Quarry landscapes make up some of the most visible cultural heritage sites in Norway, where the large-scale extraction of different stone products in some areas have led to complete changes of the original topography. The quarries are remains from hard and sometimes dangerous work. Different rock types offered resources and raw-materials that were exploited on a near industrial scale during the Viking period and the Middle Ages, and the different stone products, such as quernstones, bakestones and soapstone vessels, played an important role in everyday households. The quarries and their products thus constituted a crucial role in society and they give us insight into important aspects of daily life. Yet, the large-scale production of these products is only rarely mentioned in written sources. And, as most research on such sites have employed a technical, economic and descriptive approach to quarries and their products, little is known about the activity and the different groups of people involved in both the production and trade of the objects.
My aim is to illuminate the control and right of use connected with quarrying in the Viking period and the Middle Ages (c. 800–1500 AD), and to examine the groups of actors behind the quarrying as well as the distribution and trade of the different products. My project is based on two different quarry sites on the west coast of Norway: one located in Hyllestad, Sogn og Fjordane county, the other in Ølve and Hatlestrand (Ølve/Hatlestrand) in Kvinnherad, Hordaland county (Figure 14.1). These are two specialised production areas which are based on different geological resources that make it possible for the extraction of ordinary but important stone products, where, respectively, quernstones/millstones and bakestones were of importance. However, both quarry areas also served additional purposes. In Hyllestad, the production included stone crosses, vessels, smoke vent stones and grave slabs, and in Ølve/Hatlestrand tiles and building stones were produced along with the bakestones. Traces of such production are evident at several places in the two quarry landscapes (Figures 14.2 and 14.3).
The production of quernstones in Hyllestad dates back to the c. 800s and the early Viking period, while the extraction of bakestones in Ølve/Hatlestrand goes back to c. 1030–1100 and the early Middle Ages. Both production areas are remains of a quasi industrial activity with the serial production of objects. From the late Viking period (c. 950), quernstones were extracted for a larger market, and a wide distribution of bakestones is evident from c. 1050–1100 (Baug 2013).
An important question to be investigated is whether the quarries were under private control and at the disposal of landowners or were situated on common land and exploited by local people living in the area. Who organised and administered the production and distribution of the different products? The aim is to assess the social, political and organisational relations of this kind of large-scale quarrying and distribution, and as far as possible to encircle the actors with control and disposal over the production landscapes and the products.