Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1949, Page 58

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rates all these finds and localities and gives a short description of each
find and the conditions under which it was found. The finds are most
frequent in Rangárvallasýsla in South-Iceland, which is probably due
to wind erosion, which is unusually active there. As a matter of fact soap-
stone artifacts are found, though sparsely, in most parts of the country.
It is the main purpose of this article to date these soapstone finds and
explain their occurrence in Iceland. It is the author’s opinion that they
can be dated by two means: type and finding conditions. He comes to the
conclusion that of the 54 finds 16 can be dated to the Viking age by find-
ing conditions and 15 by type of artifact, whereas only 5 contain frag-
ments of vessels which must be regarded as probably mediaeval. So in all
probability a great majority of the soapstone finds is from the Viking age,
the time of settlement in Iceland, and point to very ancient habitation in
their finding places. The relatively common occurrence of soapstone finds
in Iceland must undoubtedly be explained in the light of the great ex-
pansion of the soapstone industry in Norway during the Viking age.
Norwegian archaeologists have inspected and described a number of soap-
stone quarries which especially were worked in the Viking age, when
soapstone, usually in the form of roughly hewn cooking vessels, was ex-
ported from Norway in great quantities. Doubtlessly the Norwegian mer-
chants brought soapstone vessels and even soapstone as raw material to
Iceland, where they most likely had a singularly good market for these
goods, as no such material was obtainable in the country and pottery was
either very rare or quite unknown.