Rumpelstiltsken’s feat: cloth and German trade with Iceland

Michéle Hayeur Smith

doi:10.31265/ams-skrifter.v0i27.262

Abstract

Identifying foreign cloth imports in the Icelandic archaeological corpus is difficult at best, yet given widespread similarities in homespun cloth from sites across the country, imported cloth can be identified visually through the presence of refined finishing techniques (such as teaseling, shearing, and fulling) that were uncommon in Iceland and were the products of specialist craftsmen in Europe. This paper examines textile assemblages from deposits datable to the period of Hanseatic trade at three sites, Gilsbakki, Reykholt, and Stóra-Borg that represent two wealthy, interior, parish centres and a moderate-sized coastal farm, respectively. Variations in the number and diversity of imported cloth items within these sites’ assemblages suggest that while Hanseatic material culture was widely spread on Icelandic rural sites, the nature of the material culture sub-assemblages attributable to Hanseatic trade was not obviously a direct function of households’ wealth or proximity to harbours but may have engaged other cultural factors linked to the political and social challenges of the post-Reformation period and the roles of individual households in regional or intra-Icelandic trade.

Highlights

Identifying foreign cloth imports in the Icelandic archaeological corpus is difficult at best, yet given widespread similarities in homespun cloth from sites across the country, imported cloth can be identified visually through the presence of refined finishing techniques that were uncommon in Iceland and were the products of specialist craftsmen in Europe
This paper examines textile assemblages from deposits datable to the period of Hanseatic trade at three sites, Gilsbakki, Reykholt, and Stóra-Borg that represent two wealthy, interior, parish centres and a moderate-sized coastal farm, respectively
Variations in the number and diversity of imported cloth items within these sites’ assemblages suggest that while Hanseatic material culture was widely spread on Icelandic rural sites, the nature of the material culture sub-assemblages attributable to Hanseatic trade was not obviously a direct function of households’ wealth or proximity to harbours but may have engaged other cultural factors linked to the political and social challenges of the post-Reformation period and the roles of individual households in regional or intra-Icelandic trade

Summary

MICHÈLE HAYEUR SMITH

Pottery of German, Dutch, and Southern Scandinavian origin first appear at Gilsbakki around 1490 and 1520, but become more common after 1550, along with other items of dress and consumption from this same region.[45] Rather than a passive acquisition of Hanseatic material culture, Kevin Smith suggests that the appearance of this ‘Germanic’ assemblage at Gilsbakki may reflect conscious efforts by the site’s priests to adopt visual symbols and personal accoutrements (redware and stoneware ceramics, leather-heeled shoes, enamelled bronze knife handle, lead pistol shot, early clay tobacco pipes, etc.) that expressed their alliance with the Protestant movement and emulated the possessions of Lutheran bishops and administrators sent to Iceland after the tumultuous decades of the Reformation and during the subsequent century-and-a-half in which the Crown consolidated power, confiscated ecclesiastic properties, and executed heretics.[46] While the numbers of these objects were relatively few, they almost completely replaced earlier forms of material culture at the site and seem to have been highly valued, as many were quite old when they entered the archaeological record, repaired and kept in use for over 150 years.47What is important to note about this, in the context of this examination, is that the range of imports at Gilsbakki clearly show the site’s strong linkages to international trade through the Hanseatic period; yet the site’s textile assemblage, unlike those from Reykholt and Stóra-Borg, consists almost entirely of locally woven homespun. Callow’s research involved an indepth analysis of written sources regarding the region, and concluded that smaller sites such as Dögurðarnes may have acted as a sort of small market, and distribution centre outside the control of chieftains, with more imported objects reaching a greater audience than previously expected.[60]

Conclusion

Findings

Secondary literature