7
CRAFT AND INDUSTRY
During the Viking Age the manufacture of basic items such as pottery and iron tools underwent such dramatic changes that it is possible to talk of a ‘first Industrial Revolution’ (Hodges 1989). Industrial production on any scale had disappeared in England before the end of the Roman occupation, although specialised rural crafts had survived under the patronage of kings and later of the Church. Items of fine jewellery circulated as gifts and tribute, rather than being bought and sold in the market-place. Palace sites such as Cheddar also served as centres for craft specialists working in precious metals. Manorial sites often maintained control of rural resources, with weaving at Goltho, gold and silverworking at Faccombe Netherton, and mass-produced bone tools at Portchester. As urban markets developed, however, they drew craftsmen to them, and acted as centres for the exchange not only of products, but also of ideas. From the early ninth century there were experiments in methods of manufacture, and a trend towards greater standardization which allowed increased productivity. From the late ninth to early tenth century industrial production was revived across a wide range of crafts.
POTTERY
Pottery is a very durable artefact and will always survive wherever it is used. The development of the pottery industry during the Viking Age provides a useful index to the process of industrialisation.
In the early ninth century, no pottery was used over much of the West Midlands and south-west England. In other areas, including Lincoln, York and London, crude pottery was manufactured locally by hand, without the use of a fast wheel, and fired on a bonfire. Only at Ipswich in East Anglia was kiln-fired pottery produced on an industrial scale and traded both overland and along the coast from Yorkshire to Kent (Hurst 1976).
From the middle decades of the ninth century changes begin to occur at a number of centres. These developments cannot be attributed to Scandinavian settlers as they were underway before their arrival, but the adoption of industrialised wheelthrown production certainly corresponds to those areas of Mercia and the Danelaw which underwent military reorganisation (Mellor 1980;Vince 1985; 1991). They may be associated with increased marketing opportunities developing in the ninth century towns. In late ninth-century York there were the first steps towards a specialised industry with handmade wares now produced in standardised forms and fabrics (Mainman 1990). In East Anglia the Ipswich potters began to use a wheel to make cooking pots in a sandy fabric on a large scale in what is known as the Thetford tradition.
By 900 wheel-thrown pottery was manufactured over much of eastern England. The manufacture of Thetford-type wares soon spread to other East Anglian towns, and tenth-century kilns have been excavated in Pottergate, Norwich and in Thetford itself. York was producing wheel-thrown pottery by the beginning of the tenth century, and Lincoln by the mid-tenth century. In York, wheel-thrown pottery fired at a high temperature developed from the local handmade types. The simple York ware cooking pots could be produced easily by local potters unfamiliar with the wheel, and are the principal domestic ware found at Coppergate throughout the late ninth and early tenth centuries. In the East Midlands, the handmade shelly wares at sites such as Eaton Socon developed into the wheel-thrown St Neots ware. In Wessex industrial pottery production evolved more slowly out of the local handmade tradition. The first results were fairly crude and often finished by hand, but by the mid-tenth century, respectable wheel-thrown pots were being fired in single-flue kilns. The range of forms also increased, with bowls, dishes, lamps and pitchers all being thrown.
South of the Thames and in the north-west, production continued on a small scale with handmade pots fired on a bonfire continuing as the main products well into the tenth century, alongside wheel-thrown forms. Crude handmade pottery reached Cornwall in the ninth century, and continued in use well into the eleventh century. Squat cooking vessels with flat grass-marked bases and distinctive bar-lug handles form most of the assemblage at Gwithian and Mawgan Porth. The style is also found throughout the western Baltic and north Germany and was once thought to be Viking; it has since been suggested that it was introduced by Frisian traders.
By 950 industrial-scale wheel-thrown production had supplanted handmade wares at over 30 centres. This new pottery production was notably town-based: Northampton, Stamford, Stafford, Thetford and Winchester are all examples of new wares which take their names from the towns in which kilns have been discovered. Kilns have been excavated in four of the five Scandinavian boroughs; and their absence at Derby is probably due to the lack of excavation. Stafford ware, or Chester-type ware, as it is sometimes known, was produced at the Tipping Street kilns in Stafford in a Thetford ware tradition from the mid-tenth century, and soon spread throughout the Mercian burhs.
