Þingvellir: A Place of Assembly and a Market?

Journal of the North AtlanticN. Mehler

2015 Special Volume 8

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Introduction

ingvellir (Fig. 1) was the site of the Icelandic main assembly during the Viking period and the Middle Ages. The place name consists of the com-ponents ing, which refers to the function of the site, and vellir, the Old Norse (ON) term for a level field (Fellows-Jensen 1996), which describes the flat grounds at the northern end of Lake ingvallavatn. At some point at the end of the Age of Settlement (ca. 874930), the site was chosen as a location for the annual main assembly, which was held there un-til 1798. The people attending these meetings assem-bled in the open each summer for about two weeks.1

Many visitors slept in temporary dwellings, such as booths made of turf and stone or tents, both of which are recorded in the sagas and evident in the archaeo-logical record (e.g., Vsteinsson 2013). The meet-ings were of great political and social importance. ingvellir was the place where the court of justice and the court of legislature came together. After the reforms of 960 AD, there were 39 chieftains (goar), along with their retinues of free-born farm-ers (bndr), who played central roles at ingvellir. According to written sources, women, although largely excluded from the decision-making bodies, were clearly present at the Aling, as the two-week

ingvellir: A Place of Assembly and a Market?

Natascha Mehler*

Abstract - The site of the Icelandic general assembly at ingvellir has long been at the center of assembly research. Over the past few decades in particular, archaeologists have criticised the antiquarian investigations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The criticism was directed at the methods used at the time to pinpoint assembly sites and to identify their architectural components, such as booths and court-circles. However, it is also important to take a critical approach to the question of what actually took place at ingvellir. After Iceland became independent, a period of nationalistic historiogra-phy set in, during which it was stated that ingvellir was not only the place for the general assembly but also the greatest market place in Iceland. This paper presents the results of a systematic study of written and archaeological sources to put to the test the premise of a large-scale market at ingvellir. Written and archaeological evidence for economic activities are faint and ambiguous. On the basis of this it is argued that there was probably not a market zone within the assembly area and that trade only took place there at a limited scale, barely exceeding necessary levels for provisioning..

Debating the Thing in the North: The Assembly Project IIJournal of the North Atlantic

*Department of Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Franz Klein Gasse 1, A-1190 Vienna, Austria; [email protected].

Special Volume 8:69812015

Figure 1. ingvellir today. Photograph Fredrik Sundman.



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meeting was both a political and a social gathering (Jhannesson 1974:3547, Karlsson 2000:2027). Whether it was also a central economic gathering is the question to be addressed in this paper. Historical and archaeological interest in ingvel-lir started early, but excavations took place only sporadically and in limited areas of the site. The first archaeological research was carried out by Sigurur Gumundsson, director of the National Museum, in 1860 (rarson 19211922:12); but the first substantial work was conducted in 1880 by Sigurur Vigfsson (18281892), who had a particular inter-est in the site at that time (Vigfsson 18801881). He opened a few trenches through earthworks that he believed were the structures of the actual court or features related to the court, as they were described in sagas. Forty years later, in 1920, Matthas rar-son (18771961), then director of the National Museum of Iceland, recorded a number of booths at ingvellir and opened a man-made structure called rleifshaugur (rleifs mound) (rarson 19211922, 1945). In Icelandic archaeology, these booths (sing. b, pl. bir) are defined as rectangu-lar buildings consisting of low turf walls and stones with tent-like roof constructions, erected at both as-semblies and harbours (Vsteinsson 2013). In recent decades, critical research has amended some of the constructs that were considered central to the initial work done at the site. In the 1980s, the National Museum of Iceland conducted a large-scale topographic survey during which more than 50 structures were recorded at ingvellir. Over the last 15 years, additional survey and excavation work was undertaken at the church (Vsteinsson 1999, Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012) and at some of the booths (Fririksson 2002, Roberts 2004). Some of the old trenches dug by Sigurur Vigfsson were re-opened to re-examine his evidence critically (Fririksson et al. 2005).2

The Historiographic Construct of a Market at ingvellir

The research history of ingvellir is symptomatic of the exploration of assembly sites in Iceland. In the first phase of research, done at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, investigations were heavily influenced by events described in the saga literature. Scholars were eager to find the actual locations of the courts or the dwellings of assembly visi-tors named in those sources. The methods used by these early researchers have since been called into question by those who feel that Vigfsson and his contemporaries had been too strongly influenced by the events and descriptions mentioned in the sagas (e.g. Fririksson and Vsteinsson 1992, Fririksson 1994:105146, 2011).

