Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 59

Walrus Hunting and the Ivory Trade in early Iceland
found during the dredging of harbours
and excavation of houses indicate that in
the past they lived mostly along the west
coast of the country (Kristjánsson 1986:
93-110; Petersen 1993: 214-215).
Place-names also give some clues as
to where walrus were found early in
Iceland’s history. Farm names of
‘Hvallátur’ and ‘Hvallátrar’ indicate
haul-outs where walrus bred and calved
in Iceland after Landnám, and the name
Rosmhvalanes on Reykjanes can be
linked to an old Icelandic name for wal-
rus, ‘rosmhvalur’ (Kristjánsson 1986: 93;
Petersen 1993: 215). Walms heads were
found at Rosmhvalanes in the winter of
1873-74 and in 1880 (Kristjánsson 1986:
108), further validating the name.
Few sagas or other written sources
from the settlement period onward men-
tion walrus in relation to Iceland. The
anonymous 13th century work TheKing’s
Mirror (Speculum Regale) gives a
detailed list of real and fictional whales
found in Icelandic waters (Larson 1917:
119-124; 140-141). However, the only
mention of walras in The King’s Mirror
is in conjunction with Greenland, mean-
ing Iceland was likely not a large-scale or
well-known source of walras ivory.
However, walrus were present often
enough in Iceland that legal guidance
was given for the hunting of the animals.
The 13,h century Grágás law book
addressed ownership of hunted and
washed-up walras along the coast: half of
a walrus caught on land or within a cer-
tain distance of shore belonged to the
landowner and half to those who caught
it, but the hunter owned the entire walras
if it was caught farther out from shore
than an owner’s rights extended (Dennis
et al. 2000: 325, 338). Given the lack of
recorded walras hunts in early Icelandic
history, these laws were likely not
invoked often.
Hunting Walrus and Processing Ivory
in Iceland
After the walrus was dead, the tusks were
usually removed from the frontal for
transport abroad, but occasionally they
were left intact for shipping or trade as a
status item (Roesdahl 2003: 147; 2005:
183-187). While the tusks were the most
valuable part of the walrus, the rest of the
animal did not have to go to waste.
Walras hide ropes were strong, and the
dense penis bone (baculum) was often
used for objects such as a knife handle
found in floor deposits at Hrísheimar
(HRH-03 097; Batey 2005; 356). Skull
fragments are occasionally found on
sites, such as at Garðar in Greenland and
at Fishamble Street c. AD 1000 in Dublin
(Roesdahl 2003: 148-150; 2005: 187).
Walras skull fragments used for a vessel,
buttons, rings, bludgeons and knife han-
dles were excavated from medieval lay-
ers in Novgorod (Smirnova 2001:
10-11).
The best evidence in an archaeologi-
cal context for Icelanders harvesting
walrus ivory is at the early settlement
site of Aðalstræti in central Reykjavik.
The site includes a preserved Viking-
Age hall (skáli) and earlier remains
beneath that may be the oldest archaeo-
logical evidence in Iceland (Roberts
2001: 1). Found in the floor and disuse
layers of the hall were three large,
mature walrus tusks (figure 2) from
three separate individuals (AST01 - SF
337, 355, 388), which were poorly pre-
served due to acidic soil conditions
(McGovern 2001: 106). Tool marks (fig-
ure 3) from extraction from the frontal
were evident on two of the tusks (SF
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