Soapstone reconstructions

Soapstone knack
Tony Sherratt is a living-archaeology specialist who has the knack with soapstone. Here he explains the merits of this wonderful material.

'Commonly known as soapstone, the proper name for this stuff is steatite. It's a very flexible and versatile material and it takes shock very well. Though mainly found in Shetland, it's also common in Scandinavia and there are a few pockets in Cornwall. It makes a good cooking pot, I can use it for a mould when I'm casting bronze, and you can even use it for cooking food on in a similar way to a grill.'

So what's it like to work with?
'It's a very easy stone to work. It's a metamorphic rock and can appear either very hard or soft like talc, which is still quarried on Shetland to make talcum powder. Ground steatite is still used in industry today as a base for paints and make-up. I prefer to quarry the stuff myself straight from the cliff face where it appears in seams.'

How long have people been using steatite to make things?
'I would say that this material has been used to make items for as long as people have lived on the island – right back to the Bronze Age. On the island of Unst, at a place called Clibberswick, there are over 150 bowl-shaped marks in the rock face where the Norsemen and Vikings cut out blocks of raw steatite. You can still see the ancient tool marks in the stone today. I love that sort of thing.'

Complete soapstone vessels are almost more common than fragments of broken ones, Why?
'It's rare to find large fragments of broken vessels because, unlike pottery, the fragments can be recycled and remodelled easily into other useful items like lamps and spindle whorls.'

What tools do you use?
'The tools used are very basic. I use hammers, chisels and sandstone files to work the stone. These are basically the same tools as the Vikings used.'

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