The genesis of the idea that ingvellir was also a marketplace is hard to locate. Early scholars, such as the German legal historian Konrad Maurer (1874) and the Danish explorer Daniel Bruun (1897), re-ported details from the sagas and legal documents that mentioned the presence of sword polishers and ale brewers at the Aling but they did not draw any further conclusions concerning a market or fair (Maurer 1874:166, 424). A sword polisher and an ale brewer are indeed mentioned in sagas to have been present at the Aling, and I will discuss the refer-ences below. Maurer provided references from the sagas for these activities, while later scholars who repeated earlier researchers' discussions of them unfortunately provided no additional or support-ing references (e.g., Byock 2001:174, orsteinsson and Jnsson 1991:36). While these later works may not have used the words market or fair, their narratives concerning merchants and craftsmen nonetheless began to suggest general acceptance for the idea of a market, or market-like economic functions, at the Aling (Nordal 1990:100; Stefns-son 1984:463; orlksson 2000:179; orsteinsson 1966:97, 1980:53, 1987; orsteinsson and Jnsson 1991:36). The idea that ingvellir was a commercial hub seems to have originated in the early 1950s, when a new wave of nationalistic and romantic writing took hold in Icelandic historiography, following the country's establishment as an independent republic.3 In line with these events, the influential historian Bjrn orsteinsson asserted that ingvellir was the greatest trading place in Iceland, where merchants and craftsmen brought their goods and foreigners came to do their business (orsteinsson 1953:105). Although orsteinsson provided no references for his statement, a subsequent historical survey written for popular and academic readership expanded on it, saying that at ingvellir, politics were discussed and markets were held (Roesdahl 1998:268) and this idea endures (e.g., Gullbekk 2011:184185, Graham-Campbell 2011:123). The idea that ingvellir was a trading place ultimately stems from saga passages and law texts that refer to trade conducted at Iceland's regional spring assemblies. This information appears to have been extended to an assumption that trade was a fo-cal activity also of the main assembly at ingvellir (Ebel 1977:7, 1985:115; Miller 1986:20). Such a generalisation from the written evidence may well be misleading and a number of historians, such as Jn Jhannesson (1974:3549), Gunnar Karlsson (2000) and Bruce Gelsinger (1981), have been more cautious and neither repeated this idea nor contrib-uted to its expansion. It appears an obvious assumption that food, tools, clothes, and other goods would have been traded



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during the large meetings at ingvellir, where people gathered together for an extended period of time, with many of the attendees having travelled long dis-tances to participate in the assembly. However, the written and archaeological evidence that trade was conducted during the general assembly is actually very weak, as will be discussed below.

Two market scenarios for ingvellir

Let us assume that ingvellir was not only the lo-cation for the main assembly but also a market place, as has been suggested by some historians. There are two possibilities of how we could imagine trade to have taken place at ingvellir. The first option is that a demarcated area existed within the so-called ing-mark, the boundary that defined and surrounded the greater assembly area (Karlsson 2007:118), serving as a market area where local or foreign merchants dwelled in booths or tents, where people could come to buy and sell, and where craftsmen offered their goods and services. In such a scenario, while the assembly attendees gathered at the court area to conduct political affairs, members of their retinues would have had opportunities to buy and exchange goods. Such a market area would not likely have been near the court area but rather on its margins. The alternate possibility is that there was no defined market area but that trade could have been conduct-ed anywhere, in a dispersed fashion, within the area where the assembly attendees dwelled. Assembly attendees could also have been traders themselves, selling and exchanging goods at their booths and tents in a door-to-door business. In this scenario, such traders would have been scattered all over the assembly area. The first option might well look similar to Ice-landic trading sites such as Gsir, a seasonally oc-cupied trading site and beach market in Northern Iceland which, according to archaeological and written evidence, operated from the early 11th cen-tury to around 1400. The site is characterized by a set of booths, the remains of many of which are still visible today. Excavations conducted between 2001 and 2006 exposed an area of approximately 600 m2 within the market area, revealing the remains of booths, workshops, and garbage heaps or storage pits. Large numbers of animal bones were found, as well as many pieces of pottery, leather, iron artifacts, baking stones, textiles, and other items (Harrison et al. 2008: 100-115, Hermannsdttir 1987, Roberts 2006).4 If such a market area had ever existed at ingvellir, we would surely find archaeological evi-dence for it. Finding archaeological evidence for the latter option would be much more difficult. Certain crafts

would be more visible in the archaeological record than the exchange of goods but loosely distributed trading activities would not have left many traces in the ground. In the following sections, I will exam-ine written and archaeological evidence for these scenarios.

Written Evidence from Sagas and Law Texts

To assess the written evidence for economic activities at the Aling and the two scenarios outlined above, I systematically examined the slendingasgur, or Sagas of the Icelanders, for entries about trade, markets, exchange or barter at ingvellir. These sagas and short stories (ttir) were written down largely during the 13th and 14th centu-ries but describe events that took place in Iceland dur-ing the Commonwealth period (9301262) (Simek and Plsson 2007:206207, 374).5 Another source investigated for this project was Grgs, the law code of the Commonwealth period (Heusler 1937). Indeed, trade, markets, and local and foreign merchants are often described in the sagas, but there are only a few references to any kind of trade having been conducted during the general assem-bly at ingvellir. In fact, only one saga describes an economic negotiation between attendees of the assembly at ingvellir; yet the text actually refers to a discussion about goods that were not present there, rather than a transaction concluded at the site. In Chapter 37 of Laxdla saga, orleikr and Eld-grmr discuss the sale of horses when they meet at ingvellir. During the conversation, Eldgrmr, who wants to buy the horses, says that he would come to look at the horses later during the summer, which implies that the horses in question were not present at ingvellir but would be found at orleikrs farm (Esser 2011b:652).6 Other examples that helped to create the idea of some sort of market or fair setting at ingvel-lir can be cited. There are references to craftsmen at the Aling. The presence of sword polishers or cutlers (pl. sverskriar) is reported not only in the saga literature but also in the laws. Chapter 145 of the Brennu-Njls saga mentions the booth of a person who works with swords at the Aling (Wetzig 2011:771).7 Booths of sword cutlers are also mentioned in Grgs (Gr III, 101), in a sec-tion that addresses fights in the booth areas at the main assembly.8 Prior to the conversion of Iceland around 1000, most people wore weapons when they travelled, mostly for reasons of self-defence, and even after the Christianization of Iceland, people continued to be armed, including on their journeys to ingvellir. The assembly attendants carried their weapons until this was prohibited for the court of



