Symbols missing a cause: the testimony of touchstones from Viking Age Iceland
- PDF / 7,161,523 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 29 Downloads / 168 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Symbols missing a cause: the testimony of touchstones from Viking Age Iceland Martin Ježek 1 & Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen 2 Received: 12 August 2018 / Accepted: 3 December 2018 / Published online: 4 January 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract From the Early Bronze Age, tools used to determine the nature and value of precious metal have been used as traditional symbols in burial rituals. During the Early Medieval Period, balances, weights and touchstones became widespread in the northern part of Europe, or bullion-economy zone. This paper focuses on a selection of touchstones from Viking Age Iceland, from both graves and settlements. Chemical microanalyses of streaks of metals observed on their surfaces show that not only precious metals, but also other non-ferrous metals, and in particular lead, have been tested on touchstones. The settlement finds come primarily from high-status farms which have produced evidence of working with non-ferrous metals. The disproportion between the low frequency of precious metals and the relatively high representation of touchstones in burials, including the occurrence of clearly ostentatious specimens, is apparent in Iceland. However, due to uncertainty as to the origins of the metal streaks on imported touchstones, the workshop finds are regarded as the more important source for knowledge of both metalworking and social relations in Viking Age Iceland. Keywords Viking Age . Iceland . Burial . Precious metal . Touchstones . Ritual behaviour
Introduction Precious metal artefacts and evidence for non-ferrous metal production are extremely rare in Icelandic Viking Age contexts. Silver objects have occasionally been found on settlements, mostly at high-status sites (e.g. Hofstaðir, Hrísbrú, Hvítárholt and Sveigakot: Hayeur Smith 2004, p. 112, 145–147; GrahamCampbell 2011, p. 125; Hansen et al. 2014, p. 131). The existing archaeological tally of Viking Age non-ferrous metallurgy is limited to a few sites, mainly those just mentioned (see Hayeur Smith 2004, p. 97–100, with refs.). Numerous oblong stone artefacts of rectangular cross-section, usually regarded as ‘whetstones’, have been discovered at almost all of these sites. Hundreds of such artefacts are recorded in Viking Age Iceland, both from elite and ordinary sites (see Hansen 2009, p. 43–68; Hansen 2011). However, chemical microanalysis of identical objects from Northern and Central Europe has shown that they were in fact * Martin Ježek [email protected] 1
Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Letenská 4, 11801 Prague, Czech Republic
2
Museum of East Jutland, Stemannsgade 2, 8900 Randers C, Denmark
touchstones, artefacts used to determine the nature and value of non-ferrous metal (e.g. Ježek 2013; 2014; 2016; 2017). These tools, as is also the case of balances and weights, became widespread in the northern part of early medieval Europe, or bullioneconomy zone, where hacksilver was commonly used as currency. Tools for determining the value of metal, as well as
Data Loading...
