Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 61

Walrus Hunting and the Ivory Trade in early Iceland
tusks were left behind when the building
was abandoned.
McGovern calls the Aðalstræti tusks
strong evidence for walrus living in the
settlement period in southwestern
Iceland (McGovern 2001: 108). He sug-
gests the tusks were unused craft mate-
rial that had been expertly removed
from the skull (McGovern 2001: 107-
108; T. McGovern pers. comm.).
Europeans at the time would have had a
familiarity with the raw material but not
the animal, so perhaps the person who
extracted these three tusks so skilfully
from the frontals was someone who had
previously handled walrus ivory in
northern Norway.
Just down the street from Aðalstræti at
Tjamargata 4 is more evidence for walrus
in the Reykjavik area. The site yielded a
dense concentration of animal bones,
including adult and baby walrus, indica-
tive of a nearby breeding colony (T.
McGovern pers. comm.; Vésteinsson et
al. 2002: 111), in which the early resi-
dents of Reykjavik could fínd a ready
supply of ivory. Numerous other pre-
served walrus skulls and tusks that have
been recorded in and around Reykjavik
during dredging and construction have
also demonstrated the presence over time
of walrus in the area (Kristjánsson 1986:
108-110). However, it is important to
remember that the proportion of finds is
likely higher here than elsewhere in
lceland simply because it is the most
densely populated area of the country
(Petersen 1993: 215).
While the fínds from the Aðalstræti
and Tjarnargata 4 sites provide evidence
of hunting and processing of the tusks for
trade, the medieval trading site of Gásir
in northern Iceland may have been the
location of actual ivory craftsmanship. A
fragment from a medium-sized, 14th-
century walrus tusk was found during
excavation, making it several centuries
younger than the Aðalstræti finds (T.
McGovem and R. Harrison,pers. comm.).
This root end had been sawn off from
several directions, probably using a medi-
eval backed saw with a shallow blade (T.
McGovempers. comm.). The tuskalready
had been extracted from the frontal and
was being prepared for a carver, demon-
strating that Gásir may have had crafts-
men on-site rather than acting simply as
a warehouse for ivory on its way to
Scandinavia (T. McGovern, pers.
comm.).
Aside from the Gásir fragment, there
is no artefactual evidence for the working
of ivory in Iceland (Batey 2005: 355).
However, Else Roesdahl has suggested
that the crosier from Garðar was made in
either Iceland or Norway (1998: 22).
Written sources mention Margréti hina
högu, Margret the Dexterous, a priest’s
wife who carved crosier heads (possibly
even the crosiers found at Garðar and
Skálholt) and other gifts at the beginning
of the 13th century for Bishop Páll Jónsson
(1195-1211) of Skálholt (Norlund 1936:
44; Gad 1970: 115; Roesdahl 1998: 28).
The crosier found in Bishop Páll’s grave
at Skálholt in 1954 is the only crosier so
far found in Iceland and is probably the
most omate ivory carving from the coun-
try (Kristjánsson 1986: 101-102; NMI
1954-1-2). The 12.5 cm crosier features
the head of a beast curling back onto
itself. It differs from the Garðar crosier
with its animal motif and a lack of orna-
ment filling the central curve of the
piece.
Other objects of walrus ivory have
been found in Iceland, but their origins
are generally unclear and their dates can
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