A city walk through Sámi history in Trondheim

Many spoons have been found in the urban layers of Trondheim, but the vast majority are made of wood and are decorated in one of the Viking Age's animal style traditions. Therefore, it was a great surprise when a differently shaped and decorated spoon appeared in the deep, moist cultural layers at the top of Søndregate on a May day in 1971. The spoon is made from a large piece of reindeer antler, the bowl is unusually large and pear-shaped, and the handle is strikingly short but finely carved. However, the most eye-catching feature was the spoon's precise, geometric ornamentation. Apart from so-called crown spoons known from the 1400s to 1600s, this spoon did not resemble any other spoons found in the urban layers in modern times. What might it tell us? 

More than 400 years ago, the city's authorities laid out a more than 20-meter wide east-west street, a so-called common way, that passed through the city and down to the river. The width was meant to prevent fires from spreading throughout the city. There were several such common ways in the city. At one point, simple wooden buildings and a smithy were constructed along the south side of the common way. The spoon lay in the mud among discarded shoes, animal bones, and other household waste that people in the neighbourhood had thrown into the street. What kind of foreign spoon was this, and how did it end up here, in one of Trondheim’s presumably less fashionable areas, during the tumultuous Reformation period? 

Something in its shape and decoration immediately pointed to Sámi craftsmanship – duodji. Saemien Sijte has confirmed that the spoon is Sámi, and judging by its geometric pattern, it appears to be made in a South Sámi tradition. However, this is not the only horn spoon of its kind. At least four other similar spoons have been found scattered throughout the medieval urban landscape, though these findings are so old that we lack information about their exact locations. They seem to have been made by different people but share the same basic shape, and the same geometric ornamentation is carved into the surface of the horn with razor-sharp knives. What were South Sámi-made horn spoons doing in the city in the time just after the Reformation? 

It is tempting to think that these spoons came with Sámi who lived or had business in the city. Were there South Sámi in the Trondheim area during the 1500s? It is not ruled out that the so-called "hunting flatland graves" found and investigated in Trøndelag, Hedmark, and Härjedalen may be traces of Sámi hunters dating back to the 1000s–1100s. But this is not the only possibility, as the spoons may have arrived in the city in other ways: We know that horn spoons were brought by intermediaries trading with Norwegians, from Sámi settlement areas to Finnish blacksmiths in Bergen, Trondheim, and other cities to be cast in silver. They were cast in a standard weight that allowed them to be used as currency in trade transactions. Stamps on some Sámi silver spoons reveal that silversmiths in Trondheim also cast such silver spoons using Sámi horn spoons as molds. The contact between the Sámi patrons and the silversmiths in Bergen and Trondheim may not even have been direct, but mediated through intermediaries. 

Such horn spoons played a role in the interaction between Sámi people and Norwegians in pre-industrial times. They are not uncommon as archaeological finds in areas with a mixed Sámi and Norwegian population. There, they may have been involved in exchanges of goods and services between Norwegians and Sámi, or as gifts used as lubricants in slow negotiations over the use and access to areas and resources. The spoons were popular, especially among the Northern Norwegian farming population, according to statements and accounts from the time. It cannot be ruled out that this was also the case further south in the country. 

Further Reading

Christophersen, A. & Stenøien, H.A. (2023), “Samer i Trondheim i middelalderen?” Adresseavisen.