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.
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Notes
For example, in Late Bronze Age, Central Europe both weights/balances and touchstone candidates are present in at least four graves (Pare 1999, figs. 15: 2; 20: 8; 25: 13; 27: 2, 3).
Islandbridge 1866A. Almost all Viking burial finds of weights and balances in Ireland are known from the burial complex of Kilmainham/Islandbridge in Dublin, where numerous weapons, forging tools, etc., form the grave goods. The remaining two ‘Irish’ Viking Age weights come from Golden Lane also in Dublin (Harrison and Ó Floinn 2014).
Currently missing from the assemblage at the National Museum of Iceland. Two of the above-mentioned artefacts (Eyrateigur and Vað) are made of Eidsborg schist from Norway. From the analysed assemblage, the touchstones from Dalvík 12, Hrafnsstaðir and Skuggi are made of Eidsborg schist.
The specimen from grave 2 was on exhibition at the time of our analysis. M. Hayeur Smith (2004, p. 104) has pointed out that it is the only grave in Iceland known to contain iron jewellery (and interpreted its inventory as probably being the equipment of a jeweller).
Fishhooks occur already in prestige Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age graves in Europe, including graves containing balances or weights (e.g. Graziadio 1991, p. 413; Pare 1999, p. 442, 449, 472; Stöllner 2007, p. 237, 246). As numerous European early medieval graves containing fishing gear are known, the following is merely one illustrative example: a young individual buried in the eleventh century at Sowinki (Greater Poland) with two harpoons, six fishhooks, balances, 18 weights and two touchstones. (Ježek et al. 2013, p. 181). In this context, the assemblage of fishing tools found together with human remains at the Late Mesolithic ritual site of Kanaljorden, Sweden (David 2018), is highly remarkable.
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Acknowledgements
This paper was made possible by the support of the Czech Science Foundation (reg. no. 16-22207S). We would like to thank the National Museum of Iceland and the Institute of Archaeology at Reykjavík for lending us artefacts for analysis and thanks to the Innovation Center Iceland for providing access to their SEM and, in particular, to Birgir Jóhannesson for his great help. We are also grateful to Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir, Camilla Cecilia Wenn, Prof. Gavin Lucas, Ívar Brynjólfsson and Prof. James Graham-Campbell for their kind assistance.
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Ježek, M., Hansen, S.C.J. Symbols missing a cause: the testimony of touchstones from Viking Age Iceland. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 3423–3434 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0764-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0764-x