What did Viking trading towns look like?

Question

What did the bars, merchant houses, slave auctions, etc look like?
I've already looked and can't much description on them.

Answer 1

Birka is probably the best known and best escavated of the Norse merchant centers. I know I've seen artists' renditions of what it looked it like - probably in one of the books put out by Ospery Publishing.

Try googling "Birka" - you'll probably get some decent hits.

On a related note, a lot of Norse archeology has been done in the past century, but most of it has focused on Norse graves. This summer there is going to be dig in Gotland specifically focused on Norse houses. I know it doesn't help you much now, but we'll know a lot more next fall on the topic.