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justice (lgrtta) at the Aling in 1154. This ban was later renewed by bishop Magns Gizurarson in 1234, suggesting that the first issue of the ban was not very effective (Jhannesson 1974:4647). In the Gulathing law area in Norway, the bearing of arms at the main assembly was a deep-rooted tradition, go-ing back to the old Germanic custom of the so-called weapon-take (vpnatak), a term that refers to the rattling of weapons at meetings to express agree-ment (Helle 2001:7274; Strauch 2011:115, 122). In Iceland, however, the weapon-take marked the end of the assembly (Nordal 1990:99).9 We can con-clude that arms were banned in the lgretta area at ingvellir, but that the chieftains and many of their retinue members, most of whom had travelled many miles, came with their weapons, which they stored in their booths while they took part in the congrega-tions at the court of justice. Clearly, these men could have made good use of the services of sword cutlers at ingvellir. The laws also mention general craftsmen or help-ers (Gr II, 78), as well as cobblers (Gr III, 101), who set up booths at the Aling.10 The services of the lat-ter were surely important for the travellers and their battered footwear. A fourth group of craftsmen pres-ent at ingvellir were ale brewers. The satirical work lkofra ttr (chapter 1) tells the story of rhallur, who makes a living by selling beer during the Aling (Esser 2011:371).11 Similarly, Orms ttr Strlfs-sonar (chapter 4) refers to a brewery (heituhs) at ingvellir.12 Heimskringla, a collection of the sagas of the Norwegian kings written by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230, contains the saga of Harald Gray-cloak (Haralds saga grfeldar), King of Norway (ca. 960970), which reports silver transactions at the Icelandic Aling. However, when the silver was collected at the Aling, it was decided to have a smith purify the silver. Later on, a cloak fibula was made of it, and after the smith had received his reward, the fibula weighed fifty marks. This fibula was sent to Eyvind, but Eyvind had it cut into pieces and bought himself cattle for it. (Hollander 2009:143). This pas-sage implies that on that occasion a smith was present at ingvellir, although it does not explicitly say that he was working there.13 The written evidence can thus be summarized as follows: Neither the sagas of the Icelanders nor the laws

handed down in Grgs explicitly state that a market took place during the general assembly at ingvellir, nor that direct exchanges of goods were conducted at the assembly site.

Only one of those sagas, that of Laxdla saga, reports the sale of horses (albeit not at ingvel-lir), thus indicating some types of economic

transactions may have been negotiated at the assembly, without implying the transfer of prop-erty there.

Craftsmen are frequently mentioned. We read of ale brewers, cobblers, sword cutlers, smiths, and craftsmen that set up in, or near, the assembly booths. However, the sources remain silent as to where they conducted their business at ingvel-lir or whether these crafts were actually carried out at ingvellir.

Sagas and laws have previously been used to study the assembly institution in Norway, and this approach has proven fruitful (Adolfsen 2000). However, saga scholarship has repeatedly noted that it is problematic to treat the sagas as reliable historical sources, especially as the sagas of the Icelanders, in our case, were written down approxi-mately 200 years after the described events had taken place (e.g., Andersson and Miller 1989:36, Cormack 2007, Fririksson 1994, Lnnroth 1976, Nordal 1940:70). The medieval Icelandic laws also provide pitfalls when interpreted without source criticism (Mller-Boysen 1990:3236, Norseng 1991) and neither the sagas nor the law codes were written explicitly as detailed ethnographic descrip-tions of Icelandic society. With these caveats in mind, one can assume that these sources are not likely to report the entire truth about ingvellir and surely leave gaps in the cover-age of events. One can, for example, wonder about the assortment of crafts represented at ingvellirwhether these sources over-estimate the importance of a few craftsmen or, conversely, whether they might under-represent a more complex reality by mentioning only those individuals who were impor-tant for the stories their authors told. Nevertheless, I think that if a designated market area or substan-tial door-to-door trading ever existed at ingvellir, it would have been mentioned in some form and surely more clearly within one or more of the me-dieval sources. Given the substantial regulations on early medieval trade in Northern Europe (e.g., Mller-Boysen 1990), including Iceland, we might also expect that a formally constituted market at ingvellir would have been regulated and discussed in law. This is not to say that economic transactions could not have taken place. The descriptions of crafts, especially those of ale brewers, sword cut-lers, and cobblers, bear witness to the provision-ing of goods and necessary services for the many assembly participants. It has been calculated that at least 600 people were present at the main assem-bly each year (Stefnsson 1984:463), while others speak of a thousand or several thousands of people (Nordal 1990:100). These people stayed at ingvel-lir for about two weeks each summer (Jhannesson



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1974:4445), and they surely needed food and drink. However, whether these sorts of economic transactions were substantial enough to be called a market is another question that will be picked up again later in this discussion.

