘rural, and agrarian society based on communities living in individual farmsteads or small hamlets, where the population was subdivided into distinct regional groups’ (p. 131). Also, that ‘against this background, the emerging Viking-Age towns with their vast and multi-ethnic populations, and their permanent long-distance market trade, constituted utterly alien elements, which were only allowed to exist at the fringes of traditional society’ (p. 132).
In chapter 9, Kalmring makes a detour when bringing in a new concept of special economic zones, which he introduced in his previous publications (see Kalmring, Reference Kalmring, Holmquist, Kalmring and Hedenstierna-Jonson2016). The concept is borrowed from modern political and economic discourse. He concludes his review of the emerging urban world of the Viking Age by integrating the functions of these early towns as attractive places in an ‘underdeveloped’ Scandinavia, linking them to similar contexts in the modern world. Here, Kalmring almost inadvertently offers another reason to why the study of past urbanism in all its variations, including Viking-Age Scandinavia, is of relevance to understanding the challenges of our modern world. However, this represents another underexplored opportunity to link his research to an ever wider and urgent discussion with relevance for urban archaeology (see e.g. Fletcher et al., Reference Fletcher, Kim and White2023).
Concluding the narrative on historical development of Viking-Age towns in chapter 10, the author looks at the phases after their establishment and discusses why, in the end, (almost) all these towns disappeared. Most of the Viking-Age towns, except for Ribe, were deserted and replaced by medieval towns located in their vicinity. Seeing this as a development linked to the increasing power of kings and emerging states based on continental and Christian traditions, Kalmring eschews earlier research where this development was ascribed to changing maritime technologies and trade networks. Instead, the royal power, aided by ecclesiastical institutions, dictated new terms, sometimes forcefully, for both towns and commerce.
All this leads to the closing discussion in chapter 11, where the focus is on the abandonment of Hedeby and the foundation of Schleswig, before the author pulls everything together in a closing summary and conclusion in chapter 12. Although Kalmring admits early in the introduction that the main focus of the book is on Hedeby and Birka, to him the two best-known towns, the in-depth discussion (especially in chapter 11) feels a bit unbalanced. In the extensive references and literature overview that Kalmring draws upon, the sources on both Ribe and Kaupang feel a little bit anecdotal in comparison. This is partly due to the evident abundance of data from Hedeby, and partly to the fact that Kalmring’s personal knowledge of Hedeby is likely greater than that of Ribe and Kaupang, though both places are well covered by other researchers (see e.g. Sindbæk, Reference Sindbæk2022 on Ribe and the northern emporium-project and Skre, Reference Skre2007 on the Kaupang-project).
Despite these little quibbles, after reading Kalmring’s book, the reader is left with a feeling of having their knowledge enriched. With clear reasoning and argumentation, easy to follow throughout the book, the author constructs a convincing argument for Viking-Age towns, supported by material and written evidence, portraying them as very different spaces with special functions in a predominantly agrarian society. As such, they should indeed be viewed as towns in their own right, regardless of their different roles and functions by comparison with later medieval urban sites. I for one could not agree more with Kalmring that the concepts and definitions of towns are discontinuous and contextually bound, and should be examined and interpreted first and foremost from the functions and experiences in their respective societies. However, a link to the wider academic debates and issues remains rather underplayed by Kalmring, which leaves room for further publications. The role of Viking towns is poised to be more integrated within the larger archaeological discussion about global urbanism and its challenges, both from a historical and contemporary perspective.
Kalmring’s is a thought-provoking little book, punching above its weight of just over 200 pages in A5-format. Functioning well as an introduction to the subject and as a base for further exploration, it is also a welcome contribution to an academic debate that certainly will continue for many more years.
