An Early Viking-Age comb from Hedeby, made of reindeer antler.Photo by Mariana Munoz-Rodriguez.
Posted on 09/23/2023 9:53:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Analysis of hair combs made from deer antler has shed new light on the trade routes of Vikings - revealing connections between northern Scandinavia and the edges of continental Europe.
Led by researchers from the University of York, the findings provide evidence of trade connections between the town of Hedeby (modern Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), the largest urban settlement in Viking Age Europe, and upland Scandinavia, hundreds of kilometres to the north...
Hedeby was a major centre of antler-working, with 288,000 antler finds recorded, most of which was waste material from the production of hair combs: a major urban craft in the Viking Age...
The findings revealed that 85-90% of the combs were made from reindeer antler. Reindeer herds were only located in northern Scandinavia, indicating that either the combs themselves or the antlers from which they were made were imported.
A previous study of waste from the production of antler artefacts at the site found that only 0.5% of the waste was from reindeer, and no manufacturing evidence from this early phase is known. Therefore, these combs were almost certainly produced elsewhere. This demonstrates the existence of large-scale, frequent long-range maritime contact between Hedeby and the north as early as AD 800.
(Excerpt) Read more at york.ac.uk ...
An Early Viking-Age comb from Hedeby, made of reindeer antler.Photo by Mariana Munoz-Rodriguez.
Interesting. Thank you.
This is the same period when Vikings were trading all the way to the Black Sea via river routes through Kiev. Wonder if these combs show up in Ukraine and beyond.
Vikings don't need no metric system.
That comb must have been very valuable. I can’t imagine how many hours it took to make. It’s amazing.
An online buddy from years ago said his Scandinavian ancestors' business records showed that during the medieval warming period, they sailed the thawed Arctic Ocean all the way to the Bering Strait, returning the following year, for trade, but obviously they were explorers looking to drum up some business. Of course, I've always kinda wondered about this story...
I wholeheartedly agree. And it looks like it was in use for a long time before being discarded, or lost during some berserker melee. :^)
Berserker melee - that would be my wife’s family reunions
Don’t wonder too much. At least one site on the north coast of Canada, as I recall, at least halfway to the Bering Strait, had Viking artifacts.
Thanks!
We’re everywhere...we’re everywhere.
Here’s a web page that will interest you. Iron-making in the Viking age.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/bog_iron.htm
In a later age it was the Scots who traveled, traded, explored and innovated. America owes a great deal to that diaspora.
https://www.alibris.com/The-Scottish-Empire-Michael-Fry/book/5941813?matches=8
(Ignore the squib. Written by some malcontent who hated the Scots. Probably an Irishman.)
Vikings mastered many things one that stands out for me is their sun stone aka compass for sailing.
Oh, sorry, I was talking about the route eastward, north of Siberia.
:^) thx.
My pleasure.
Thanks.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2448743/posts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2926262/posts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3110818/posts
lol
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