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Viking Bead Trade Network

Type Object Region Scandinavia Time 1071–1080

An eleventh-century long-distance exchange network linking Scandinavia with the Baltic, Eastern Europe and the British Isles through glass and amber …

Timeline

  1. c. 1071–1075Kievan Rus trade route · Kievan RusScandinavian merchants traveled south along the Dnieper, exchanging glass beads, amber and furs for Byzantine silk and silver coins; beads circulated among Slavic chieftains as small payments and gifts, and layers of glass beads of diverse origins in archaeological sites attest to the trade's continuity.
  2. c. 1073–1077Gotland · SwedenWorkshops on Gotland processed Baltic amber into bead strands, distributed via Scandinavian inland waterways to the Norwegian west coast and the Danish islands, sold mixed with imported Middle Eastern glass beads, forming a multi-source structure in the Northern European ornament market.
  3. 1078–1080York and Dublin trading ports · IrelandNorse-controlled ports such as Dublin and York continued wholesale bead trade, reselling glass beads of Scandinavian and Rhineland origin to local English and Irish craftsmen, thereby connecting the bead trade network with North Atlantic and inland Western European markets.

Sources