Ólafía : rit Fornleifafræðingafélags Íslands. - 01.05.2007, Page 114

High to late medieval period
– towards European hegemony

This last map progression has been
included to mark the ending of the
walrus tusk as an important commodity.
There are several details left out of this
map as the main intention was to show
the overall changes of the trade.
Obviously the major change is that the
link to the Norse settlements in Green-
land is broken - why this occurs is
rather debated. But from an economical
point of view, and by looking at the
changing circumstances, it is easy to
think that the changing demands on the
European market is the main reason –
possibly connected with easier access to
elephant ivory.
This period also shows an interesting
shift in the systemic structure of the
sub-periphery as the Hanseatic trade
takes over the two previous sub-systems
using the trade networks established by
the Vikings (Christiansen, 1997; Keller,
in press) Gaining control over the ex-
port to central Europe from Novgorod
and by support of the United kingdoms
of Denmark, Norway and Sweden it be-
comes a new more core-like system of
Northern Europe. The North Atlantic
trade is redirected towards stockfish and
other bulk goods rather than the pre-
vious luxury goods as there is a need in
the centres of Europe for these pro-
ducts; the sub-periphery hereby gains a
central role supplying a need rather than
an ever changing fashion of luxury
items.

Conclusion

There are two major problems with
interpreting this field of study in a
world systemic context. The first is
linked to a general problem with the
background material which is far from
complete enough to draw precise lines
of distribution, influence areas etc. The
only scholar who has attempted to
gather archaeological evidence of tusk
trade and/or craftsmanship is Else
Roesdahl (2003) but though she has had
an interest in and worked, more or less
extensively, on the project for a few
decades now, the work is far from
complete or systematic. There are still
many collections to be examined, in
particular the more general natural
history collections, as the art historical
evidence has been paid more attention,
not least due to the work of Danielle
Gaborit-Chopin (1978, 1992). One can
also only imagine how many more
locations there could be added to the
map of distribution if the zoo-
archaeological evidence from excava-
tions in the area would be thoroughly
examined as well. So these issues alone
make the exercise of using it to
determine world systems rather weak,
at least one has to be aware that it can
only give an idea of the distribution and
influence of the walrus tusk, not be
used to draw any certain conclusions.
Secondly there is a huge gap in the
interpretation of the eastern trade of
walrus tusk, which deprives us of the
possibility to make a complete picture
of the trade. There seem to have been
two major sub-systems which carried
out the walrus tusk trade and that the
eastern trade system was the most
influential considering the trade in
general, whereas the Scandinavian
system might have had a dominance on
the western European market for a
while after the Greenlandic settlements
first took place. The research and
Walrus Tusk and World System Theory
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