Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 70

SIGRID CECILIE JUEL HANSEN
whetstones in the collections fall outside
these categories, such as several types of
sand and silt stones, slate and other
schistose whetstones, and little is known
of their provenance as they have not been
petrologically identified. The modern
collections also introduce a schistose
whetstone type, so far only identified in
post 1700 contexts, and carborundum
whetstones, the fabricated product that
took over the whetstone market during the
first half of the 20th century. The research
into the modem collections is, however,
not yet completed and this material will
only be mentioned briefly in this paper.
The determination of stone types was
only to a minor degree based upon
petrological analysis, but a small selection
of whetstones were thin sectioned with the
kind assistance of geologists Sveinn
Jakobsson and Gísli Öm Bragason, in
order to determine their provenance. In
addition, whetstones ffom Hofstaðir in
Mývatnssveit, Aðalstræti and
Herjólfsdalur had previously been
analyzed by geologist Helge Askvik. The
whetstones analyzed by Askvik served as
reference collections for the determination
of the remaining Icelandic whetstone
material, which was grouped into
geological types macroscopically.
Eidsborg Schist
The most commonly found whetstone
type in Iceland is a light grey, finely
grained, mica schist type, provenance can
be dated to the area around Eidsborg,
Telemark in south-westem Norway. This
stone type was transported from the
Eidsborg region from the Viking Age and
well into the 20th century (Myrvoll 1984,
Livland 1992). From around AD 1000 the
export of Eidsborg whetstones was
organized and it became one of the
principal exports of the new town in
Skien, southem Norway (Myrvoll 1986,
165). This development is probably
reflected in the Icelandic whetstone
material, where Eidsborg schist becomes
dominant in the archaeological material
after AD 1000. In Kaupang and Haithabu
there is a clear majority of the dark grey
schist type and in Borg in Lofoten this
type is almost exclusively used. On the
other hand, York shows a predominance
of the Eidsborg schist type as in Iceland.
This could partially be explained by the
dating of the sites, where both the
Icelandic collections and York include
substantial material from the period
around and after AD 1000 when the
export of Eidsborg schist increases. Also,
it could be influenced by difference in
trade connections with the areas outside
the Scandinavian homelands.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the
mining of the Eidsborg whetstones
increased drastically and it was exported
fforn several Norwegian towns, making
this material both cheaper and very
accessible for traders. From the 1880’s
onwards, factories developed around this
production and the export shifted ffom
primarily exporting raw material to
exporting boxes of finished whetstones in
standardized types (Livland, 1992, 16-19
and 34-36).
The Eidsborg schist consists of two
overall types, a light grey hard stone
(hardsteinn) and a similarly light gray but
softer stone (blautsteinn). The hardstone is
of inferior quality but easier to mine, and
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