warmlander zori byock scott 2010 hrisbru metals,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 2284 e 2290 Contents lists available at Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: Metallurgical ndings from a Viking Age chieftain ’ s farm in Iceland Sebastian K.T.S. Wärmländer a , b , * , Davide Zori c , Jesse Byock d , David A. Scott e a Department of Anthropology, University of California in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA 93106, USA b Division of Biophysics, Arrhenius Laboratories, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden c The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California in Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA 90095, USA d The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology & Scandinavian Section, University of California in Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA 90095, USA e The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA/Getty Conservation Programme, University of California in Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA 90095, USA article info abstract Article history: Received 2 January 2010 Received in revised form 5 April 2010 Accepted 9 April 2010 The metalworking, metal import, and use of metal in medieval Iceland is still little understood. When the Scandinavian settlers colonized Iceland in the 9th c. AD, the island was found to contain no useful metal deposits save for bog iron, and the deforestation that followed the settlement resulted in a scarcity of wood. Only in the last decades have archaeological excavations begun to unravel how the rst Icelanders dealt with this lack of resources. This paper presents the metallurgical ndings from a Viking Age chieftain s present-day capital Reykjavik. The excavated metal objects had all been crafted with good workmanship employing tech- nology similar to that used in mainland Scandinavia. However, most excavated metal ’ s farmstead at Hrísbrú in the Mosfell valley, located just outside Iceland ’ Keywords: Archaeometallurgy Corrosion Conservation Science Viking studies X-ray diffraction X-ray nds show evidence of re-use, which together with the second-grade metal in some of the objects indicates a shortage of raw material that prompted the Icelandic colonizers to improvise and make do with whatever material was at hand. Even though this chieftain uorescence s farm was materially poorer than contemporaneous high-status farms in mainland Scandinavia, it was wealthy by Icelandic standards. The analytical results show that some excavated objects were imported trade goods deriving from both neighboring and far-away localities, proving that the farm was part of the extensive trade network of the Viking world. Most likely, this farm represents the upper limit to what a Viking Age farm in Iceland could afford in terms of material objects and trade goods. ’ 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction nds excavated from an Icelandic chieftain ’ s farm, dating to the earliest days of the Icelandic settlement. By comparing the material culture of this farm with contemporaneous Icelandic and Scandinavian sites, an example is provided of how a relatively wealthy Icelandic farm managed to compromise between the Scandinavian customary use of metals and Iceland This paper presents the analysis of metal While the history of metalworking in mainland Europe goes back to the earliest times, metalworking in Iceland only began when the island was colonized by the Scandinavian settlers in the 9th century. The settlers found Iceland to be a land of volcanic rock, containing no useful metal deposits save for bog iron. All other metals, particularly copper, silver, and gold, had to be imported. The deforestationprocess that followed the settlement eliminatedmost of Iceland ’ s lack of metals and other material resources. s native forest of dwarf birch (Betula L.) and willow (Salix sp.) ( Samset, 1991 , 27), and it has been argued that ironproductionwas a driving force behind this tree-cutting ( Smith, 1995 ). However, the scope and nature of the metalworking, the metal import, and the metallurgical technology in the early days of Iceland ’ 2. The Hrísbrú site At the Hrísbrú site, located in the Mosfell valley just a few kilometers outside Iceland ’ s capital Reykjavik, the Mosfell Archaeological Project has excavated a 10 11th century farmstead ( Fig. 1 ). The Mosfell valley runs from the bay Leirvogur in the west to the highlands of the Mosfell heath in the east. The excavated site is located along the slope of the northern side of the valley, at a strategic position from which it is possible to view both the central valley area and the coastline to the west (Byock et al., 2005). So far, a traditional Viking Age (ca. AD 790 e ’ s history still remain to be fully understood. Corresponding author at. Division of Biophysics, Arrhenius Laboratories, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: * þ 46 8 162447. e 1100) longhouse, a farm E-mail address: (S.K.T.S. Wärmländer). 