Original version
Encounters, Excavations and Argosies. Essays for Richard Hodges. 2017, 291-299
Abstract
The post-Roman rise in trade, urbanisation, monetisation, and kingship are prominent fields of research in early medieval archaeology and history (e.g. Henning 2007; Hodges 2000; McCormick 2001; Sindbæk 2007; Wickham 2009; regarding western Scandinavia, see Skre 2017). Are these processes dependent on each other, and if so – how? While Richard Hodges in his seminal book, Dark Age Economics (1982), mainly explored the first two themes, this essay will address monetisation. ‘Type A emporia’ as Hodges called Scandinavian 8th– 10th-century urban communities, or ‘towns’ as I have chosen to designate them (Skre 2007, 2008), played a significant role in his book, and are the starting point of my discussion here.