Urban potters may have had difficulty acquiring enough fuel, and for this reason, and because of the risk of fire, many kilns may still have been situated on the edges of towns. The St Neots ware potters still fired their vessels to a fairly low temperature on an open bonfire; elsewhere the single-flue kiln was now widely used. Production normally involved the use of local clays. The reputation of Stamford ware was based upon local estuarine clays found on the Fen margins which did not require additives. At Torksey, where Frankish potters brought by the Danes after their overwintering in 872 began producing a distinctive type of pottery, the fabric was rougher because of the presence of sandy quartz crystals in the local clay. For St Neots ware the clay was tempered with crushed shells.
Decoration might be added to vessels by thumbing, incising, combing, stabbing or rouletting, or by the addition of strips or stamped motifs. Glazing was relatively uncommon and was probably restricted to high-quality luxury items; a number of production sites have now been identified, but the similarities between them suggest that the potters had a common source for their techniques. It may be significant that many of the early glazed-ware production centres are also known for glass manufacture. The potters generally selected white-firing clays, enabling them to achieve a clear yellow or olive-green colour. Experiments in glazing dark reduced wares, such as at Lincoln, tended to be short-lived. Glazed pottery was generally produced according to a restricted range of forms, including spouted pitchers, lamps, and sprinklers.
The most famous pre-Conquest glazed pottery form in England is the spouted pitcher with a pale yellow, orange or green glaze produced from a fine off-white clay at Stamford, and traded throughout England (Kilmurry 1980). The start of pottery production in Stamford coincides with the Scandinavian occupation in the mid-ninth century. As the settlement developed into a town so the pottery production and trade grew. The Stamford potters specialised in four main types of pottery: cooking vessels (small pots and bowls), table wares (for food and drink), lamps, and crucibles. The distribution of their kilns suggests that there were several individual workshops, lying outside the town walls.
The crucibles and fine tableware, pitchers and jugs were exported far afield, but the bulk of Stamford production was of cooking pots which were distributed locally in south Lincolnshire. The Stamford industry may be characterised as a basic industry sustained by a local market which was growing at a rate rapid enough to support an upsurge in production and a shift to an industrial base. Glaze and red paint were used in Stamford from the beginning, in the late ninth century. Their sudden appearance suggests that they may have been introduced by foreign potters working in Stamford. These are unlikely to have been Danes, as the idea originated in northern France or the Low Countries. Nevertheless, its origin should be seen in the context of Viking disruption in north-west Europe, and the potters may have arrived ‘in the Viking baggage train’. With the interaction between Denmark and England during Knutr’s reign, and the consequent free movement of craftsmen, the glazed Stamford ware tradition spread back to Scandinavia.
Experiments with glazing local Lincoln wares in the late ninth century may also be seen as Viking-influenced, but the pottery was unsuitable and the attempts were short-lived (Gilmour 1988). In York there is little evidence for experimentation in glazes on local wares. The Early Glazed wares, which have now been identified in tenth-century levels, are all well produced and hard-fired. They are all of a very small size and may possibly have served some specialist function such as containers for oils or perfumes. The similar development of tenth-century glazed wares at Northampton, Winchester, Portchester and Michelmersh can all be seen as inspired by Stamford, or derived from the same continental origin.
CARPENTRY
The relative abundance of pottery on most sites can lead archaeologists to exaggerate its importance. Other materials which are not found as often may have been just as common at the time. Wood, for example, may have been preferred for plates, bowls and cups; and wooden barrels may have been used for storage and transport. Wooden objects may have been lavishly decorated but rarely survive, a saddle-bow from Coppergate being a rare exception. Where wood survives it is often abundant; at the Saddler Street site, Durham, six wooden vessels were recovered compared with 30 pottery ones.
Timber was used selectively, with a view to the properties of different woods. Evidence from London indicates that a variety of tree-producing land must have existed in southeast England. There must have been large areas of coppiced woodland which was harvested for wattlework, but also large oaks, sometimes up to 1m in diameter, growing in remnants of ancient forest or in former Roman managed plantations (Milne 1992). At Coppergate the post-andwattle structures were predominantly of oak, hazel and willow, whilst oak provided the massive timbers used in the later cellared buildings. Lathe turning was being carried out nearby, as there were large numbers of waste cores; many had been dumped in an abandoned building. Lathe-turned bowls and cups of maple, alder and ash were found (plate 8); indeed, the derivation of the name Coppergate is thought to be ‘the street of the cup-makers’ (Hall 1994). Specialist wood-working tools, including adzes, axes, augers and boring bits, chisels and draw knives have been found on both rural and urban sites and in metalworker’s hoards of scrap iron. The saw, however, was not known until after the Norman Conquest.