The Archaeological Evidence Under Scrutiny

What does the archaeological evidence for trade at ingvellir look like? As described above, the site has been subject to archaeological investigations since the late 19th century (see, for example, Bell 2010, Fririksson et al. 2005, rarson 1921

1922). However, only small areas have been exca-vated (Fig. 2). Two types of possible evidence are analyzed in more detail in the following discussion to provide the basis for a discussion on the extent of trade during the Aling.

Booths The historical works cited above did not venture any guesses as to where trade within the assembly site area was conducted and whether there could have been a designated trading area within the boundaries of the assembly site.14 ingvellir is the location of many booths that served as temporary

Figure 2. Map of ingvellir, with its ruins as surveyed by Fornleifastofnun slands and the findspots of some of the artifacts discussed (see Table 1). Marked black are the areas of archaeological excavations since 1999, during many of which old trenches from antiquarians such as Sigurur Vigfsson were re-excavated. Excavations prior to 1999 were even smaller in extent and are not included in this map. The area with the booths lies west of the river xar. Image Howell Roberts, Fornleifastofnun slands, and Joris Coolen, Centre of Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Schleswig (Germany).



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Artifacts The artifacts that have been recovered at ing-vellir since the beginning of archaeological research are the second type of evidence (Fig. 2). As noted above, the excavated Viking and medieval layers have only yielded a small number of artifacts. This is not surprising, as assembly sites were generally used only for very short periods of time, and the meetings at ingvellir, in particular, only lasted about two weeks (e.g., Jhannesson 1974:45). In addition, the excavations undertaken to date have been small in scale and in most cases only consisted of relative-ly small trenches. It is not the aim of this paper to provide a full overview of all the finds discovered at ingvellir. The intention is rather to concentrate on those Viking and medieval artifacts that might be considered indicative of trade. In the following, I will present an overview and discussion of all the Vi-king and medieval artifacts discovered that suggest such economic activities (Table 1). Trade can be traced in the archaeological record in many ways. One way is to find artifacts of mate-rials that are not native to the places where they are found. In the case of ingvellir, an example would be the five ceramic sherds discovered during the excavation that took place just north of the present church in 1999. Icelanders did not produce pottery until modern times, and all ceramic vessels dating to before the mid-20th century were imported (Svein-bjarnardttir 1996). These pottery fragments, very small body sherds, can only be roughly dated to the

accommodations for assembly participants and are often referred to in the saga literature (Vsteinsson 2013). However, booths and clusters of booths are not only characteristic features of Icelandic assem-blies but also core components of coastal trading sites, and therefore, archaeologists regard booths as fundamental elements of both assembly and trading sites (see, for example, Mehler 2012, Vsteinsson et al. 2004). Booths were relatively easy to set up or re-pair after they had been abandoned after the assem-bly or the trading season, yet were more permanent than tents and served as markers of ownership to sites within the assembly or the harbor and of ones rights to conduct business or law there. However, the fact that they are found at both types of sites makes it difficult to distinguish between the assembly or trading character of a site on the basis of the occur-rence of booths alone (Vsteinsson 2013). A similar problem exists in Greenland, e.g., with the booth complex at Brattahli, which can be interpreted as an assembly site, a trade area, or both (Sanmark 2010:179183). Consequently, the presence of booths in ingvellir, for example, those along the northwestern bank of the river xar (Fig. 2), does not allow us to deduce that there was a demarcated trading area within the assembly grounds. Some booths have been excavated at ingvellir, such as the so-called Njlsb and Snorrab (Bell 2010:47, Fririksson 2002:3334), and with the exception of a small number of fragmented animal bones, no arti-facts were found (Fririksson 2002:37).

Table 1. Viking-age and medieval artifacts discovered during excavations at ingvellir; see Figure 2 for the findspots of the artifacts.

