A town in the making: Exploring early urbanity of Copenhagen through the study of social practices

Classical ways of defining urbanity are ill-matched with the early phases of a developing town, and indeed often with the archaeological source material at hand. New ways to describe urbanity in a way that is easier to recognize through archaeology are called for. In my PhD-project I explore some new aspects to this problem by studying urbanity through social practices in the first phases of the developing town of Copenhagen, Denmark. One of these areas concerns crafting, specifically iron processing. Through four areas of study, I analyse the material remains of social practices undertaken on the site of Town Hall Square c. AD 1050-1300. This paper will discuss the two questions: What can the study of social practices connected to the iron processing activities, in combination with technical analyses, reveal of urban development, of people and networks involved in the iron handling? And what can the role of iron processing have been for the early development of Copenhagen?