0305-4403/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.04.001 S.K.T.S. Wärmländer et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 2284 e 2290 2285 Fig. 1. Map showing the Mosfell Valley and the Hrísbrú excavation site in Southwest Iceland. church with an associated cemetery, and a pagan cremation site have been unearthed. Viking Age Scandinaviawas a strati plowing, and the stratigraphy of the soil is mostly intact up to the topsoil, even though the meadow has been mechanically leveled in modern times. For example, above the longhouse, a volcanic ash layer from the Katla eruption in AD 1500 was found in situ some 20 cm below the current surface level. In all excavation areas, i.e. the longhouse, the church, the surrounding graves, and the cremation site, metal artifacts were encountered. Although the artifacts were heavily corroded, some contained enough remaining metal to allow extraction of useful metallurgical information. ed societywith a chie yelite ( Byock, 2001 ,66 e 69; Roesdahl, 1999 ), and Vésteinsson (2004 , 74 75) has grouped Icelandic houses into low, middle, and high status by reference to three parameters, i.e. house size, artifacts/ prestige goods, and historical records indicating status. At Hrísbrú, the longhouse measures an impressive 28m fromend to end, which makes it one of the largest Viking Age longhouses so far excavated in Iceland. The excavation yielded more imported glass beads than any other archaeological farmstead in Iceland (see below), and there are several medieval Icelandic sagas mentioning chieftains living at the old Mosfell farm, which was located at the site of modern-day Hrísbrú ( Byock et al., 2005; Grímsson, 1886 ). Thus, there is ample evidence for Hrísbrú being one of the more important high-status households in Iceland during the 10 e 11th centuries. Although the Hrísbrú farmstead has been continually inhabited from the Icelandic settlement up to the modern period, the habi- tation sites have changed over time, and the excavated Viking Age structures are located no more than 50 m from the present-day farmhouse. The longhouse dates from the original settlement of Iceland in the late 9th to early 10th century, and the small accompanying church was built around AD 1000. Both the long- house and the church are very well preserved as no subsequent structures or occupation has disturbed the site since it was aban- doned in the 11th or early 12th century, save for a small agricultural building located on top of the knoll where the church is located. The e 3. Materials and methods uorescence (XRF) spectroscopy was carried out on all metal samples in order to characterize their elemental composi- tion. The XRF spectra were recorded with a tungsten lter at 45 kV/ 11 mA, and with no X-ray lter at 35 kV/10 mA, using a Jordan-Valley Excalibur benchtop XRF (model EX-2600U). X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra were recorded of corrosion products and bead colorants using a Rigaku R-Axis Spider unit employing an image plate in Weissenberg geometry to collect Debye-Scherrer-rings. Minute amounts of material were scraped off the samples and placed on the end of a rotating glass spindle, and XRD spectra were recorded at 50 kV/40 mA for between 600 and 1500 s. After baseline-correction, the spectra were searched and matched against reference spectra from the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) using the JADE v8.2 software fromMaterials Data Inc. