The Border of Farming and the Cultural Markers - Nordlige Verdener

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Fig. 4: Almost finished (not ground or polished)
felsite axehead. Courtesy of Ian Tait/Jenny Murray,
Shetland Museum.
However, operational specialization did
not only take place within the North Roe
quarrying complex. It is also obvious
that differential specialization characterized
the relationship between the
North Roe area and domestic settlements
outside this area. Till this day, no
pol-ished felsite axeheads or Shetland
knives have been recovered from North
Roe, with all polished felsite objects
having been recovered from sites, or as
stray finds, south of Ronas Voe. This
suggests that, in North Roe, blocks of
felsite were mined and axehead and
knife rough-outs produced, but that
these preforms were ground and polished
(that is, made into final tools) outside
the quarrying complex. Fig. 4
There may be many reasons for this separation
of processes, either practical
and/or ideological, but it is almost certain
that the procurement of felsite in
North Roe included some religious considerations,
and that the quarrying of
felsite was, at least to a degree, ritualized.
Pete Topping’s (2005) analysis of
flint quarrying at Grimes Graves in Suffolk
suggests ritualization of flint procurement
at this extensive location, and
he presents the following generalized
‘cycle of events’: 1) cleansing rituals, 2)
offerings, 3) extraction, 4) post-extraction
prayers and offerings, 5) artefact
production, 6) ceremonial use of [some]
artefacts, and 7) rites of renewal.
Scott & Thiessen’s (2005) analysis of
catlinite extraction (for ceremonial pipes)
at a location in Minnesota puts forward