Artifact type Date Origin Location and/or year found Reference

Coin 9831002 Germany, Southern side of church Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen Goslar in 2009 2012:14, 21

Coin 10651080 Norway Beneath a booth near the Vsteinsson 1999:1921, church in 1999, dated Holt 1998:91, figs. 4 and 5 ca. 11001500

Coin 11th century England rleifs mound in 1920 rarsson 19211922

Coin 11th century Norway rleifs mound in 2005 Fririksson et al. 2006:35

Coin 11th century Norway rleifs mound in 2005 Fririksson et al. 2006:35

Crozier 11th century 1957 Eldjrn 1970

Part of silver arm ring (hack silver) Viking period rleifs mound in 2005 Gsladttir 2005:18

Bronze strap end rleifs mound in 2005 Gsladttir 2005:18

Whetstone fragment rleifs mound in 2005 Gsladttir 2005:19

Animal bone fragments Several different structures rarsson 1945:114, Gsladttir 2005:19

Pottery 12th/13th century England Medieval church Mehler 1999

Weight Medieval Near present church Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012:14

Iron nails Several different structures E.g., rarsson 1945:114, Fririksson et al. 2004, Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012:17



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be taken as a proof of trade either, nor are the strap end and the whetstone fragment significant evidence of trade. The animal bones, only a small number of which were found, are most likely the remains of meals for the assembly attendants. The coins and the hack silver fragment are more difficult to interpret. While coins and hack silver are, of course, primarily a method of payment, the case in Iceland is slightly more complicated because society during the Viking and medieval periods did not operate on the basis of coins (as was the case in Scandinavia). Trade was conducted almost ex-clusively by barter, and people either paid in kind or established credit. Everyday items such as food, clothing, and tools were mostly exchanged for other commodities such as fish, butter, or homespun. Bar-ter is often defined as a transaction in which notions of equal value are initially absent but are established over the course of the barter process (Feinmann and Garraty 2010:171, Humphrey and Hugh-Jones 1992:48). Still, despite the existence of a commod-ity money system, silver (either in the form of coins or as hack silver) was the main standard of value in Iceland until the 12th century, against which the values of other items were calculated (Gelsinger 1981:34, Gullbekk 2011:186). Svein Gullbekk (2011) has discussed the use of money at ingvellir and has stressed that the coins discovered were largely used to pay fines or debts or were used as compensation or dowries. These types of financial transactions took place alongside the main assembly and are often reported in the saga literature16, but Gullbekk (2011:184186) also sees the coins as evidence of commerce. While I strong-ly agree with the first part of this interpretation, I am more hesitant to agree with the latter part. As outlined above, the written evidence for a market at ingvellir is rather weak, which is something that Gullbekk did not examine. The absence of coins at the marketplace at Gsir indicates that coins played no role there, and it emphasizes the commodity sys-tem that characterizes Icelandic Viking and medie-val economy and trade (Hayeur Smith 2013).17 The final artifact to be considered in this discus-sion on artifacts possibly relating to trade is the me-dieval bronze weight that was discovered in 2009. It was found in the floor layer of a structure docu-mented directly below and west of the present-day church and that could have been the remains of ei-ther a booth or an earlier church (Fig. 3). The weight of 250g, corresponding to a mrk (pl. merkur, engl. mark), and most likely used for a steelyard balance, is difficult to date. Stratigraphically it has been suggested to date before 1500 (Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012: 10, 14, and pers. comm.). If the structure was a booth, the weight could well be

12th or 13th century and were most likely part of a jug of eastern English origin (Mehler 1999). Another material that does not occur in Iceland is silver. Five silver coins have been found so far at ingvellir: three at the man-made structure called orleifs mound (Eldjrn 1948, Fririksson et al. 2006:35, Holt 1998:91, rarsson 19211922) and two at the present church building (Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012:14, 21; Vsteinsson 1999:1921).15 All of these coins date to the late 10th or 11th century. In addition, a fragment of a silver arm ring came to light during re-excavations at orleifs mound and was interpreted as hack silver (Gsladttir 2005:18, Graham-Campbell 2011:123). Several other Viking and medieval finds from ingvellir are made from imported materials, as well. They include the famous copper alloy bishops crozier dating to the 11th century, with its crooks terminating in animal heads formed in Urnes style (Eldjrn 1970). A strap end of copper alloy and a fragment of a whetstone were found at the so-called orleifs mound (Gsladttir 2005:18). The latest ex-cavations conducted in 2009 near the present church revealed a number of artifacts, and those from the medieval layers include a copper alloy weight, slag, and some iron nails. To discuss which of these finds indicate trading activities at ingvellir, a closer look at artifacts found at the Icelandic trading site Gsir, mentioned above, may be helpful. Gsir was only seasonally occupied, but substantial trade was conducted there, as indicated by the comparatively large number of artifacts discovered there and by discussions of exchanges undertaken there in written sources. Yet no coins have been found at Gsir (Vsteins-son 2009:159). The area excavated at ingvellir is considerably smaller, and Gsir was most likely occupied during slightly longer periods during each summer. However, the excavations at ingvellir did not result in nearly the same diversity and richness of artifacts as those found at Gsir. Neither workshops nor waste heaps nor storage pits have yet been found at ingvellir. The few finds from ingvellir tell a different story. The English ceramic jug found in connection with the medieval church could have been used as a liturgical vessel or as a container for holy water. Such an interpretation has been put forward after an examination of medieval ceramic fragments found in other churches in Iceland (Mehler 2000:125). The ingvellir jug was certainly imported to Iceland, but its find location and potential ecclesiastic function do not allow for it to be used to infer the presence of trade in ceramics taking place at the site. The many iron nails found at the site were most likely parts of booth construction or furniture therein and cannot



