Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 47

EXPLOITATION OF WILD BIRDS IN ICELAND FROM THE SETTLEMENT
PERIOD TO THE 19TH CENTURY AND ITS REFLECTION IN ARCHAEOLOGY
valuable than impure down.
Special down houses were built
mostly where eiderdown was harvested in
large quantities. These houses would
however also be used for other things like
storage when down was not being
processed. Known examples of down
houses are e.g. at Laufás in Eyjafjörður
(figure 4), in Kerlingarfjörður in
Múlasveit and at Illugastaðir at Vatnsnes.
Down houses often had a stone built
hearth or fireplace for eiderdown baking
(Kristjánsson 1986, 302 and 305; Jónsson
ed. 2001, 120 and 123; Harðardóttir 2006,
29). During down cleaning, large
quantities of debris like straw, seaweed,
eggshells, excrement, dirt and fíne down
would presumably have been deposited on
the floors in such houses and other general
cleaning places, with some of it most
likely trodden down during the process
(table 1). Usually only about 1-1,25 kg of
cleaned down could be had from 5 kg of
unclean down, which suggests a lot of
debris was left behind (Kristjánsson 1986,
308). Fine feathers can easily be spotted in
thin sections through a microscope and
entomologists could possibly identify
exoskeletal remains from parasites
associated with feathers (see e.g. Forbes et
al. 2010).
According to Berglund (2009,
128-133) pillows and quilts filled with
feathers or down have been found in many
high status burials, e.g. at Oseberg, Sutton
Hoo and Valsgárde. Berglund suggests
that the general use of such items by the
elites has been in practice in Northem
Europe at least from the 7th century.
Identifying which bird species the down
and feathers came from, however, is very
often problematic, although not
impossible. No clear remnants of
eiderdown or such bedclothes have yet
been found in archaeological excavations
in Iceland but as feather fragments have
been found at Skálholt and in Viðey it is
clearly not impossible to fínd feathers
where preservation conditions are
favourable.
Gyrfalcons, the peasant's
white elephant
Falcon trapping
The grey Icelandic falcons were highly
coveted as they were larger and had more
stamina for hunting than Norwegian
falcons, but white falcons, which
wandered on wing to the island ifom
Greenland, were most popular (Þórðarson
1957, 80; Horrebow 1966, 119). In the
middle of the 17th century King Frederick
III took over the Icelandic falcon trade and
sent his own hunters on a special ship from
Denmark to Bessastaðir to collect the
birds. Frederick's men had to buy all
acceptable falcons offered from local
falcon hunters but those that were thought
inadequate or too old were to be killed.
According to Ólafsson and Pálsson (1981,
35) admiral Henrik Bjelke (seneschal of
the Danish king in Iceland), however,
objected to this killing of birds in 1651 at
Alþingi as it was against Icelandic law.
Whether unwanted birds were killed or not
is unclear. Most likely there was a little bit
of both, especially if birds caught where
very old or sick. In the years 1691-1706,
around 100 falcons on average were
exported each year and the trade reached
its heights in 1764 when 210 falcons were
caught (Þórðarson 1957, 90-93).
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