Tools and Masons: Regional Building Networks in Norway (1152/3–1537)

Insights on technological development and organizations of stonemasons can, in the Norwegian material, only be studied archaeologically. This chapter proposes that the investigation of toolmarks identified on ashlars and detailed dressed stone, found in the region of the medieval Hamar diocese in Eastern medieval Norway, can shed light onto the organization of masons. Taking for granted that building milieus, as organized at cathedral building huts, applied the same techniques in stone dressing, mason networks can be identified by their toolmarks and stonemasons’ marks throughout the chosen region. Observations on the archaeological material of standing buildings and ruins provide a representative dataset mapping building networks of masons in the Hamar diocese in the Romanesque (c. 1150–1250) and Gothic phases (c. 1250–1537), connected to the patron, the bishop.