BONE, ANTLER, IVORY AND HORN WORKING
Large-scale antler and bone working, and to a lesser extent horn working, seems to be characteristic of Viking Age towns, although it is unclear whether it should be regarded as a craft or an industry (MacGregor 1985). Many of the simple types of object could have been made by anyone, although the more sophisticated combs were probably made by specialists (plate 30). Analysis of the evidence from Sweden concludes that combs were made exclusively by itinerant workers who travelled from one market to another. Antler and bone working certainly seems to have been widespread and evidence has been recovered from Chester, Ipswich, Lincoln, Northampton, Oxford and several York sites, including Coppergate, and York Minster. The distribution of offcuts and waste at Coppergate suggests that there may have been foci of activity in one or two of the buildings at different periods of the site’s history. There is insufficient debris, however, to suggest a long-term settled workshop and it has been suggested that itinerant craftsmen operated from these tenements. Significantly these craftsmen were able to adapt to changing fashions, producing objects decorated in both Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian art styles (MacGregor et al. 1999).
In Viking Age towns animal bones would have been readily available as domestic waste, although particular bones were deliberately selected for each product. Bone was used occasionally for combs, but also for pins, textile equipment, playing pieces, toggles and skates. Antler was favoured for comb making, but was also used for knife handles. In both Lincoln and York the antler was mostly from shed antlers which must have been collected in the surrounding woods, although there is rather more evidence for the hunting of deer from Lincoln (Mann 1982). Walrus ivory was also worked to produce fine mounts and fittings; elephant ivory is rare in Viking Age England, although two fragments are known from York.
STONE
Before the tenth century the development of stone quarrying for building and stone sculpture was largely in response to demand from the church. At Raunds the site of a Viking Age quarry has been identified as the source of materials for the new stone church. The quarries around Lincoln were producing stone for grave covers and also for the first generation of stone-built churches in the city. Good building stone was also quarried at sites such as Portland and the Isle of Wight, and transported over long distances of more than 80km (50 miles), for the construction of the new stone churches (Jope 1964). In Lincolnshire it is clear from the distribution of the sculpture that waterways were used to transport these large and heavy objects. Particular types of stone were sometimes selected for certain features, such as Barnack limestone for the alternate long and short ashlar blocks at the corners of church towers. Where they were available, however, Roman buildings were robbed for their dressed ashlar blocks, such as those reused in the tower of St Mary Bishophill Junior, in York. Roman stone was also exported to York’s hinterland, for use in both monuments and churches. The arches still standing in the church at Kirk Hammerton, 13.5km (8 miles) north-west of York, may have been demolished from a substantial Roman building and carefully reconstructed, piece by piece. In Yorkshire crosses and grave slabs were generally made from a single piece of local stone which was rarely transported more than 15km (c.10 miles).
In the tenth century the Scandinavian aristocracy took over the patronage of the stone masons and sculptors. Large quantities of crosses and tombstones were produced for this new market (see chapter 11). Sculptural workshops were established in towns, such as Chester and York (plate 9), or around rural sites, such as Gosforth (Cumbria). In York a group of carvers, which have been collectively termed the ‘Metropolitan School’ virtually mass produced a standard range of monuments which are found in graveyards across the city. These craftsmen inherited much of their artistic repertoire from the Anglo-Saxon church to which they added Viking Age animal ornament (see chapter 11).
The sculptor’s first task would be to give the monument its basic shape. Analysis demonstrates that templates were regularly used, to produce the shape of a cross-head for instance. The decoration would then be laid out in panels; templates and stencils were again used to produce elements of the design. Different workshops produced monuments with distinctive styles and designs. Similarities between groups of sculpture show that itinerant masons travelled between villages. It has been argued that the same template was used to provide the outline of a warrior’s helmet on a cross at Sockburn (Durham) as at Brompton (North Yorkshire), some 11km (7 miles) away, implying that the industry was carefully controlled. Chisels and punches would be used to carve the stone, which would then be decorated with bright colours. The scrubbed appearance of stone sculpture today makes it difficult to envisage the original intended appearance, which to a modern eye would have been exceptionally gaudy. Gesso, a form of plaster, was sometimes used as a base, and then black, blue, red, brown, orange, yellow and white paints would be used to highlight the design. Finally, the sculptor may have added decorative metalwork, jewellery or paste.
GLASS
Glass was used for tableware, mainly fine cups and beakers for wine consumption, and occasionally for glazing windows, where its use was restricted to stone buildings. Fragments of window glass have been found at monastic sites, such as Jarrow, Monkwearmouth and Repton, and at aristocratic sites, such as the royal manor at Old Windsor. Glass was made with soda-lime until the tenth century, when the increased demand for window glass was met by the use of potash. With the possible exception of Barking Abbey, none of the excavated sites where glazing occurs has so far yielded furnace remains, one possibility being that readymade glass was brought to the site for cutting. Glass beads and other jewellery was manufactured in towns, and glasssmelting crucibles have been found in Gloucester, Lincoln and York. At Winchester a pit excavated at the Brooks site contained a large collection of predominantly window glass, presumably brought together for recycling (Hunter and Heyworth 1998). At Coppergate a glassworking hearth may have been in operation in the late ninth century, even before the tenements were established. A group of 29 fragments, predominantly of Roman glass vessels, had been collected nearby, presumably for melting down. By the later Viking Age lead was being added to the crucibles to give the glass a sparkling appearance, like modern lead crystal. Beads, finger rings, and playing pieces were manufactured from the yellow and dark green glasses (Hall 1994).
NON-FERROUS METALWORKING
The working of copper alloys and precious metals was restricted to aristocratic sites for much of the post-Roman period, and appears to have been carried out under lordly or ecclesiastical patronage. A mould fragment from Whitby Abbey is more likely to represent monastic metalworking than Viking raiders pausing from pillage to melt down church plate. At Cheddar, gold, copper, silver, tin and lead were worked in the ninth century. Jewellery was the main product, possibly for gifts from the king to his retinue. At Faccombe Netherton, on a site adjacent to the aisled hall, copper alloys and gold were cast in the tenth century. Such communities of craftworkers must have been established at many rural manorial sites.
During the Viking Age non-ferrous metalworking also becomes an urban enterprise, and evidence has been found in several towns, including Chester, Exeter, Lincoln, Northampton, Thetford and York. At Coppergate two adjacent tenth-century tenements were occupied by metalworkers. Each had a large central hearth which may have been used for heating metals, and some 1000 crucible fragments were found, of which over 90 per cent were of Stamford ware. The smallest, no larger than a thimble, appear to have been used for melting gold, but silver, lead and copper alloys were also being worked. There is no direct evidence for the smelting of non-ferrous metals, though pieces of galena (lead ore) show that it was being brought to the city. The metalworkers were separating precious from base metals in small ceramic dishes. Contemporary finds of coin dies and trial stamps (see chapter 8) suggest that much of the silver may have been used for coinage but the main trade appears to have been jewellery production, and several unfinished objects were excavated. Any suitable material might be utilised as a mould; a Roman tile had shapes cut into it for casting blanks for brooches and pendants. Both stone and clay moulds were used for casting ingots, but soapstone moulds were selected for silver casting. Soapstone is found in Shetland, Norway, France and Sweden. Its use in York, the only site in England where it fulfils this purpose, suggests that it was brought from Shetland or Scandinavia by Scandinavian traders or craftsmen. Silver ingots would be used as the raw material for further casting, or might be hammered into arm rings. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Coppergate finds is the range of metalworking activities represented, often concentrated in the same areas, perhaps indicating sharing of workshop facilities (Bayley 1992).
At Flaxengate, Lincoln, a similar range of metals was worked in the same buildings as glass beads were being made, although silver and copper alloys decline in importance in the late tenth century, to be replaced by iron-working. Over 500 crucible fragments have been excavated from ninth- to eleventh-century levels. The crucibles were manufactured from local clays or, if they were to be used for melting silver, crucibles imported from Stamford were preferred.
During the ninth and tenth centuries the demand for brooches decorated in a Scandinavian style spread beyond those who could afford precious metals. Iron alloys and pewter became particularly popular for mass-produced jewellery (plates 11 and 31). A large number of lead alloy disc brooches appear to have been manufactured on Coppergate. They were decorated with stylised animals and plants and geometric motifs. Scandinavian Jellinge, Borre and Ringerike style elements were each manufactured in England. Designs might first be tested on ‘trial’ or ‘motif-pieces’ of waste bone (plate 13).
