European commercial Arctic whaling reconsidered: archaeological data
Jasinski, M.E. (1997). European commercial Arctic whaling reconsidered: archaeological data, in: De Boe, G. et al. (Ed.) Exchange and trade in Medieval Europe: papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference. I.A.P. Rapporten, 3: pp. 119-129 In: De Boe, G.; Verhaeghe, F. (Ed.) (1997). Exchange and trade in Medieval Europe: papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference. I.A.P. Rapporten, 3. Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium: Zellik. 202 pp., more In: I.A.P. Rapporten. Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium: Asse. ISSN 1372-0007, more |
| Abstract | Owing to the general economic and political situation in the early post-medieval period, whale oil became an important article in western European trade. European commercial arctic whaling began in the 16th century in Labrador. It was started by Basque whalers from the Bay of Biscay. From the very beginning of the 17th century, English, Dutch and Danish-Norwegian whalers, instructed by Basque experts, established whaling stations along the coasts of Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, North Norway and Russia. Up to the 1980 "s, our knowledge of commercial arctic whaling, its structure and development, as well as of the trade in whale oil, was based mainly on written sources. Archaeological investigations carried out during the last two decades- by Canadian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Polish archaeologists have revealed new data that partly change this picture. This paper presents the archaeological results and discusses new interpretations. |
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