In northwestern Europe, the early Middle Ages correspond to a deep social and economic change. Currently, the elite is seen as the leader of the economy and the main driver of change but the role of artisans deserves to be reassessed, particularly through its material traces . Pyrotechnologies that have left few written traces, have long been neglected. Until Henning's work , there was no systematic analysis of the archaeological sources. Little attention is still paid to where artisans obtained their resources, the techniques they used, to their networks and to the social and physical landscapes in which they operated. During the early Middle Ages, ceramics, glass and iron also underwent profound transformations. The production places moved from the Merovingian agglomerations and rural settlements to the aristocratic domains, monasteries and emporia. At the same time, major technical changes took place that fundamentally altered the modus operandi of these crafts. The factors involved in these transformations are still largely unknown. Crossed-craft interactions and artisan networks could very well have been key triggers of innovation. As part of this paper, we propose to approach these crafts and their interactions using their respective “chaînes opératoires”, identifying potential opportunities for cooperation, sharing of resources and innovation. These models will then be combined with the locations of raw materials and those of the secondary workshops discovered in Belgium, which is the heart of the Merovingian and Carolingian Empire.