Ólafía : rit Fornleifafræðingafélags Íslands. - 01.05.2007, Page 111

an important part in the tusk trade,
though to my knowledge there is no
evidence of it in the archaeological
record.
The Scandinavian tusk trade did not
exist alone and the sub-peripheral area
between the artic hunting grounds and
the final receivers of the tusk seems to
have been divided into two systems –
the Scandinavian and the Russian/
Baltic. Defining the boundaries be-
comes particularly uncertain for this
Eastern European sub-peripheral trade
as the information is limited. The de-
finition of boundaries in this area is
only based upon on Kirsten Seavers
mentioning of trade with Constantin-
ople through the major rivers (in press),
Lars Ivar Hansen and Björnar Olsens
work including the walrus hunting and
trade in Finnmörk and around the White
Sea (2004), Christian Kellers further
work on that material (in press), and the
general acknowledgement of Novgo-
rod as a central town in the area
combined with the archaeological
evidence of tusk in its Medieval con-
texts (Smirnova 1997, 2001). Moreover
the influence period of Staraja Ladoga
is also on its high point in this period
and it seems likely this town could have
been one of the connecting points
between the Eastern and Western
European trade of tusk.
The second step in the mapping
became defining the hunting grounds
from which the tusk was acquired,
directly through hunting, exchanged
from the local people or acclaimed as
taxation. The areas are defined by a
combination of present knowledge of
the walrus habitat and a correlation of
these with information from document-
ary and archaeological evidence. How-
ever, it is hard to identify, with the
material at hand, what role the Green-
landic hunting grounds had in the
period before Norse settlements in the
country. Personally I find it is very
likely that Icelanders went further north
to the Greenlandic east coast in search
for walrus after the animal had
disappeared from Icelandic waters,
though this is not mentioned in any of
the scholarly works. In cases like this it
would be highly interesting if it was
possible to study the provenience of the
tusk in c A.D. 1000 contexts in
Scandinavia and northern Europe.
Looking at the map it shows a quite
complex system of African and Middle
Eastern systems, a European system
and its trade with Nordic sub-systems
connecting the sub-periphery to the core
areas. Inside these systems are a
number of the world cities defined by
Abu-Loghod marked out and to those
have been added the towns of known
import and/or redistribution of walrus
tusk. It is both noticeable and seemingly
obvious that their concentration is often
on the crossing points between systems
where contact is created and the means
of transportation are favourable, as for
example in costal areas or close to
major waterways. For the Scandinavian
sub-peripheral system the two central
towns of Dorestadt and Hedeby in
particular played a major role in the
connection to the European world
system and in the case of Hedeby
possibly also in the connection to the
Eastern European sub-periphery. When
looking at the role between these
systems it seems like a textbook world
system example with the periphery
delivering the raw materials, the sub-
periphery acting as middle men who
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Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen