While the productive sites and specialized landing places were sites of trade and craft production, they cannot be characterized as urban per se. The first truly urban settlements in Denmark were founded beginning in the early eighth century and coincide with the formation of the North Sea emporia trade network. In the latter part of the seventh century, a number of settlements primarily geared towards trade and exchange developed in the English Channel area and along the southern and western shores of the North Sea. These sites, or emporia, were nodes in long-distance trading networks, located at junctions most convenient to an international function. While not identical, the various emporia shared several common characteristics. All were located at a protected estuarine site close to a coastline, which was the territorial frontier of a kingdom. The emporia functioned as nodal points for contact and trade between the various regions in northern Europe, which were different not only geographically, but also had different forms of government and religion.

The emporia consisted of permanent settlements that were modestly sized but swelled seasonally into large markets. The types of goods traded at the emporia fell into two categories or levels: prestige and utilitarian. Prestige goods included things such as coins used as bullion, precious metals, decorated metalwork, arms, basins and cauldrons, textiles, ceramic tableware, glass vessels, windowpanes, beads, precious stones, hunting dogs, hides, spices, wine, dyes, honey, and slaves. The more utilitarian goods were lava quernstones, honestones, soapstone vessels, linen smoothers, foodstuffs, salt, metal and bone tools, and pottery.

Archaeologically, emporia differed from local markets because of finds including utilitarian objects, such as pottery, brought by foreigners for their personal use, as well as evidence of craft production that used imported raw materials, such as bead making or bronze casting. There was little if any of these types of crafts being carried out at the minor sites, but they do show evidence of craft production, such as ironworking and comb making, which used local raw materials. In addition, the number of balances, weights, coins, and hack-silver found at emporia sites is much greater than at the smaller landing places discussed in the previous chapter. Trade at the landing places was likely mostly carried out by barter, rather than using silver as a currency.