Combs and Contacts:past and future work on society and economy via worked bone artefacts and craft

This paper reflects upon the author’s work on Viking-Age combs and combmaking, and proposes an agenda for future study. Previous work has considered practical problems such as the development of typochronology (Ashby 2011a), as well as issues relating to trade and culture contact, by way of studies of form and ornament (Ashby in press-a, Ashby 2009), methods of manufacture (Ashby 2013b), and raw materials (Ashby 2009; von Holstein et al. 2013). The latter holds especial potential, particularly given the development of high-throughput, low-cost biomolecular methods. Having identified the utility of these methods, it remains to highlight the issues on which this approach may be brought to bear. This is the aim of this paper, and in laying out an agenda for research, it introduces the incipient SAAGa project.