Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2007, Page 72

Arne Espelund
into account that a present-day farm may
have been a seter - shieling - with season-
al settlement in former times. The trading
centre of Gásir lying some 15 km NW of
Viðivellir was the subject of a conference
in Trondheim in 1998 (Christophersen &
al. 1999). Probably local trade took place
at Kaupangur near today’s Akureyri while
larger ships during the Middle Ages used
the port at Gásir. Import goods mentioned
are grain, finer textiles, lumber, wax, tar,
secondly kettles, incense and iron. The
church asked as payment of taxes for
wax, lumber, incense, tar and fine textiles.
Export goods seem to be vadmál (home-
spun frieze), wool, cow hides, sheep hides,
gyrfalcons, cod liver oil and stockfish
(Hermanns-Auðardóttir, Júliusson, Thor-
laksson 1999). After the year 1260 the
trade became a monopoly for Norwegians.
With the increased population in Conti-
nental Europe the demand for stockfish
increased, with Bergen replacing Trond-
heim as the most important port of trade
in Scandinavia for Icelanders. In view of
the large iron production in Fnjóskadalur
the absence of iron as an export item is
striking. Nor is iron mentioned as a part
of land rent at four farms in the first half
of the 14th century (Júlíusson 1999). The
correlation of heathen grave mounds
and ironmaking sites, pointed out by
Birgisdóttir is striking (1999). However,
they refer to periods separated by some
100-200 years. It is likely that a popula-
tion centre would express itself by graves
from the period prior to Christianization
and also ironmaking sites, some of them
from a later date.
Other research
Kevin Smith has studied iron produc-
tion near Háls in Western Iceland (Smith
1994/5:35). Some 1650 to 3000 kg of
slag were reported. However, his model
estimates based on historic references
to Norway are not relevant: the process
described by Ole Evenstad in 1782 which
Smith refers to, can only be traced back
to about the year 1400, and was used in
some areas only, definitely not in Iceland.
It requires much wood. The reported
experiments at Dokkfloy were not suc-
cessful. The presented output of iron at
Háls is probably much too low. The ratio
of iron to slag can amount to as much
as 1.5 (Espelund 2004a), with a normal
figure of about 1. Therefore the iron pro-
duced at Háls could amount to 2.5M tons,
or 8 times the value given by Smith.
Conclusion
After some 10 years of active participa-
tion in archaeological excavations in Nor-
way, followed by laboratory studies, the
author had a chance to study bloomery
sites in Northem Iceland. This paper
presents the results of such research and
in addition mainly literature studies of
reported finds from two other regions in
the north: Greenland and Newfoundland.
While Iceland became permanently set-
tled by Norsemen around the year 872
AD, Greenland was inhabitated only for
some 400 years while the site L’Anse aux
Meadows appears to have been a Norse
base camp only for some 10 years arorrnd
1000 AD. Samples were taken from the
top of slag heaps or as stray finds at
ironmaking sites. The slag heap near the
abandoned farm Belgsá in Fnjóskadalur
was well suited for such studies as the top-
soil was fully removed by wind erosion.
Chemical analyses from three sites in this
valley show that the extraction was excel-
lent while a small piece of metal demon-
strates that the quality of iron produced
was good. Additional samples of slag and
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