Viking Age Combs, Comb Making and Comb Makers in the Light of Finds from Birka and Ribe

This thesis discusses the types of comb used in the Viking age, their production and the factors affecting the craft of comb making around the south Baltic and the North Sea. It is based on an analysis of the 325 combs found in the graves of Birka and of the comb making debris found in the recent excavations at Ribe. Published evidence from many other sites is also used. The combs used throughout this area were remarkably similar, and changes in their form and decoration apparently occurred simultaneously in widely separated places. It is argued that this was the result of the activity of itinerant comb makers rather than of traders or locally based craftsmen. Most of the combs were of high quality and must have been made by specialists. Comb making debris is found in most Viking period market places showing that they were made throughout the area. An attempt is made to determine whether combs were made of elk or red deer antler, a matter of particular interest because elk was the natural raw material in, for example, Birka and Staraja Ladoga, while in south Scandinavia it was red deer. By calculating the number of combs made annually in different places, and the time needed to make them, it is shown that the debris in any one place cannot represent a full year's work, and it is argued that the craftsmen travelled from place to place making, and selling, combs at the different markets. The evidence further suggests that there was some measure of regularity and organisation in the holding of markets throughout this area in the Viking period.