Viking Iron Production in Iceland: a new model of Norse iron supply and circulation in the North Atlantic

Iron was a strategic resource in ancient societies and is still of great importance today.

This metal was notably mass produced during the Viking age and traded over long distances between the different Norse settlements.

This project aims to investigate the provenance of Viking iron artefacts and to develop a new model of the dynamics of iron movement in the North Atlantic region during the Viking age. In Norse society, iron was used to produce everyday tools, as well as weapons and boat rivets. This metal is thus intrinsically linked to the formidable Viking expansion.

The numerous remains of iron production in the Scandinavian homelands led most historians to consider that Viking iron was almost exclusively produced in Norway and Sweden.

However, this hypothesis fails to explain the growing number of archaeological evidence attesting to intensive iron production in Iceland, exceeding the local needs.

To investigate the fate of this Icelandic iron production in the network of Viking iron circulation, we propose a novel multi-proxy tracing approach.

Combined Sr, Fe, Hf, and Nd isotopes, and trace element analyses will be performed on metallurgical remains from iron smelting sites (i.e. technological sources) and archaeological artefacts.

We will determine a specific multi-isotopic and elemental signature for each region of iron production, against which the composition of the objects will be compared. Strontium isotopes are highly likely to fingerprint iron from Iceland because of its geological singularity. To complement this, Hf, Nd, Fe isotopes, and trace elements will be used to refine source distinctions.

These results will be compiled to produce a multi-tracer object-source matching map and propose new iron flows patterns during the Viking age.

Finally, this model will be used to address the question of a possible spatially specialised Norse iron industry and improve our understanding of the Viking diaspora that first connected Europe to North America.