Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 75

THE ICELANDIC WHETSTONE MATERIAL - AN OVERVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH
whetstones in post-medieval contexts.
The whole whetstones differ in weight
from around 10 g to 775 g and include
everything from small pendant
whetstones, kept around the neck, in
pouches or suspended from belts as
personal possessions, to large whetstone
blocks for stationary use in sharpening
larger implements. On average, the small
to medium-sized whetstones weigh around
50 g in the analyzed Viking Age and early
medieval collections in Iceland. The need
for whetstones depends on the types and
variation in activities taking place, e.g.
extensive house-building/turf-cutting and
growing grain/harvesting requires sharp
metal implements and intensive use of
whetstones. Everyday life also required
whetstones and the smaller examples, such
as the pendant whetstones probably served
an important role for smaller tools, such as
personal knifes and needles that needed
regular, but less intensive sharpening.
Medium-sized whetstones could also be
carried around, such as for example the
scythe whetstones that were used
frequently during harvesting season.
Specialized crafls also required certain
whetstone types, but this is a complicated
aspect since the excavated assemblages
come primarily from rural farmsteads with
no or little sign of craftsmanship. There
are, however, examples from the Icelandic
collections showing very distinct grinding
marks and groves which does hold
potential for understanding their
specialized use.
Degree of fragmentation
Relative accessibility of whetstones was
estimated by looking at the degree of
fragmentation and intensively of use in the
individual whetstone collections. In
general, it is expected that most stones in
the collections are smaller than the size
they had originally. Oftcn breakage and
reuse after breakage can be detected. Such
intensive use of the material is also
recorded in the 20th century where
ethnographic records describe how young
boys were given the broken whetstones to
sharpen their scythes when leaming to
work in the fields (Matthíasson and
Einarsson2). These broken ends were
mounted into sheep hom, allowing for use
of small ffagments. It is therefore not
surprising that the archaeological record
only preserves a small number of large
whetstones. It was not that they did not
exist or were not needed in the household,
but the evidence simply reflects that the
material was used to its fullest extent,
leaving primarily small whetstone
remains to be found in archaeological
contexts. Inter-site variation is visible, as
some sites showed small amounts of
potentially usable whetstones whereas
others almost exclusively contained
broken whetstones and fragments not
usable for grinding purposes. In spite of
this variation, all Viking Age and early
medieval settlement sites in Iceland have
one thing in common: no site shows an
abundance of discarded usable schist
whetstones, meaning that the material
2 Mentioned in several of the questionnaires sent out by the ethnographic department of the National Museum of Iceland, e.g.
Þjóðháttadeild “030 - Heyannir V” See: Haraldur Matthíasson (1603083389) Laugarvatn, source nr. Nr 3515 and “016 -
Torfskurður og móverk” see: Guðmundur Steinn Einarsson (2805172599) source nr. Nr. 2792
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