Recording of objects found by metal detector users has revealed large numbers of Anglo-Scandinavian-style objects in the hinterlands of the Viking Age towns (Thomas 2000). In Lindsey, for example, over 200 objects have been recorded, the vast majority being poor quality jewellery (Leahy pers comm). Many of the items are also very worn, presumably because they were everyday costume fittings. Metal detecting has also brought to light Viking objects from all over Norfolk and Suffolk (Margeson 1997). Some were made in Scandinavia; others were made locally in a Scandinavian style. Sometimes new types of artefact were created that are neither Scandinavian nor Anglo-Saxon, but represent a new cultural identity (MacGregor 1982; Tweddle 1986). The flat disc brooches so beloved of the Anglo-Saxons, now decorated with Scandinavian ornament, are a sure sign of mixed traditions. So-called Norse bells are not known from Scandinavia, but are found in Scandinavian colonies overseas from Iceland to Yorkshire. Two have been found at the Anglo-Scandinavian settlement at Cottam (plate 32); their function is unknown but they were probably decorative costume fittings. Williams (1997) has catalogued over 500 stirrup-strap mounts: decorative mounts with elements of Ringerike or Urnes style ornament, which were attached to iron stirrups. These objects have been discovered throughout lowland England but were probably in use for a relatively short period of time, between 1025-1100. Could these represent a short-lived fashion, possibly of an elite cavalry group with Scandinavian pretensions?
IRON WORKING
Iron was probably the most important raw material during the Viking Age, being essential for both tools and weapons. The blacksmith enjoyed particular prestige, and appears in Scandinavian mythological scenes depicted on stone monuments as a heroic figure, such as Weland the Smith who was lamed by the king to prevent him from escaping with his skills, or Regin who forged the magical sword used by Sigurd the dragon-slayer. A tenth-century cross from Halton (Lancashire), for example, appears to show Regin working at a raised hearth.
In Middle Saxon England there was a relatively restricted range of iron products. There were weapon smiths at a few permanent centres, including rural proto-manors such as Wharram Percy, but most smiths were itinerant or village craftsmen manufacturing and mending tools on a small scale for local consumption. In Viking Age England, iron-smithing became a town industry, and urban excavations invariably provide evidence for iron working. Rural communities, such as those at Ribblehead, St Neots, Thwing, and Wharram Percy, still undertook production for their own needs, and at higher status rural sites such as Cheddar most of the iron objects required would also have been made on site. The key developments, however, took place in towns such as Bedford, Northampton, Stamford, Lincoln and York, where smiths experimented with new artefacts and new techniques.
Iron working is a two-stage process. First the ore must be smelted to extract the iron, and then the iron must be worked by the smith to make finished artefacts. Smelting is a very hot and unpleasant process which requires great quantities of fuel. It is likely that most smelting was still undertaken in the country, close to the iron ore deposits, and abundant supplies of wood, at sites like West Runton, Great Casterton and Ashdown Forest (Sussex). At Ramsbury (Wiltshire) industrial iron furnaces dated to the late eighth and early ninth centuries have been excavated, which most likely operated within the sphere of royal influence (McDonnell 1989).
Scrap iron was a precious commodity and several hoards of broken iron tools and weapons have been found in England, although it is not always possible to distinguish them from ritual river deposits (see chapter 2). In many cases metalworkers’ hoards include ancient Roman and Anglo-Saxon objects. At Nazeing (Essex) an eleventh-century hoard found in alluvial gravels on the east side of the river Lea comprised four axes, four spearheads, a gouge, a chisel, a small hammer, a ploughshare, two knives, a fish spear, and a copper alloy ring and cup (Morris 1983). Similar hoards are known from Hurbuck (Co Durham), Crayke (North Yorkshire), and Westley Waterless (Cambridgeshire).
Little smelting was undertaken in towns, other than at Stamford where iron ore was brought from the local ironstone outcrops. In York carbonate ore would have been available from either North Yorkshire or Lincolnshire. At Coppergate some 21kg (46lb) of iron smelting slag has been excavated, including some solidified into the hemispherical shape of the furnace bottoms. Nonetheless this is less than might be expected from a single smithing operation. Excavation of the furnace of Millbrook (Sussex), for example, produced over 40kg of smelting slag. The evidence does not therefore suggest that smelting was undertaken in the immediate vicinity of Coppergate. Much of the slag may have been brought to the site as rubbish, possibly after use as ballast in ships on the Foss. The vast majority of bar iron being used in Anglo-Scandinavian York was probably smelted close to the ore source (Ottaway 1992).
