City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Hunter College 2015 Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland Karen M. Frei National Museum of Denmark Ashley N. Coutu University of Cape Town Konrad Smiarowski CUNY Graduate Center Ramona Harrison CUNY Hunter College Christian K. Madsen National Museum of Denmark See next page for additional authors How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/637 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] Authors Karen M. Frei, Ashley N. Coutu, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Christian K. Madsen, Jette Arneborg, Robert Frei, Gardar Guðmundsson, Søren M. Sindbækg, James Woollett, Steven Hartman, Megan Hicks, and Thomas McGovern This article is available at CUNY Academic Works: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/637 Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland Karin M. Frei, Ashley N. Coutu, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Christian K. Madsen, Jette Arneborg, Robert Frei, Gardar Guðmundsson, Søren M. Sindbæk, James Woollett, Steven Hartman, Megan Hicks and Thomas H. McGovern Abstract Walrus-tusk ivory and walrus-hide rope were highly desired goods in Viking Age north-west Europe. New finds of walrus bone and ivory in early Viking Age contexts in Iceland are concentrated in the south-west, and suggest extensive exploitation of nearby walrus for meat, hide and ivory during the first century of settlement.