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were recorded with a Perkin oor of the longhouse was buried approximately 1 m below the surface of what is now a meadow, where the soil covering the longhouse has been deposited through domestic trash dumping inside the cavity of the house, followed by aeolian soil deposition from the nearby eroding mountains. This aeolian soil is slightly acidic (pH 6 Elmer Spectrum One instrument equipped with a solid state Attenuated Total Re e ectance (ATR) sample stage. Spectra of corrosion products were recorded in the 4000 550 cm 1 region with a resolution of 4.0 cm 1 and matched against the UCLA/Getty Conservation Program e 7) and generally sandy, allowing rainwater to seep through and access any buried objects. The average rainfall in the valley is about 100 mm/month, and the average temperature in the valley ranges from e ’ s IR database, as well as the spectral data- base of the Infrared and Raman Users Group (IRUG). Small samples were cut from some of the metal 2 C in the winter to 14 C in the summer, þ nds with creating yearly freeze thaw cycles (personal communication from Guðrún Gísladóttir at the Icelandic Meteorological Of e ajeweler s saw, mounted in Buehler transparent Epoxide resin, and oriented to expose the cross-sections. The samples were then ground and polished in steps ending with the Buehler Metadi 1 micron dia- mond suspension. The polished cross-sections were etched in 2% ferric chloride for copper and 2% nital for iron in order tomake visible the grain structure in the samples ( Scott, 1991 ). The etched surfaces were examined under re ’ ce, 2008). The preservation conditions at the site are therefore unfavorable, and most excavated objects are severely deteriorated due to the exposure to a combination of oxygen and moisture. On the upside, it appears that the meadow inwhich the structures are situated has been used exclusively for grazing, never for growing crops. Consequently, the buried material has not been disturbed by ectedaswellaspolarizedlightinametal- lographic stereomicroscope at 50 e 400 magni cation. 2286 S.K.T.S. Wärmländer et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 2284 e 2290 4. Results and discussion Together with two pieces of iron slag (2007-21-273; -294) found on the longhouse oor, the hammer scales suggest that small-scale iron working, such as repairs, took place at the site. Iron making using local ore has been demonstrated at different sites in Iceland ( Espelund, 2007 ), such as in the nearby Reykjavik area where a number of 9th-10th century smithies and iron bloomeries have been found (Vala Garðarsdóttir, personal communication, 2010), but so far no evidence for large-scale iron production has been found at Hrísbrú. The cemetery included a number of iron artifacts, consisting mostly of heavily corroded nails and clench bolts from burial features. The iron nails and bolts had remnants of wooden planks attached, and as these planks are otherwise completely decom- posed, it appears that the iron in the nails and rivets has slowed the disintegration of the adjoining wood. The clench bolts consist of round-headed nails which have been passed through boards and then hammered over an iron square or diamond-shaped rove placed around the nail ( Fig. 3 A). In Scandinavia, this type of clench bolt was typically used in the construction of ships and smaller boats built in the klinker style, and is also known as a ship rivet ( Bill, 1994; Lundström, 1972; McGrail, 2004 )( Fig. 3 B). In the burials, the iron nails were found along the edges of the burials, often in associationwith rectangular organic soil stains from decayed wood, indicating that they were part of cof 4.1. Iron objects Iron artifacts were unearthed from the longhouse, the church, the cemetery and the cremation site. In the longhouse four knife blades (2006-27-48; 2007-21-106; -107; -110) were found on the ttings (2006-27-49; -50) belonging to a wooden construction. All four knives were single-edged with straight backs, and measured around 10 cm in length. No handles remained, suggesting that these were made from wood or bone which has now decomposed. XRF measurements showed no presence of other metals in the knife blades, indicating they had been crafted without decorations of e.g. silver, tin, or bronze/brass. As both the knife blades and the iron oor together with two iron ttings were completely mineralized without any pseudo- morphic retention of microstructural detail in the iron corrosion products, further metallographic analysis was not possible. In the church building, a knife blade (2003-41-46) was found in a stratigraphic layer above the church oor, post-dating the aban- donment of the church. The blade retained some solid metal under a thick crust of corrosion, allowing a sample to be taken for metal- lurgical analysis. The cross-section revealed that the blade was fashioned from two pieces of wrought iron, welded around a core of high-carbon steel, and aligned along the length of the blade ( Fig. 2 ). The ne pearlite