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evidence of weighing and selling of goods within or in front of this booth. If the structure recorded is the remains of an older church, however, the weight could have been used to control the payment of fees to the church. There is yet another possible interpre-tation. In approximately 1200, a wall of the medieval church at ingvellir that has not been preserved to the present day exhibited a mark in the shape of sti-kur and lnir (ells), which were standard Icelandic measurements at that time (DI 1, 307). Such marks were supposed to be present in all churches where people were buried (graftarkirkja), most likely in contrast to churches or small chapels where no burials took place (DI I, 309). Matthas rarson (1945:168) concluded that this measurement was engraved on a wooden sill or some other part of the church building, which would have been consistent with the custom of keeping measures and weights, mostly calibrated measurement units, in important public buildings such as council houses or churches, as reported for Trshavn, Faroe, for example (Arge and Mehler 2012:185). The recovery of a weight in this location could well be evidence that the exchange of goods in the course of legal activities, such as the settling of fines, may have been under-taken near the church, using standardized weights. From the same medieval context as the weight stems a piece of iron slag (Hallmundsdttir and Juel Hansen 2012:57), which is the only archaeological evidence so far for a craft carried out at ingvellir. As mentioned above, the presence of a silversmith is indicated in Heimskringla. However, the find loca-

tion makes this piece difficult to interpret, as this is very near the old farm of ingvellir and could also have been from this context instead. The mapping of the find spots of these artifacts (Fig. 2) shows where the ceramic fragments, the coins, the hack silver, and the weight were found, relative to all features that have been excavated at ingvellir. The booth area on the western bank of the river xar has so far only been surveyed and most ruins visible today are presumed to be of post-medieval date, very likely with older remains beneath. If we accept the scenario of a market area defined through the existence of booths, it could be tempting to interpret this area as the market spot of ingvellir. But artifacts from this area do not exist, and excavations are necessary to clarify the function of these booths.. Most of the artifacts discussed here were dis-covered in the vicinity of the present church, in connection with either an earlier church or booths beneath. The other artifacts were retrieved away from the main assembly area, at rleifs mound. It remains an open question why more than half of the silver finds from ingvellir were discovered at this enigmatic feature, and further investigations there are certainly warranted. However, without further investigations, and in the absence of any evidence for the existence of booths in that area, the overall distribution of artifacts related to exchange does not support the scenario that a demarcated market area existed at the site. On the basis of this review of artifacts, I would

like to argue that the archaeological evidence for a market area does not exist. Door-to-door trade at ingvellir could be indicated by the bronze weight discovered in 2009, but interpretation of this artifact is ambiguous because it is not clear whether the structure it was found was once a booth or a church building.

The Location of ingvellir in Context

ingvellir is located in the southwest of Ice-land, inland, approximately 40 km northeast of Reykjavk. The site is embedded in an area that has been settled since the initial colonization of Iceland. The settled areas of the rivers Hvt and jrs, east of ingvellir, are nearby, as is the Mosfell Valley just to the west and the bishops see at Sklholt to the east (e.g., Fririksson 2000:fig. 16). However, while ingvellir is easily accessi-ble by horse and by foot, it is some distance from the sea. The nearest sea access is at Hvalfjrur, the fjord approximately 20 km north of ingvel-lir as the crow flies, which is the location of

Figure 3. Complete bronze weight (height c. 6 cm) found in 2009 near the present-day church (photograph by Margrt Hrnn Hallmundsdttir).



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dwelled during the assembly period, social life took place, and these meetings must have been welcome opportunities to meet friends and relatives. Social and political activities required the provisioning of drinks and foodstuffs, and excavations at the so-called Njlsb and Snorrab ruins west of xar produced a small number of fragmented animal bones (Bell 2010:47; Fririksson 2002:33, 37) that are most likely remains from provisioning assem-bly visitors. Future archaeobotanical, zooarchaeo-logical, and palaeoentomological investigations may well provide further evidence for and information about the ways in which these booths occupants were provisioned, but it is important to keep in mind that organic material generally does not preserve well at the site and may be difficult to trace in the ar-chaeological record. While crafts seem to have been conducted at ingvellir on a small scale, and written sources report that sword cutlers and cobblers were present at ingvellir, there is, as yet, no archaeologi-cal evidence of such craftsmens presence. Nonetheless, ingvellir was a place where silver was exchanged. Fines and compensation were paid in silver, and written and archaeological evidence of both exist. These types of transactions are not trading transactions, in the same sense that an ex-change of foodstuffs or the payment of a cobbler with commodities would be. The nationalist notion that ingvellir was the greatest market place in Ice-land (see above) is questioned in this paper, and I argue on the basis of the written and archaeological sources at hand that a designated market area did not exist at ingvellir nor was the trade that did take place there more substantial than provisioning. Going back to the nationalistic assessment of the market at ingvellir, it is worth drawing atten-tion to Sweden and the famous saga of Saint Olaf (lafs saga Helga), written by Snorri Sturluson (11791241) in approximately 1230, which in chap-ter 77 tells of a large market at Gamla Uppsala. At that place and time was also to be the assembly of all Swedes, and there was also a market and a fair which lasted a week. Now when Christianity was introduced, the general assembly and the market was still being held there. (Ebel 1987:281, Hollander 2009:315). This market, which was linked to the Swedish Aling, was the so-called disting of Gamla Uppsala (Granlund 1958, Staf 1935:225). Recent excavations conducted at Gamla Uppsala have con-firmed this picture. Weights, hack silver, balances, and debris from metal production were discovered around the manor area (Ljungkvist 2009:2628, Ljungkvist et al. 2011:579). It is reasonable to assume that the nationalistic notion of ingvellir was inspired by this story and that the Swedish model of a gen-eral assembly combined with a market was adopted

