Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 62

Elizabeth Pierce
only be estimated. While some objects
such as the crosiers may have been
made in Iceland, others probably arrived
through trade. Pieces held by the
National Museum include a 3.5 cm tall
fígure of a man on horseback that is
dated 1300-1600 and was acquired in
1877 (National Museum of lceland
1877-438), and two 3 cm by 1.5 cm
dice, one of which is described as pink-
ish-white and the other light brown
(NMI 1883-322). Some of the bone
gaming pieces from a 10th century burial
at Baldursheimur (NMI 1863-2) may be
made of walrus ivory, but closer exami-
nation of the pieces is necessary to con-
firm this. Other early medieval pieces
include one possibly medieval gaming
piece, a whalebone or ivory tablet from
Grímsstaðir, and a board carved with
Christian scenes from
Breiðabólstaðarkirkja in Flj ótshlíð
(Kristjánsson 1986: 101-102).
From Tusk to Art
Unlike the elephant tusk, which is solid
ivory aside from a small nerve channel,
walms tusks are smaller with a thinner
layer of workable dentine and an inner
core of discoloured, granular material
that carvers avoid exposing (MacGregor
1985: 18-20; Finken et al. 1989: 1-2;
Stratford 1997: 40; Roesdahl 1998: 13;
2005: 184). Elephant ivory was the pre-
ferred medium for ivory carvers, but it
became rare in northem Europe after the
collapse of the Roman Empire until the
mid-13th century (Beckwith 1974: 11;
Sawyer 1984: 45; Gaborit-Chopin 1992:
205; Stratford 1997: 39). Objects of wal-
rus ivory from earlier than the llth cen-
tury are rare; but there is a sharp increase
in the number of preserved ivory pieces
around the year 1000, roughly the same
time Greenland was settled (Roesdahl
2003: 146; 2007: 92). To compensate for
the differences in walrus ivory, new prac-
tices evolved in Romanesque carving
such as carving in low relief and building
large objects out of several smaller pan-
els (Gaborit-Chopin 1992: 204; Roesdahl
2007: 92).
Walrus ivory hunted in the North
Atlantic came mainly from Greenland
and was transported via Iceland or
Norway to markets throughout northem
Europe, a reflection of Scandinavia’s
growing commercial and political inter-
actions (MacGregor 1985: 40; Roesdahl
1998: 40; 2003: 146). Ivory was usually
carved, but pieces were also known to be
stained, coloured, gilded or embellished
with silver, gold, precious stones or col-
ourdetail(Finkenetal. 1989: 6; Roesdahl
1998: 13). Most surviving examples of
walrus ivory objects are religious, but
secular objects such as gaming pieces
have also been preserved (Roesdahl
1998: 16). Some of the best-known piec-
es from the North Atlantic in this period
are the Lewis Chessmen from the Isle of
Lewis, Scotland and the crosier from the
bishop’s seat of Garðar in Greenland
(Ameborg 1992: 316; Stratford 1997;
Roesdahl 1998: 29).
However, walrus ivory’s popularity as
a craft material did not last. Around the
second quarter of the 13th century, the
trade routes that provided elephant ivory
to Europe had once again opened, this
time through Norman and Flemish ports
(Gaborit-Chopin 1992: 205). Elephant
ivory’s advantages in carving and its
availability drove walms ivory from the
market, and circa AD 1400 there was a
temporary collapse in demand for all
types of ivory (Roesdahl 1998: 45; 2003:
146; 2005: 187).
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