Archaeology

Medieval whaling –
Vikings did it, Picts didn’t.
Worked whale bone shows all.

Vicki Szabo

Cornell University

For my Ph.D. I analyzed artifactual whale bone assemblages from several multiperiod Iron Age through Norse archaeological sites in the Orkney Islands, looking for patterns in whale use that might reveal hunting versus scavenging of whales. Coupled with laws, sagas, and other textual evidence, I found that the Norse could hunt whales, Picts didn’t.