Tracing Paths - A Study of Combs from Viking Age ICeland

• Main Author: Eckhoff, Nicolai Andreas
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Comb; Viking; Age; Iceland; Culture; Combs; Hofstaðir
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/40826; http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-45403

The present study is a technological and comparative analysis of combs from Viking Age Iceland. Recent research suggests that it was important for people in the Viking Age that the comb they caried was affiliated with their own culture; hence combs seem to have an inherent ability to portray cultural patterns. Such patterns are difficult to find in Iceland as few artefact studies have been completed in Icelandic archaeology. This thesis focuses on this fact, as the regional variations in the North European Viking Age comb material may provide insight into the cultural affinity of Icelandic society. The analysis contains all the available comb material from the Icelandic Viking Age graves, as well as combs found at three Icelandic Viking Age settlements (Hofstaðir, Sveigakot and Hrísheimar). By applying a constellation of knowledge to the combs, the results of the technological and comparative analysis will be used to explain how the combs came to be in Iceland and where they came from. This will then be used to present insight into how the Icelandic comb material may provide novel theories to the settlement of Iceland and the cultural affinity of the Icelandic people in the Viking Age.