Smithing was far more widespread. It has been identified at Flaxengate in Lincoln, and at the Minster and Coppergate sites in York. In both Lincoln and York there was a close relationship between the ferrous and non-ferrous metalworkers; both sets of activities were often carried on in the same buildings, probably by the same workers. Approximately 179kg (400lb) of smithing slag was excavated at Coppergate. Iron bars and strips were imported from the smelting sites outside York and large amounts of material were also brought for recycling. It is now believed that even the remarkable Coppergate Anglian helmet probably reached the site as scrap.
The Coppergate smiths displayed a high degree of expertise and were probably permanent craftsmen. A number of classes of object were manufactured on site, including needles, jewellery, and Scandinavian-style chest fittings. At the York Minster site the smiths were mass-producing horseshoe nails in a former Roman barrack block. Different grades of iron were selected for different purposes. Around 220 knives were found in Viking Age deposits at Coppergate. Most made use of carbonised steel for the cutting edge. During the ninth century new types of knife were introduced, including a group with long handles, and decoration proliferated, including incised grooves and inlaid designs (Ottaway 1992). Clearly knives and iron dress-fittings were being increasingly used for decoration and display in the Viking Age. Although it is difficult to identify any particular Scandinavian influence, the increased need for status display may be seen as a reflection of the Viking Age circumstances.
Manufacturing techniques were also developing at the same time, and a great variety of methods were in use by the tenth century. There were two principal methods of welding the steel blade to an iron knife. The hardest knives were produced by butt-welding the steel strip along the edge of the iron blade. Another technique was to sandwich weld a steel blade in between two slices of iron. This second method increased in popularity in York during the tenth century, leading to knives becoming softer. Sandwichwelding was also introduced into Dublin at this time, possibly from York.
LEATHER WORKING
By the medieval period leather working comprised several specialist tasks, such as skinning, tanning, dressing and cobbling, but during the Viking Age these may have been combined under one roof. Leather working developed on a professional basis in towns and was carried out as a commercial activity. In Durham the Saddler Street leather workers obtained uncut oxhide which they made into shoes, boots and knife-sheaths. They also acted as cobblers, repairing shoes. In York leather workers made shoes, boots, sword and knife-sheaths. Hides from cows slaughtered on site would have provided them with a ready supply of leather, after it had been tanned. In Chester a large scale eleventh-century tanning industry was discovered at Lower Bridge Street.
TEXTILES
By the ninth century there was some trade in textiles, but most communities produced cloth for their own needs. Large estates would supply their own wool, flax and dyestuffs, and prepare, spin, weave, and dye their own textiles. Some estates were apparently able to employ servants and slaves to work on textile manufacture. At the manorial site at Goltho, a weaving house has been identified from the pin-beaters and other textile tools found on the floor of a large outbuilding.
Urban communities may also have produced homespun textiles for local demand from raw materials bought in from the countryside. In York all the processes of production, from taking the raw wool to making it into finished cloth and garments, were being practised in the first 40 or 50 years of Anglo-Scandinavian occupation of Coppergate. Although textile working was essentially a home-based craft, York’s international trading contacts would have meant that any surplus might have reached markets from Ireland to Samarkand. The Coppergate and Flaxengate sites were littered with textile implements, including shears, wool combs, and spindlewhorls (perforated weights made of animal bone, pottery sherds, stone or occasionally lead, which weighted the hand-held spindles on which woollen thread was spun out). At Coppergate wool was probably cleaned within the tenement buildings, in view of the abundant sheep lice. In the ninth century the wool was then woven into lengths of cloth using a warp-weighted loom whereby the warp threads were suspended from the top of loom and weighted by loomweights made of circles of fired clay. By the tenth century the warp-weighted loom was probably no longer used on Coppergate, being replaced by the twobeam vertical loom, whereby the warp threads are attached to a wooden beam (Walton Rogers 1997). In Lincoln and Winchester the comparative rarity of loomweights has led to the suggestion that the two-beam vertical loom was introduced from the Continent in the late ninth century, although the warp-weighted loom may have remained in favour on rural sites. At Goltho the two-beam loom was in use in the tenth century. It has also been suggested that the treadleoperated horizontal loom was in use in Gloucester by the tenth century, although elsewhere it is not known until the eleventh century (Pritchard 1984).
