Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic
The North Atlantic islands of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland have always been relatively poor in terms of native timber resources, due to their cold climate and exposed topography. Nevertheless, timber was vital to the material culture of the Norse settlers of these islands, and driftwood...
Published in: | International Journal of Wood Culture |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30550 https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10021 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/30550 2023-09-26T15:12:33+02:00 Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic Mooney, Dawn Elise Guðmundsdóttir, Lísabet Pinta, Élie Alm, Torbjørn 2023-03-07 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30550 https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10021 eng eng Brill International Journal of Wood Culture (IJWC) https://brill.com/view/journals/ijwc/aop/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10021/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10021.xml Mooney DE, Guðmundsdóttir L, Pinta É, Alm T. Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic. International Journal of Wood Culture (IJWC). 2023 FRIDAID 2133705 doi:10.1163/27723194-bja10021 2772-3186 2772-3194 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30550 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel publishedVersion 2023 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10021 2023-08-30T23:07:24Z The North Atlantic islands of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland have always been relatively poor in terms of native timber resources, due to their cold climate and exposed topography. Nevertheless, timber was vital to the material culture of the Norse settlers of these islands, and driftwood often met this need. As in subarctic Norway, where trees are also scarce, driftwood use and ownership were prescribed in medieval law codes. Historical documentary evidence shows that wealthy landowners bought driftwood rights as valuable assets, and ethnohistorical sources reveal a wide range of local and regional customs related to driftwood exploitation. However, driftwood was an unstable resource, and its delivery depended on a range of unpredictable factors related to climate and ocean currents. There is also ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of imported timber, which is for example often referenced in the Icelandic sagas. The use of driftwood is difficult to demonstrate through macroscopic, microscopic, or (geo-)chemical analysis. Similarities in the microscopic anatomy of boreal wood taxa preclude definitive provenancing through taxonomic analysis, and material traces of immersion in seawater are often either impermanent or ambiguous, especially in archaeological wood remains. This paper presents a comprehensive review of current historical and archaeological research on the exploitation of driftwood timber in the Medieval North Atlantic and explores potential future directions in this field. Furthermore, it asserts that this line of research should be pursued with some urgency, as anthropogenic climate change threatens both driftwood delivery and the preservation of archaeological wood remains. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Faroe Islands Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Subarctic University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Faroe Islands Greenland Norway International Journal of Wood Culture 3 1-3 371 411 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
description |
The North Atlantic islands of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland have always been relatively poor in terms of native timber resources, due to their cold climate and exposed topography. Nevertheless, timber was vital to the material culture of the Norse settlers of these islands, and driftwood often met this need. As in subarctic Norway, where trees are also scarce, driftwood use and ownership were prescribed in medieval law codes. Historical documentary evidence shows that wealthy landowners bought driftwood rights as valuable assets, and ethnohistorical sources reveal a wide range of local and regional customs related to driftwood exploitation. However, driftwood was an unstable resource, and its delivery depended on a range of unpredictable factors related to climate and ocean currents. There is also ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of imported timber, which is for example often referenced in the Icelandic sagas. The use of driftwood is difficult to demonstrate through macroscopic, microscopic, or (geo-)chemical analysis. Similarities in the microscopic anatomy of boreal wood taxa preclude definitive provenancing through taxonomic analysis, and material traces of immersion in seawater are often either impermanent or ambiguous, especially in archaeological wood remains. This paper presents a comprehensive review of current historical and archaeological research on the exploitation of driftwood timber in the Medieval North Atlantic and explores potential future directions in this field. Furthermore, it asserts that this line of research should be pursued with some urgency, as anthropogenic climate change threatens both driftwood delivery and the preservation of archaeological wood remains. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mooney, Dawn Elise Guðmundsdóttir, Lísabet Pinta, Élie Alm, Torbjørn |
spellingShingle |
Mooney, Dawn Elise Guðmundsdóttir, Lísabet Pinta, Élie Alm, Torbjørn Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
author_facet |
Mooney, Dawn Elise Guðmundsdóttir, Lísabet Pinta, Élie Alm, Torbjørn |
author_sort |
Mooney, Dawn Elise |
title |
Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
title_short |
Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
title_full |
Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic |
title_sort |
timber as a marine resource: exploitation of arctic driftwood in the north atlantic |
publisher |
Brill |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30550 https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10021 |
geographic |
Arctic Faroe Islands Greenland Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Faroe Islands Greenland Norway |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Faroe Islands Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Faroe Islands Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Subarctic |
op_relation |
International Journal of Wood Culture (IJWC) https://brill.com/view/journals/ijwc/aop/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10021/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10021.xml Mooney DE, Guðmundsdóttir L, Pinta É, Alm T. Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic. International Journal of Wood Culture (IJWC). 2023 FRIDAID 2133705 doi:10.1163/27723194-bja10021 2772-3186 2772-3194 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30550 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10021 |
container_title |
International Journal of Wood Culture |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
1-3 |
container_start_page |
371 |
op_container_end_page |
411 |
_version_ |
1778133202246828032 |