The Comb-Makers Connected with Hedeby

Archaeological interpretation: a laboratory study of old combs gives a species for the antler, and the authors then reason from that to where the combs were made and how they travelled.

Hedeby was a large trading town of the early Viking Age, and its excavations have produced about 1,250 combs and fragments. A team sampled 49 hair combs of one long type, dated by style to the ninth century, and identified the animal behind each one from its collagen. Almost all were reindeer antler. Yet the antler waste left by comb-makers in the town is mostly red deer, and reindeer live far to the north. The authors read this as a sign that the early combs were made elsewhere and brought to Hedeby, and that comb-making in the town itself began in the tenth century using local antler.

What is recorded: three separate steps. First, the species: most sampled combs are reindeer antler, a measured result. Second, the place of making: since local waste is mainly red deer, the authors infer that these combs were made away from Hedeby, possibly in northern Scandinavia or another trading site such as Ribe or Kaupang. Third, the route: they link this with other northern goods at Hedeby and with contacts to those towns.

What is not recorded: the workshop itself, who made the combs, and whether they came by direct trade, through a town such as Ribe, or with travellers. The sample covers one comb type only, and the method cannot tell red deer from elk or fallow deer. No named person or single journey is shown. The study’s title echoes Ohthere, but the combs do not prove his route.