between the acicular ferrite plates allows the carbon content to be estimated at about 0.2 ns. The clench bolts, which are unsuitable for making square boxes, were found on top of the skeletons, indicating that they were part of wooden constructions other than cof 0.3% carbon, and it has been known since the early days of iron-working that suchmixing of softer iron with harder steel can improve the overall material properties of iron objects ( Carpenter and Robertson, 1930a, 1930b ). Unfortunately, not enough of the cutting edge has survived to make it possible to tell whether the steel was quenched in this area or not. The particular fashioning of this knife closely matches the three- layered e nd clench bolts or ship rivets in burial features, and it appears that the clench bolts and the decayed wooden planks that they bound together are recycled material from boats ( Zori, 2007 ). Re-use of material from Viking Age boats in Christian burials has previously been reported from Sebbersund in Denmark, although there the iron ns or burial biers. It is unusual to ttings had been removed for re-smelting and the boards were found below the bodies, suggesting to Birkedahl and Johansen (1995) that the re-use was purely functional. At Hrísbrú, the presence of the bolts and their placement on top of the body precludes a purely utili- tarian role of these objects, and suggests that these boat fragments were ritually deposited in the graves as symbolic references to the pagan tradition of boat burials and the ship as a vehicle to the afterlife ( Zori, 2007 ). In addition to the clench bolts, two other iron grave goods were found in the cemetery. In burial Feature 3, a nine cm long hooped iron dress pin was unearthed (2002-57-55) ( Fig. 4 ). In mainland Scandinavia, dress pins were used by both men and women from at least the migration period (ca. AD 370 method ( Tylecote and Gilmour, 1986; Tylecote, 1987 , 263), which has been employed in mainland Europe since at least the “ sandwich ” rst centuries AD ( McDonnell, 1989; Ottaway, 1992 ). This method does not appear to have reached Scandinavia until the 9th 10th centuries ( Arrhenius,1970,1989a; Peets,1995; Lyngstrøm, 1995 ). Upon its arrival, it gained wide-spread popularity, and soon became the dominant method for steeling knives in Scandinavia ( Arrhenius, 1998, 1989b; Carlsson, 2003; Lyngstrøm, 1995 ). Underneath the church e oor, in a stratigraphic layer related to an earlier structure, small magnetic metal akes (2003-41-74) were encountered. XRD spectra of the ed them as magne- tite, Fe 3 O 4 , indicating that they are magnetic hammer scales, formed at high heat during smithing activities ( Tylecote, 1987 , 320). akes identi e 570) onwards, and in the Vendel period (ca. AD 570 e 790) the early protuberant style was Fig. 2. Etched cross-section of knife-blade 2003-41-46, found in the church building at the Hrísbrú farm. A) The rightmost region is wrought iron, while the leftmost region is carbon steel. The region in between is the weaker welded interface, displaying cracking and corrosion. B) This close-up of the leftmost region in (A) shows the typical Wid- manstätten structure for low-carbon steel. S.K.T.S. Wärmländer et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 2284 e 2290 2287 Fig. 3. A.) Examples of the clench bolts found in burial feature CK-2007-5 in the graveyard next to the Hrísbrú farm church. Note the decomposed wood that has been preserved due to close proximity to the corroded iron. B.) Clench bolts employed in two methods for joining overlapping planks (redrawn by Jennie Dillon from Ottaway, 1992, 617). replaced by polyhedral pins ( Waller, 1996 ). In the Viking Age, the use of dress pins declined, as women began to fasten their clothing with characteristic oval brooches ( Jansson, 1985 ). Men, on the other hand, continued to use dress pins which were usually made from bronze or brass, but sometimes they were fashioned from iron, and occasionally from expensive silver ( Waller, 1996 ). Pins with hoops were typically used in pairs, which allowed a chain to be strung between them that could be used for carrying decorative or utili- tarian items. A pin made from iron had multiple purposes, as it was sturdy enough to also be used as a tool for punching holes or as an awl. For incomplete dress pin pair was deposited in a cemetery including partial boat material. Presumably the excavated parts were meant to symbolically represent complete objects. 