“…Abrams, 1995;Andrén, 1989;Hedeager, 1994;Myhre, 1993). However, it is generally accepted that the latter part of the Viking Age was a unique and pivotal era in European history that witnessed the development of the centralized monarchal state (Andrén, 1989;Barrett et al, 2000;Gurevich, 1978), a shift from pagan to Christian religious ideology (Sawyer and Sawyer, 1993;Sawyer et al, 1987;Solli, 1996), the emergence of a trading network that influenced the development of an interregional market 0278-4165/$ -see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016All rights reserved.…”