Ólafía : rit Fornleifafræðingafélags Íslands. - 01.05.2007, Síða 116

different systems.
Part of the cartographic process
became mapping the progression of
systems and trading routes over time
from the early Viking Age to the late
medieval period. This made the
relationship between the core and the
periphery, their individual roles and the
understanding of what happens from
one system to another clearer. At least it
forced me to consider why the
independent trade of the two sub-
peripheral areas of Scandinavia and
Eastern Europe merged into a more
centralized and organized trading
system of the Hanseatic area. This is
clearly a very complex question
including both political alliances and
power structural issues, changes in
demand amongst the European
consumers and a change in trade
commodities from luxury to bulk
goods. I have no background inform-
ation or intention to try to give an
answer to why this happened but am
more concerned with how this
influenced the tusk trade and what this
shift in trade can tell us about world
systems. It is from the recognition of
this change that one idea of how to
define world systems sprung out, during
a seminar presentation of this project.
Orri Vésteinsson (pers. com.) suggested
that a possible way of defining world
systems could be as an area within
which people are aware of each other
from the one to the other end of the
system, an idea I very much agree with
and find very useful in an arc-
haeological context as our find material,
as mentioned is potentially able to
define such areas.
Trying to apply this idea to the
context of the tusk trade it can be said;
that even as early as 300 A.D. the
walrus tusk was known in central
Europe and it had most likely arrived
from the north eastern hunting grounds.
However, it did in all probability not
mean that people knew much, if
anything, of these distant arctic fringes.
Proceeding into the Viking age, there
was an increased awareness of the areas
of which the trade extended and the
knowledge of these regions increased
alongside the seafaring culture and
skills. This close contact and trade went
along within the defined sub-peripheral
zone existing in relation to the
European world system, as did a similar
eastern European sub-periphery which
was in close contact with both the
Scandinavian sub-periphery and on the
other hand the middle eastern world
system. Unfortunately there is not
sufficient information on this eastern
sub-system to explore it further using
this theory but the Scandinavian system
can exemplify parts of this idea.
When the trade increased during the
Viking age so did the amount of in-
formation, cultural influences etc. and it
is this degree of contact that became
important during the medieval period as
merchants increasingly became aware
of the possibilities for demand and
supply opportunities within the world
system they continuously became a
closer part of. Until the change in
trading from luxury goods to bulk
goods (primarily stock fish) in the
medieval period, the actual contact and
knowledge of the consumer concerning
the product probably was not high.
Changes in the European market proba-
bly set a stop to the traditional goods on
which the Scandinavian sub-periphery
had developed from and some become
Walrus Tusk and World System Theory
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