The people of York probably dyed their own textiles as well, and a variety of dye plants such as madder and woad are characteristic of Viking Age deposits. Their clothing was probably a mass of colour, with evidence for reds, greens, blues, yellows and blacks. White linen, woven from vegetable fibres, was probably preferred for undergarments and bedlinen. Smooth glass ‘linen-smoothers’ used for the finishing of linen cloth have been found in Lincoln, London, Thetford, Winchester and York.
There is very little particularly Scandinavian about the Coppergate textiles, however. The majority of textiles have more in common with those of Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Europe than with Scandinavia, and the tools of textile production remain typically Anglo-Saxon (Walton Rogers 1997). There are none of the black clay conical whorls which are common throughout Scandinavia. The Coppergate spindlewhorls are regional types which belong in a local northern Anglo-Saxon tradition; the wool comb can be matched by one from Cottam. Most of the textiles are local products, although there are some fine broken chevron twills, probably imported from Frisia, one of which had been dyed with lichen purple. A group of patterned linens, including a honeycomb weave, may have originated in the Rhineland, and may have been brought to York by Frisian merchants following the wine trade route (Walton 1989). The only clear Viking textile is a tenth-century woollen sock made in a technique known as nålebinding, or needle-binding which looks like close-textured crochet work, although this is more likely to have arrived on the foot of its owner, rather than in a batch of imported socks (plate 12). A similar example is known from a textile fragment from a Viking burial at Heath Wood, Ingleby (Derbyshire).
Silks are known from a number of Viking Age towns, including York, Lincoln, Dublin and London. These must have been imported, most probably by Scandinavians operating the trade route along the Russian rivers to the silk road. At Coppergate, tabby-weave silks appear to have been cut up and sewn on site, probably for silk head-dresses, possibly in a Scandinavian fashion.
In summary, the origins of industrial production can be observed in many crafts during the Viking Age. The thriving towns of lowland England represented a tremendous commercial opportunity, with a concentration of demand for cheaply-produced metalwork, trinkets and other consumer goods. Within their walls, groups of craftworkers and merchants would act together, or in sequence, on certain materials, forming chains of interlinked crafts. In York we can observe a local, rural Anglo-Saxon textile industry moving into the town in the mid-ninth century and, over the following centuries, taking up new technology as it became available.
The role of Scandinavian settlers and traders in this upsurge in industrial production is not straightforward. In York the introduction of Anglo-Saxon rather than Scandinavian textile tools into the town prompts the evocative suggestion that this traditionally female industry may have remained in the hands of local Anglo-Saxon women, drawn into the town, whilst the impact of Scandinavians was on crafts which were traditionally male, such as metalworking. Some York crafts show production for a number of tastes, with antler and bone objects, for example, being produced in both Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian styles. In other cases we can observe the development of new integrated fashions. In jewellery manufacture Scandinavianstyle animal ornament was executed on Anglo-Saxon disc brooches; Scandinavian oval brooches were not made in York.
Some industrialisation was underway before the Scandinavian settlement. The development of the pottery industry, for instance, had already begun in eastern England. Glazing is not restricted to Danelaw sites, and is not found at all of them. Nevertheless, wheel-thrown pottery was introduced into most parts of England during the Viking Age. The potential for increased sales provided the incentive for experimentation in new methods which enabled mass production. The significance of the introduction of the kick wheel, and other innovations such as single-flue kilns and glazing, is that they required capital investment and a full-time commitment to pottery production. This was only worthwhile if there was a large demand and a marketing infrastructure, including markets, a transport system, and a means of exchange.
Urban demand and marketing opportunities increased throughout the late ninth and tenth centuries. Changes in land ownership may have permitted new ways of obtaining raw materials, breaking the ties of Anglo-Saxon society and allowing craftsmen to operate more for personal profit. In the countryside prosperous farmers celebrated their wealth by purchasing Scandinavian-style consumer goods. Although the Vikings may not have started the tenth-century ‘Industrial Revolution’ they did provide both the stimulus and the mechanism for it to happen.