Steatite bowl fragment

A fragment of the body of a stone vessel has been identified as being made of steatite, also known as soapstone. Steatite or soapstone is a term used in the description of metamorphic rocks composed mainly of talc. This stone can easily be worked, and it can also be heated without the risk of fracture, so it is particularly suitable for vessels exposed to heat, such as cooking vessels: this is almost certainly the use of the vessel from which this fragment derives, as it has sooting on both the inside and outside. Sometimes these vessels had iron loop handles, as seen on a fragment found at Coppergate, but there is no evidence of any on this particular bowl. These vessels were typically thick walled, and the fragment found at Hungate is no exception, measuring 1.5cm thick. Unfortunately, the rim part of the vessel has broken off this particular example, making it difficult to estimate its original diameter, but it must have been in excess of 32cm across.

The main sources of steatite in and around Britain are Shetland, Norway and Greenland. Although Shetland may appear to be the nearest source to York, it is in fact more likely that this bowl came from Norway; very few examples of Shetland steatite vessels have been found beyond Scotland, apart from a few recovered in the Faeroe Islands. It seems probable that this bowl was the personal possession of someone from Norway who was in York - or Jorvik as it would have been then – sometime during the Viking period.