Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Blaðsíða 63

Walrus Hunting and the Ivory Trade in early Iceland
Conclusion
Artefactual and historical evidence sug-
gests that walrus ivory was harvested and
worked on only a small-scale in medieval
Iceland. The raw material finds from the
country come at the very beginning and
end of the walrus ivory market in Europe:
the three Aðalstræti tusks from the mid-
10th to mid-llth century and the worked
Gásir fragment from the 14th century.
This suggests that Icelanders were doing
more than simply storing walrus ivory in
transit from Greenland to Scandinavia,
but any ivory industry in Iceland was
overshadowed by the output of their
Greenlandic neighbours. However, the
decline in popularity of walrus ivory in
the 13* century and beyond was cata-
strophic for Greenland (Roesdahl 1998:
43), while Iceland was relatively unaf-
fected as the country was not dependant
upon walrus ivory exports and was
engaging in the emerging medieval físh-
ing industry. Although the nature of the
walrus ivory industry in Iceland is still
not clear, new work on Viking Age sites
around Iceland, such as Vatnsijörður in
the West Fjords, should provide more
evidence of the island’s role in Europe’s
ivory trade.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, thanks to Mjöll
Snæsdóttir for not only discussing this
topic with me early on and pointing me in
the direction of several Icelandic sources,
but also for her kindness to me and so
many other students throughout the years.
I am also grateful to my supervisor,
Colleen Batey, for her suggestions and
help with this article and my general
research. Many thanks also are due to
Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson and Amanda
Charland for their help with translations,
and to Tom McGovern and Ramona
Harrison for graciously sharing their
knowledge and photographs. Thank you
also to Guðmundur Ólafsson at
Þjóðminjasafn íslands (National Museum
of Iceland) for helping me to gather
information on walrus ivory in the muse-
um’s collection, and to the University of
Glasgow for the Faculty of Arts Research
Grant which allowed me to travel to
Iceland to conduct this research. Finally,
thanks to everyone at Fornleifastofnun
Islands for their assistance and hospitali-
ty.
References
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