| dc.description.abstract | This thesis studies bakestones found in the Medieval town of Borgund, and the town’s position in the commerce network of bakestones in Western Norway. Borgund lies on the sailing route between Trondheim and Bergen, located between some known quarry areas of bakestones in Western Norway. The aim has been to find whether Borgund’s trade was directed south towards Bergen and the quarries of Ølve/Hatlestrand or north towards Trondheim and the quarries of Øye, if there were any temporal changes and if Borgund functioned as a transit port for further distribution of bakestones to nearby areas. Visual archaeological analysis was conducted to find trends in the archaeological material related to the bakestone’s use. A visual geological analysis was conducted to distinguish geological groups and quarry groups among the material. Some of the bakestones were also analysed geochemically using pXRF to see if they matched the visual geological analysis. It was found that most of the bakestones at Borgund were unused, meaning Borgund functioned as a consumer, not as a transit port for further distribution to nearby areas. More than 60% of the bakestones consisted of fine-grained chlorite schist, a quality only found in Ølve/Hatlestrand, meaning the trade of bakestone was mainly directed south to Bergen and Ølve/Hatlestrand. The remaining bakestones could not be provenaced or consisted of medium-grained or coarse-grained chlorite schist. Both materials may occur in Ølve/Hatlestrand and Øye. However, since the traces of bakestone extraction at Øye indicate small-scale production and both the materials clustered with the fine-grained chlorite schist in the geochemical analysis, they are likely from Ølve/Hatlestrand as well. | |