4.2. Bronze fragments A handful of copper alloy objects and fragments were encoun- tered at the Hrísbrú site, and four fragments were selected for detailed technical examinations, i.e. 2007-21-61 found in the collapsed southern wall of the longhouse, 2003-41-33 from the church nd 2002-57-55 only one of the hooped pins, and not the full pair, was deposited in the grave. The corroded state of the pin precludes stylistic and metallographic analysis. To the best of the authors oor, 2002-57-68 from the cremation site, and 2006-27-16 from the soil above the longhouse. The 2006-27-16 fragment rested within the tephra layer from the Katla eruption of AD 1500, approximately dating the knowledge, it is the only iron dress pin so far encountered in Iceland. The second iron gravegood is a fragment of an iron pot (2003- 41-65). It corresponds to about 1/5 of the original vessel, and was found deposited in burial Feature 49. The diameter of the original vessel was estimated to 19 cm, and the fragment consists of two iron sheets welded together with a loop riveted to the pot ( Fig. 4 ). The latter allowed a chain to be fastened so that the pot could be suspended over a ’ nd to that year. Due to their fragmentary and corroded nature, it is not possible to accurately determine the original alloy composition of the nds or fromwhat kind of objects they derive. However, X-ray uorescence analysis revealed that the four nds consist of tin-bronze alloys. This constitutes a deviation from the standard composition of Scandinavian Viking Age copper alloys, which typically contain zinc, often lead, and less frequently tin ( Arrhenius, 1989c; Craddock, 1990; Oldeberg, 1966; Söderberg, 2010 ). As there are no tin deposits in Scandinavia, geographic proximity suggests that the tin might originate from the British Isles where tin has been mined since at least 1000 BC ( Barton, 1957; Varyl et al., 2004 ), even though other regions of origin are possible also. For 2006-27-16, XRF analysis identi re. The design and construction is similar to other welded and riveted iron pots from Viking Age Scandinavia, such as the ones found as grave goods in pagan graves ( Fridell, 1930 , 229; Odencrantz, 1937 ). The typical pagan grave however encom- passes whole objects, while at Hrísbrú a fragment of a pot and an ed small amounts Fig. 4. A) Hooped Viking Age iron dress pin (2002-57-55) of West-Norse/Celtic style, found in Burial Feature 3 at Hrísbrú in the Mosfell Valley. B) Fragment of an iron pot (2003-41- 65), found in the same cemetery. Bar is 1 cm. C) Reconstruction of the iron pot. The curvature of the fragment suggests that the pot was rather small, measuring about 19 cm in diameter. Bar is 1 cm. 2288 S.K.T.S. Wärmländer et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 2284 e 2290 (around 2% each) of lead and silver in the material, in addition to the copper and tin. While lead and tin are common additions to copper, silver is not, suggesting that the fragment was manufac- tured from a recycled bronze object with some silver decoration. Metallographic analysis revealed annealing twins, small grain sizes, and occasional strain lines in the microstructure of all samples, indicating that cycles of cold-working and annealing were employed to skillfully hammer the objects into their desired shapes. In samples from objects 2002-57-68 and 2006-27-16 relatively high amounts of common in the Viking world, and while bead 2006-27-53 was excavated in pristine shape, formation of silver sul de (Ag 2 S) on bead 2007-21-179 has caused all the silver surface to turn golden, suggesting differential preservation conditions at the site. For the three yellow beads 2006-27-9, 2006-27-54, and 2007- 21-204, XRF analysis indicated the presence of tin, in addition to the normal elements found in glass such as lead, silicon, calcium, and potassium. XRD spectra of minute scrapings of bead 2006-27- 9identi ed the compound lead-tin oxide, PbSnO 3 , also known as the pigment lead-tin yellow ( Fig. 5 ). This pigment comes in two chemical forms, where type I, Pb 2 SnO 4 , is more common than type II, PbSnO 3 . Both forms are chemically stable and lightfast, which helps to explain the pristine appearance of the beads. Lead-tin yellowwas used in European easel paintings from the 14th century onwards ( Kühn, 1968 ), but its main use during the Middle Ages was as colorant in yellow glass ( Estaugh, 2004 ). Venice was the center in Europe for such glass production ( Estaugh, 2004 ), which makes Italy a plausible origin for the raw material in the beads. However, as