Maruhfn (also known as Basandur), a site that has hitherto been interpreted as a coastal market place. It is located on a promontory on the southern shore of Hvalfjrur. The site is mentioned in written sources between 1339 and 1413, mostly in connection with the bishops see at Sklholt or the Aling nearby at ingvellir. It is reported that Maruhfn was frequented by Norwegian vessels. A cluster of booths has survived on the sandy beach. Small trenches were excavated in 1982 and 1985, and the site was surveyed again in 2006, but it re-mains unknown whether it was already a trading site during the Commonwealth period (Gardiner and Mehler 2007:413415, orkelsson 2004). Oth-er important harbors nearby and used during and after the Commonwealth period would have been Eyrarbakki (~40 km distance), Leiruvogur (~30 km distance), and even Hvtrvellir (~45 km distance) (Byock et al. 2005, Gardiner and Mehler 2007:figs. 5 and 9) . Quite a number of participants that came to the meetings at ingvellir must have arrived by boat via one of these coastal trading sites (Nordal 1990:100) and then continued their journey on foot or on horseback. Here, Icelanders would have had the op-portunity to do business with foreign merchants who stayed at the site with their ships. It is at such sites where direct trade between Icelanders and foreign merchants happened, while inland trade was largely in the hands of Icelanders (Ebel 1977, Gardiner and Mehler 2007:399 with table 1). It would have been much more convenient for the assembly visitors to do their business at these harbors, where incoming goods could have been exchanged for Icelandic goods and further transport to ingvellir would not have been necessary.

Discussion

I would like to argue that the results of this sys-tematic study of written and archaeological sources indicate that the evidence at hand does not support the premise of large-scale market activities occur-ring during the main assemblies at ingvellir, wheth-er at a designated market area or as substantial trade within the dwelling areas. Rather, as outlined above, the idea of a market at ingvellir can be traced back to a period of nationalistic writing in Icelandic his-toriography. During the Viking and medieval periods, Iceland did not have urban centers or even a merchant class that could have organized markets on a large scale (Gelsinger 1981:31). Rather, ingvellir was a place where people came together once a year to bring cases to court, render judgements, and discuss laws and politics. At the booths and tents, in which people



78

Bruun, D. 1897. Fortidsminder og nutidshjem paa Island. Det Nordiske Forlag, Kbenhavn, Denmark. 237 pp.

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Cormack, M. 2007. Fact and fiction in the Icelandic Sagas. Historic Compass 5(1):201217.

Ebel, E. 1977. Kaufmann und Handel auf Island zur Saga-zeit. Hansische Geschichtsbltter 95:126.

Ebel, E. 1985. Der regionale Handel am Beispiel Islands zur Sagazeit (dargestellt nach altnordischen Quellen). Pp. 109127, In K. Dwel, H. Jankuhn, H. Siems, and D. Timpe (Eds.). Untersuchungen zu Handel und Verkehr der vor- und frhgeschichtlichen Zeit in Mit-tel- und Nordeuropa Teil 1. Abhandlungen der Akad-emie der Wissenschaften Gttingen Philologisch-Historische Klasse Nr. 143. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gttingen, Germany.

Ebel, E. 1987. Der Fernhandel von der Wikingerzeit bis in das 12. Jahrhundert in Nordeuropa nach altnordischen Quellen. Pp. 266313, In K. Dwel, H. Jankuhn, H. Siems, and D. Timpe (Eds.). Untersuchungen zu Handel und Verkehr der vor- und frhgeschichtlichen Zeit in Mittel- und Nordeuropa Teil 4. Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften Gttingen Philol-ogisch-Historische Klasse Nr. 156. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gttingen, Germany.

Eldjrn, K. 1948. Gaulverjabr-fundet. Nordisk Numismatisk rsskrift 1948:3962.

Eldjrn, K. 1970. T-Bagall fr ingvllum. rbk hins slenzka fornleifaflgas 1970:527.

Esser, Th. 2011. Die Erzhlung von rhall Biermtze. Pp. 371381, In K. Bldl, A. Vollmer, and J. Zernack (Eds.). Islndersagas 3. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Feinmann, G.M., and C.P. Garraty. 2010. Pre-industrial markets and marketing: Archaeological perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 39:167191.

Fellows-Jensen, G. 1996. Tingwall: The significance of the name. Pp. 1630, In D.J. Waugh (Ed.). Shetlands Northern Links. Language and History. The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, Edinburgh, UK.

