Late Iron Age Whaling in Scandinavia

What is it about?

New scientific methods for identifying raw materials demonstrate the consistent use of whalebone- most particularly the North Atlantic Right Whale - in making gaming pieces in Iron-Age Scandinavia. Consistent targeting of these species suggests that large-scale whale hunting was taking place in Scandinavian waters, as early as the sixth century AD. The gaming pieces give us unexpected insight into a trade that is otherwise all but invisible to us.

Featured Image

Photo by Will Turner on Unsplash

Photo by Will Turner on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Previously it was thought that organised whale-hunting as a later phenomenon, with opportunistic strandings being the key source of whale products, but it seems that maritime expeditions fit into a broader pattern of intensifying resource exploitation in the Iron Age, with implications for the history of human impact on natural ecosystems.