A Viking Network Info-sheet

Norsk/English

Piggåsen Soapstone Quarry

Class 4c 1996-97
Hovinhøgda Elementary School, Fet, Norway

Piggåsen soapstone quarry was used before, during and after the Viking Age.

In Piggåsen there are 5 small mine shafts in the mountainside and 12 places where they had dug down from the surface. There are also still several spoil heaps. From the spoil heaps, experts have estimated that many soapstone cooking vessels must have been made during the Viking Age. The spoil heaps also contain a lot of iron slag. This shows that there have been several blacksmiths working there.

The cooking vessels were first shaped with a pick while the material was still part of the rock face. The outside of the vessel was shaped using a chisel 2-3 cm (one inch) broad. The vessel was then removed from the rock face and the hollowing out of the inside could begin.

Did this production of cooking vessels have any importance locally?

Yes, because iron was expensive and in this area clay pottery was rare so the production of soapstone vessels was important for the households. There was a lively trade in such vessels. It seems that soapstone was considered to be a valuable commodity because these quarries were often referred to as 'silver mines'.

Who worked at the quarry?

Farmers living in the area worked there part-time. Perhaps there were also some full-time specialists working there throughout the summer months.

Found in the quarry:

Several sinkers and weights for fishing lines and nets, casting moulds, loom weights, scoops and ladles, spindle whorls and some unfinished cooking vessels. They may have become too dry to work with and had to be thrown away. The Vikings brought items made of soapstone along wherever they went.

We have included a photo of a soapstone pot found at Gjestad, a farm here in Fet. We would have liked to visit the quarry but, because of the danger of landslides, it is not safe to go there. The mine shafts are also partly collapsed. We hope the quarry will be restored so we can see it later.

Soapstone from a different quarry from the one at Piggåsen is used to renovate statues at the Nidarosdomen in Trondheim.