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“Shearing” denotes the intentional and managed harvesting of wool from domestic animals including sheep and goats. Shearing practices may involve the selective management of parts of the animal population. Shearing activities may be communal or individual. Key sources of evidence include the archaeological preservation tools and wool textiles, and documentary discussion.
Shearing may be discussed in documentary records in the context of the cost of wool in various stages of processing.
Shearing may be carried out by craft specialists, or by the broader population of farmers. Dependent farmers living on Vatnsnes properties in Iceland could fulfill a legal obligation to landowners by participating in sheep shearing.
Intensification of wool production in the region of the Mývatn in the thirteenth c. may be reflected in changing animal populations as evidenced by zooarchaeological assessments.
Ostergaard, E. (2003). Woven into the earth: textiles from Norse Greenland. ISD LLC.
Milek, K. (2012). The roles of pit houses and gendered spaces on Viking-Age farmsteads in Iceland. Medieval Archaeology, 56(1), 85-130.