New open-access book: Soapstone in the North. Quarries, Products and People. 7000 BC – AD 1700

Several authors on excursion to the Hana soapstone quarry by Bergen during a book seminar in 2015. Photo by Per Storemyr

Together with lead editor, professor Gitte Hansen at the University of Bergen, I have co-edited a brand new book: On the archaeology, geoarchaeology and craft of quarrying and use of soapstone in the North Atlantic region. Without Gitte, this adventure would never have ended! The book contains 17 papers by soapstone enthusiasts and sums up a research revival that has been ongoing for the last 20 years. Norway is a main focus, where soapstone has been used from the Mesolithic until today, but the book also contains papers on Greenland and the North Atlantic Isles by Danish and British colleagues. It gives brand new insights into many aspects of soapstone, especially on sourcing artefacts by combined geochemical and archaeological methods.

The book, with its more than 400 pages, has been published as an open-source publication in the UBAS-series; the University of Bergen Archaeological Series. From the back cover:

“Soapstone in the North” – back cover

“Soapstone is a remarkable rock. While it is soft and very workable, it is also durable and heat-resistant, and with a high heat-storage capacity. These properties have been recognised and valued around the world since prehistoric times, and soapstone has been used for a multitude of purposes, ranging from everyday household utensils to prestigious monuments and buildings. This book addresses soapstone use in Norway and the North Atlantic region, including Greenland. Although most papers deal with the Iron Age and Middle Ages, the book spans the Mesolithic to the early modern era. It deals with themes related to quarries, products and associated people and institutions in a broad context. Recent years have seen a revival of basic archaeological and geological research into the procurement and use of stone resources. With its authors drawn from the fields of archaeology, geosciences and traditional crafts, the anthology reflects cross-disciplinary work born of this revival.”

The book can be downloaded in full from the BORA platform:

You can buy the book at the webshop of the Bergen University Museum (select “skrifter” and scroll down to UBAS 9)…

…or you can take a look at individual chapters online:

Gitte Hansen and Per Storemyr: A Versatile Resource – The Procurement and Use of Soapstone in Norway and The North Atlantic Region
Eva Stavsøien: Soapstone Quarrying, a Stoneworker’s Approach
Stephen Wickler, Ingvar Lindahl and Lars Petter Nilsson: Soapstone in Northern Norway: Archaeological and Geological Evidence, Quarry and Artifact Survey Results
Laura Bunse: Multi-ethnic Involvement? Production and Use of Soapstone in Northern Norway
Knut Andreas Bergsvik: Mesolithic Soapstone Line-sinkers in Western Norway: Chronology, Acquisition, Distribution, Function and Decoration
Tor Grenne, Bodil Østerås and Lars F. Stenvik: The Sandbekkdalen Quarry, Kvikne: A Window into Early Iron Age Soapstone Exploitation in Norway
Per Storemyr and Tom Heldal: Reconstructing a Medieval Underground Soapstone Quarry: Bakkaunet in Trondheim in an International Perspective
Torbjørn Preus Schou: Trade and Hierarchy: The Viking Age Soapstone Vessel Production and Trade of Agder, Norway
Bodil Østerås: Slipsteinberget Soapstone Vessel Quarry. Home Production or Professional Craft?
Irene Baug: Bakestones – Production and Trade in the Middle Ages
Hilde Vangstad: From Numeric Data to Cultural History – A Typological and Chronological Analysis of Soapstone Vessels from the Medieval Bryggen Wharf in Bergen, Norway
Mogens Skaaning Høegsberg: The Soapstone of Norse Greenland
Amanda Forster and Richard Jones: From Homeland to Home; Using Soapstone to Map Migration and Settlement in the North Atlantic
Gitte Hansen, Øystein J. Jansen and Tom Heldal: Soapstone Vessels from Town and Country in Viking Age and Early Medieval Western Norway. A Study of Provenance
Birgitta Berglund, Tom Heldal and Tor Grenne: From Soapstone Quarries to Churches: Control, Ownership and Transport Along the Helgeland Coast in North Norway
Øystein J. Jansen and Tom Heldal: The Building Stones from the Vanished Medieval Church at Onarheim, Tysnes, Hordaland County in Western Norway: Provenancing Chlorite Schist and Soapstone
Alf Tore Hommedal: Cistercian Soapstone. Production and Delivery of Building Material from Lyse Abbey to Bergen in the 13th century

We want to thank all involved in the book; first of all our authors! From the preface:

“Soapstone in the North” – front cover

“This book has been a long time in the making. It is an outcome of the five Norwegian University Museums’ joint research programme Forskning i Felleskap (FIF, 2010–2015), supported by the Research Council of Norway. FIF kindly facilitated a number of workshops and meetings between archaeologists, geologists and craftspeople, all with a common interest in premodern soapstone quarrying and use. The result is the chapters of this book, which are based on studies carried out over the last two decades and, for the most part, are published scientifically for the first time. We very much thank the authors for participating in this venture. We also thank several colleagues – archaeologists, geoscientists and craftspeople – that assisted the editors in peer-reviewing the chapters: Irene Baug, Birgitta Berglund, Laura Bunse, Poul Baltzer Heide, Richard Jones, Tor Grenne, Torbjørn Løland, Therese Nesset, Astrid J. Nyland, Lars Pilø, Kevin Smith, Lars F. Stenvik, Frans Arne Stylegard and Stephen Wickler; we are very grateful for the job you have done. Not least, thanks go to Tromsø University Museum, NTNU University Museum (Trondheim) and the University Museum of Bergen for their economic support in publishing the book.”

Thank you!

Gitte Hansen & Per Storemyr