Fririksson, A. 1994. Sagas and Popular Antiquarianism in Icelandic Archaeology. Worldwide Archaeological Series Vol. 10. Avebury, Aldershot, UK. 212 pp.

Fririksson, A. (Ed.). 2000. Kristjn Eldjrn, Kuml og Haugf r heinum si slandi. 2nd edition. Ml og menning, Reykjavk, Iceland. 615 pp.

Fririksson, A. (Ed.) 2002. inghald til forna. Framvinduskrsla 2002. Fornleifastofnun slands excavation report FS183-02141. Reykjavk, Iceland. 54 pp.

Fririksson, A. 2011. ingstair. Pp. 344358, In B. Lrusdttir (Ed.). Mannvist. Snisbk slenskra fornleifa. Opna, Reykjavk, Iceland.

and used in interpreting the events that occurred at ingvellir. But this example also shows that in the case of Gamla Uppsala the written sources are clear and leave no doubt about a market there, as does the archaeological evidence. Criticism of antiquarian assembly research in Iceland, voiced by archaeologists in recent years, has to date been directed at their methods of locat-ing sites and identifying their structural components, such as booths and court-circles (e.g., Fririksson 1994:105146, 2011; Fririksson and Vsteinsson 1992; Vsteinsson et al. 2004:172173, 177). As I hope to have demonstrated in this paper, a criti-cal examination of the activities that took place at ingvellir is also important.

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to Adolf Fririksson, Orri Vs-teinsson, Mjll Snsdttir, Birna Lrusdttir, Alexandra Sanmark, Frode Iversen, Sarah Semple, and Michele Hayeur Smith for their assistance and critical comments. Kevin Smith acted as guest-editor, and his comments improved the quality of this article considerably. I also thank Howell M. Roberts and Joris Coolen for the map of ingvellir. Gurn Alda Gsladttir, Mjll Snsdttir, and Anton Holt helped me with the finds, and Margrt Hrnn Hallmundsdttir and Sigrid Cecilie Juel Hansen provided information on the 2009 excavations and Figure 3. John Ljungkvist shared his thoughts on Gamla Uppsala with me. Last but not least, I wish to thank the anony-mous reviewer(s) for references and help on improving the paper.

Primary Sources

DI = Diplomatarium Islandicum

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Endnotes1The exact date of these meetings is hard to determine, as the Icelandic calendar prior to the introduction of the Christian year in the 12th century had some chronological discrepancies (Jhannesson 1974:3547).

2The archaeological work conducted at ingvellir has been summarized in Fririksson (2002) and in Bell (2010).

3On the effect of nationalism on Icelandic historiography see, e.g., Byock (1992).

4See Vsteinsson 2009 for a different interpretation of Gsir as a market place.

5For this study, I have used the Icelandic texts made avail-able at http://www.snerpa.is and http://www.sagadb.org (last accessed October 2013) and the most recent German translations provided by Bldl et al. (2011).

6Eldgrmr says: a er erindi mitt hinga a eg vil kaupa a r sthrossin au hin dru er Kotkell gaf r fyrra sumar. ... En etta sumar mun eg fara a sj hrossin hvor okkar sem hltur au a eiga aan fr.

7Fengu eir a eina rs teki er hj voru a eir drgu Skafta inn b sverskria nokkurs flatan.

8Heusler 1937:162. 9See also Heusler (1937, Waffengriff in the index on p. 455).

10For a discussion of craftsmen, see Heusler (1937:119); for a discussion of cobblers, see Heusler (1937:162).

11lkofri kom til ings og tti mungt a selja, kom til fundar vi vini sna sem vanir voru a kaupa l a honum. The text does not explicitly state that this takes place at ingvellir, but the context leaves no doubt about that.

12En er Ormur var tvtugur a aldri rei hann til Alingis sem oftar. [...] En um daginn er eir gengu t st hitu-ketill hj heituhsinu s er tk tvr tunnur.

13For the purposes of this paper, only the sagas of the Icelanders were studied. Heimskringla has not been studied in detail.

14For a discussion on the boundaries of ingvellir, see Karlsson (2007).



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15Svein Gullbekk (2011:184) lists six coins that were found at ingvellir, but that number is not correct. The error stems from the assumption that three coins were found during the excavations in 2005 and 2006. Howev-er, after cleaning, one turned out not to be a coin (Anton Holt , Selabanki slands, Iceland, pers. comm.). See also Fririksson et al. (2006:35).

16See, for example, the betrothal of Hrtur and Unnur which takes place at ingvellir (Brennu-Njls saga, chapters 1 and 2), or the payment of a fine (Brennu-Njls saga, chapter 8).

17It must be emphasized that the coins from ingvellir date to the 10th/11th century, while the excavations at Gsir revealed structures dating to the 14th and early 15th century. This may be a significant difference, indicating a change in economic structures.

Þingvellir: A Place of Assembly and a Market?

Documents

place of assembly

assembly area

assembly sites

introduction ingvellir

twoweek ingvellir

icelandic main assembly

icelandic general assembly

annual main assembly