glass colored with lead-tin yellow type II has recently been encountered at local glass production sites outside Italy, such as the Merovingian site of Schleitheim in Switzerland ( Heck et al., 2003 ), the geographic origin of the glass cannot be absolutely ascertained. de inclusions were encountered, indicating that the copper in these two objects was not of the highest quality, even though the copper must have been processed with some sophistication in order to yield sul copper sul de rather than oxide inclusions. In 2006-27-16, cracks were present in addition to numerous strain lines, providing evidence of heavy stress-related deformation. Possibly the object had a functional rather than a decorative use e perhaps as a hinge e and the deformation may have been related to this use. 4.3. Beads A number of monochrome and polychrome glass beads found in the longhouse were subjected to technical analysis and found to contain different metallic colorants. In mainland Scandinavia, bead- making from recycled glass or imported glass rods has been documented at sites such as Ribe, Hedeby, Kaupang, and Birka ( Callmer, 1977; Sode, 2004 ). Since no glass-working sites have been found in Iceland, 4.4. Corrosion and deterioration Due to the environmental conditions at the site all metal nds it is safe to assume that these beads were were heavily corroded. X-ray diffraction identi ed the copper corrosion as standard copper oxide, Cu 2 O, and copper carbonate, (CuCO 3 $ imported in their nished form. Four of the beads (2007-21-142, -143, -144, and -145) have an intricate design pattern, consisting of a black body adorned with white bands together with eyes in red and blue ( Fig. 5 ). XRD and XRF analysis indicate that the white colorant is tin oxide (SnO 2 ), the red colorant is haematite (Fe 2 O 3 ), the black colorant is magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ), while the blue colorant is an unidenti Cu(OH) 2 ). For iron standard oxides and hydroxides, i.e. FeO, Fe 2 O 3 , and FeOOH, were found together with the more uncommon iron carbonate, FeCO 3 , which previously has been encountered in wet environments such as Danish peat bogs ( Matthiesen et al., 2003 ). For the iron (2002-29-87) and bronze (2002-29-68) frag- ments deriving from objects deposited in association with the cremation burial ( Fig. 6 ), no unusual corrosion products were found, and Raman spectroscopy of the corrosion crust of the iron fragments identi ed copper-based compound. Beads with the same characteristic design pattern have been found at other places in Iceland ( Eldjárn, 1956 )aswellasin Birka, Sweden, ( Arbman, 1940 ), and in Eastern Europe ( Callmer, 1977 , 97). The other nd sites all date to a narrow time window of AD 960 ed incorporated particles of graphite (i.e. char- coal) originating from the cremation event, which explains the charred appearance of the pieces. Due to the uniform thickness of the bronze fragments from the cremation site it was possible to calculate the corrosion rate at the site. The cross-section of fragment 2002-57-68 contains a core of solid metal in a corrosion matrix retaining the shape and dimen- sions of the original bronze sheet ( Fig. 6 ). With the average thick- ness of the studied fragment being 200 990 ( Callmer, 1977 , 85), which seems to be a plausible date also for the current e nds from the Hrísbrú longhouse. It appears that beads with eyes were never produced in Scandinavia, and Callmer (1977) suggests that the style of the four excavated beads originated in Turkmenistan. Most likely, these beads were imported along the Viking Age trade routes that descend from Scandinavia down the rivers of Russia towards Asia. Two of the other beads, 2006-27-53 and 2007-21-179, were manufactured with a decorative metal foil coating, identi 10 m m, and the average thickness of the remaining metal being 20 3 m m, the corrosion ed with XRF as silver. This technique for bead ornamentation was relatively layers on both sides measure roughly 90 m. With radiocarbon dating of charred twigs providing an approximate date of AD 990 m Fig. 5. A) One of the four (F-2007-143) found in the Hrísbrú longhouse, stylistically provenanced to central Asia. B) The yellow bead F-2006-9. C) XRD spectrum identifying the yellow colorant in F-2006-9 as PbSnO 3 , i.e. lead-tin yellow type II. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this “ eye-beads ” gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
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