Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 57

Elizabeth Pierce
WALRUS HUNTING AND THE IVORY
TRADE IN EARLY ICELAND
This paper examines the hunting and use of walrus ivory in Iceland from the
period of settlement to the Middle Ages. Atlantic walrus rarely have been seen and
are only occasionally mentioned in written sources in lceland, but place-names
and skeletal fmds prove that the animals have lived on its shores. Although over-
shadowed by the ivory output of Greenland in the Norse Period, several finds of
walrus tusks and ivory objects in Iceland demonstrate that the animals were
hunted and their ivory possibly worked in Iceland. The use of walrus ivory in
Iceland’s past cannot be overlooked: future research into settlement period sites
should yield further evidence of the nature of the ivory trade in medieval
Iceland.
Elizabeth Pierce, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
E-mail: e.pierce. l@research.gla.ac.uk
Keywords: walrus, walrus ivory, tusks, carving, medieval trade
Introduction
Walrus have been a rare sight on Icelandic
shores through the centuries, but evi-
dence tells us they have by no means
been absent. Written sources mention
place-names associated with walrus and
the occasional killing of the animals.
Walrus skulls and tusks have been
dredged from Icelandic harbours and
found along ancient shorelines. Ivory
objects possibly carved from material
obtained on Icelandic shores have occa-
sionally been found, and recent archaeo-
logical excavations have added to that
collection. However, the role of walrus in
the early and medieval Icelandic econo-
my is not clear: While walrus ivory was
not a large-scale industry in medieval
Iceland like it was in Greenland, the
hunting of walrus and working of ivory
in Iceland cannot be overlooked.
Walrus ivory was used for both reli-
gious and secular prestige goods in the
medieval period. Ivory was valued for
carving because of its colour and texture,
and it was the most common raw mate-
rial taken from exotic animals in medie-
val Europe (Finken et al. 1989: 1;
Pluskowski 2004: 296). Although ele-
phant tusks were preferred for carving,
the increasing availability of walrus ivory
made it a popular craft material in
England and western Europe starting
around AD 1000 (Roesdahl 1998: 36;
2003: 145; 2005: 185).
The Atlantic walrus (Odobenus ros-
marus') would have been known to any-
one who had been to northem Norway or
had been familiar with ivory trade in
Scandinavia and Europe. When the
Norwegian chieftain Ohthere visited the
court of King Alfred of Wessex circa AD
Archaeologia Islandica 7 (2009) 55-63