Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 67

SIGRID CECILIE JUEL HANSEN
THE ICELANDIC WHETSTONE MATERIAL
- AN OVERVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH
Whetstones from Viking Age and early medieval sites have been analyzed widely
in Scandinavian and North Europe, but has only recently been the subject of any
systematic, broad-scale analysis in Iceland. The initial goal was twofold: firstly to
establish basic knowledge about whetstones from archaeological contexts in
Iceland, and secondly to apply this information to increase our understanding of
exchange and connections. The research is focused on the Viking Age and early
medieval whetstone collections (ca. AD 870-1150), but this article also draws
comparisons to the post-medieval and modem fmds in Iceland. The aim is to
provide an overview of whetstone research in Iceland and reveal the results of
recent work on the subject.
Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen MAP - Mosfell Archaeological Project, Reykjavik
sicejuel@gmail. com
Keywords: Whetstone, Iceland, Viking Age, Middle Ages, Trade
Introduction
Whetstones were sharpening tools and an
important part of people’s personal kit,
indispensable to anyone using knives,
axes, arrows, sickles, scythes, needles,
scissors and any other iron implement or
weapon with a cutting edge or point. They
were brought to Iceland with the first
settlers and continuously imported well
into the 20th century. There are several
excellent reasons for studying this
particular artifact group. Not only were
the whetstones a very important part of the
everyday life of people in the past, they
are also often very well-preserved when
recovered from archaeological contexts.
As many stone artifacts, whetstones are
common finds, in fact they are ubiquitous
on settlement sites, ranging from marginal
farms and shielings to large central farms
and church centers. Everyone needed a
good whetstone and the results of studying
whetstones can therefore be applied to
society as a whole. The trade in this
commodity is well-known throughout
Scandinavia from the Viking Age
onwards and there is no stone of sufficient
quality to produce good whetstones in
Iceland, so almost all the material is prima
facie evidence of trade and foreign
connection. This combination, of an
artifact with potential for studying trade
and importance for all levels of a society
makes it all the more promising to look at
the Icelandic whetstone material.
Previously only few studies of the
Icelandic whetstone collections had been
carried out. The first was an overview of
the collections in the National Museum of
Iceland by Kristján Eldjám as part of his
ARCHAEOLOGIA ISLANDICA 9 (2011) 65-76