If this sperm whale, seen here diving off the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Iceland had died and washed ashore centuries ago, Icelanders might have burned its bones as biofuel.Photo by Terry Whittaker/Minden Pictures
Posted on 04/07/2019 12:32:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have found evidence that people on an inland Icelandic farm burned chunks of whale bone as fuel during a 17th- and 18th-century cold snap... Gröf Farm in southern Iceland -- is more than 30 kilometers from the coast.
Whale bones are much more porous than those of land mammals, and the open spaces collect oily deposits of fat, which may help whales to maintain buoyancy. That fat also makes the bones easy to burn... Coastal peoples in high Arctic latitudes, where wood is scarce, have traditionally burned oil-laden whale bones for heat and cooking. Archaeologists have also found burned whale bone at Mesolithic sites in Britain, and a text from the mid-1500s describes the practice in Norway. But Gröf Farm is only the second place in Iceland where burned whale bones have turned up -- the other site is a whaling station on the coast.
Archaeologists George Hambrecht and Kevin Gibbons of the University of Maryland, College Park stumbled on the surprising find at Gröf Farm while excavating an otherwise unremarkable 17th-century midden. The burned pieces were whale vertebrae, which are among the most oil-rich bones in a whale's body. The bones bore marks from a chopping blade, as if someone cut them into smaller pieces to expose more of the flammable oil.
Wood was a limited resource in 17th- and 18th-century Iceland. The few small forests belonged to the wealthiest estates, and Icelandic law assigned landowners a specific share of rights to driftwood. Farmers who lacked the wealth and social status to have access to wood burned turf and peat. Iceland's climate was unpredictable, with cold snaps sometimes lasting for years at a time -- especially during a particularly cold phase of the Little Ice Age that started around 1650.
(Excerpt) Read more at hakaimagazine.com ...
If this sperm whale, seen here diving off the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Iceland had died and washed ashore centuries ago, Icelanders might have burned its bones as biofuel.Photo by Terry Whittaker/Minden Pictures
So when burned does it give off a soot like pine tar leading to a chimney fire ?
The earliest settlers in Iceland denuded the land of most of the forests where it was easiest for forests to grow (which is not most of Iceland).
The felled the trees for their homes, for their ships and boats, and for fuel. (They hadn’t yet learned how to convert the geothermal sources for reliable heating of homes).
I think it was by the second century of settlement, most of the biggest forests in Iceland were but a fraction of what they had been.
Now Iceland is learning that they can actually grow trees on the old lava fields (a big part of the Icelandic landscape). They have a national reforestation plan going.
Sven, my mother warned me to stay in Norway and not follow you to this God forsaken place! No trees and we have to burn bones to keep from freezing!
LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
