This publication brings together and analyses the results of some of Scandinavia's largest and previously unpublished urban archaeological excavations. Based on extensive excavations in western Ribe – at Dagmargården, Bakelitfabrikken and Danielsens Tømmerhandel – it documents how the role of the town as a trading hub and its urban development can be understood against a background of new archaeological data. The publication reveals the story of how, during the High Middle Ages, Ribe was part of a wide-ranging network of trading connections around the North Sea, extending from Bergen to Normandy. Through detailed analysis of settlement structures, the finds and the town's physical development, it documents how Ribe was characterised by a marked economic and social flourishing during the period 1050-1250, driven by specialised traders – the merchants. The reader is given a deep insight into medieval urban life, in which trading guilds, international connections and local power structures constituted the physical and social urban space. Moreover, the theoretical and methodological challenges are discussed by reconstructing the urban environments of the past, and Ribe is placed in a broader European context.