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Forsíða Ritgerða Hugvísindasvið Whetstones from Viking Age Iceland As part of the Trans-Atlantic trade in basic commodities Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen Október 2009 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Fornleifafræði Whetstones from Viking Age Iceland As part of the Trans-Atlantic trade in basic commodities Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen Kt.: 230681-2289 Leiðbeinendur: Orri Vésteinsson and Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir Október 2009 Abstract Whetstones were essential sharpening tools from the Iron Age and well into modern times. They were an important part of people’s personal kit and indispensable to anyone using knives, axes, arrows, sickles, scythes, needles, scissors and any other iron implement or weapon with a cutting edge or point. As Viking Age Scandinavia was an Iron Age society particularly dependent on their iron tools for survival and geographic expansion stone types particularly suitable for whetting were much valued and transported over long distances. Only limited firm archaeological evidence is available to contribute to our understanding of Trans- Atlantic trade in the pre medieval period and no broad scale research has been carried out on the whetstone material in the area yet. There is no good quality stone to produce whetstones from in Iceland so almost all the material is prima facie evidence of trade and foreign connection and the fact that the trade in this commodity is well known throughout Scandinavia from the late Iron Age onwards makes it all the more promising to look at the Icelandic material. Analysis of whetstone material from nine selected farmsteads and all burials containing whetstones will be undertaken and compared to foreign reference collections in England and the Scandinavian homelands. It will primarily be the stone types used for whetting that is compared but other conditions such as the fragmentation will also be considered in order to explore Iceland’s setting in the Trans-Atlantic trade during the 9th to 12th centuries. 1 I. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS _____________________________________________________________________ 4 II. LIST OF TABLES __________________________________________________________________________ 5 III. LIST OF FIGURES________________________________________________________________________ 5 IV. LIST OF MAPS __________________________________________________________________________ 5 V. LIST OF PICTURES _________________________________________________________________________ 5 VI. ILLUSTRATION _________________________________________________________________________ 6 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AIMS, METHODS AND OBJECTIVES _______________________________ 7 1.1 PARAMETERS OF THE RESEARCH ___________________________________________________________ 8 1.2 COMPARATIVE MATERIAL _______________________________________________________________ 10 1.3 REGISTRATION ________________________________________________________________________ 11 1.4 STATISTICAL ISSUES ____________________________________________________________________ 14 1.5 THESIS STRUCTURE ____________________________________________________________________ 14 2 WHETSTONE EXCHANGE AND STATE OF THE ART _______________________________________ 15 2.1 HISTORIOGRAPHY OF WHETSTONE RESEARCH IN NORWAY ______________________________________ 16 2.2 VIKING AGE EXCHANGE OF BASIC COMMODITIES WITH FOCUS ON NORWAY _________________________ 16 2.3 ICELAND IN THE CONTEXT OF VIKING AGE EXCHANGE IN BASIC COMMODITIES _______________________ 19 3 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ICELANDIC WHETSTONE MATERIAL _________________ 22 3.1 GEOLOGICAL SOURCES AND RESEARCH _____________________________________________________ 22 3.1.1 The Eidsborg schist type / the light grey schist type _________________________________________ 23 3.1.2 The dark grey schist type _____________________________________________________________ 25 3.1.3 Non-schistose whetstones _____________________________________________________________ 26 3.2 TYPES AND SHAPE OF WHETSTONES ________________________________________________________ 28 3.3 PRESERVATION CONDITIONS OF WHETSTONES ________________________________________________ 31 4 SETTLEMENT SITES ____________________________________________________________________ 32 4.1 FOREIGN COMPARISONS _________________________________________________________________ 32 4.1.1 Hedeby ___________________________________________________________________________ 34 4.1.2 Kaupang __________________________________________________________________________ 35 4.1.3 Borg _____________________________________________________________________________ 36 4.1.4 York, Coppergate ___________________________________________________________________ 38 4.1.5 Other sites _________________________________________________________________________ 40 4.2 SETTLEMENT SITES IN ICELAND ___________________________________________________________ 41 4.2.1 Suðurgata 3-5 and Aðalstræti 14-18 _____________________________________________________ 44 4.2.2 Hvítárholt _________________________________________________________________________ 46 4.2.3 Hofstaðir in Mývatnssveit _____________________________________________________________ 49 4.2.4 Hofsstaðir in Garðabær ______________________________________________________________ 52 4.2.5 Herjólfsdalur _______________________________________________________________________ 54 4.2.6 Grelutóttir _________________________________________________________________________ 55 4.2.7 Sveigakot __________________________________________________________________________ 57 4.2.8 Hrísheimar ________________________________________________________________________ 61 4.2.9 Hrísbrú ___________________________________________________________________________ 66 5 BURIALS _______________________________________________________________________________ 69 5.1 WHETSTONE TYPES AND SCHIST TYPES IN ICELANDIC BURIALS ___________________________________ 73 5.1.1 Whetstones in pairs __________________________________________________________________ 74 5.1.2 Pendant whetstones and very large whetstones ____________________________________________ 75 5.1.3 Burials and gender __________________________________________________________________ 75 5.2 BURIALS WITH WHETSTONES OF PARTICULAR INTEREST ________________________________________ 76 2 5.2.1 Ásláksholl _________________________________________________________________________ 76 5.2.2 Eyrateigur _________________________________________________________________________ 77 5.2.3 Ketilsstaðir ________________________________________________________________________ 77 5.2.4 Galtalækur ________________________________________________________________________ 77 5.2.5 Ljótsstaðir _________________________________________________________________________ 78 5.3 FOREIGN COMPARISONS _________________________________________________________________ 78 6 THE ICELANDIC WHETSTONE COLLECTION: COMPARISONS, TRENDS AND RESULTS _____ 82 6.1 OVERVIEW OF THE WHETSTONE SIZES AND SHAPES ____________________________________________ 82 6.2 FRAGMENTATION WITHIN THE ICELANDIC WHETSTONE COLLECTION ______________________________ 85 6.3 QUANTIFICATION OF WHETSTONE IMPORT ___________________________________________________ 90 6.4 INDICATIONS OF CHANGES OVER TIME IN THE STONE TYPES USED FOR WHETTING _____________________ 91 6.5 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN STONE TYPES USED FOR WHETTING _____________________________ 92 6.6 WHETSTONES AS MEANS OF DATING IN ICELAND ______________________________________________ 94 7 CONCLUSION OF THE RESEARCH ON THE ICELANDIC WHETSTONE COLLECTION ________ 95 8 REFERENCES ___________________________________________________________________________ 98 9 APPENDIX _____________________________________________________________________________ 105 9.1 PICTURE OF IGALIKO SANDSTONE ________________________________________________________ 106 9.2 PICTURES SUÐURGATA 3-5 _____________________________________________________________ 106 9.3 PICTURES HVÍTÁRHOLT ________________________________________________________________ 107 9.4 PICTURES HOFSTAÐIR IN MÝVATNSSVEIT __________________________________________________ 108 9.5 ILLUSTRATION HOFSTAÐIR IN MÝVATNSSVEIT ______________________________________________ 109 9.6 PICTURES FROM HERJÓLFSDALUR ________________________________________________________ 110 9.7 PICTURE FROM HRÍSBRÚ _______________________________________________________________ 110 9.8 PICTURES FROM GRELUTÓTTIR __________________________________________________________ 111 9.9 PICTURES FROM HRÍSHEIMAR ___________________________________________________________ 112 9.10 PICTURES FROM SVEIGAKOT ____________________________________________________________ 113 9.11 PICTURES BURIALS ___________________________________________________________________ 114 3 I. Acknowledgements The study on the Icelandic whetstone material has been carried out over a few years and involved several people along the way. The analysis of the whetstone assemblages required long working hours at several institutions and could not have been done without the kind help and assistance of the employees at Fornleifastofun Íslands, Fornleifavernd ríkisins, Árbæjarsafnið, and last but not least Þjóðminjasafns Íslands, where most of the whetstone material is kept. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the leaders and employees of the excavations that I have researched who let me use their material and in several cases have helped with additional information on the finds collection, in particular, Gavin Lucas, Howel M. Roberts, Guðmundur
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