Are testaments a useful source for social and economic history?

Yes, the inventory clause in particular, unless the inventory was drawn up specifically to satisfy the demands of the deceased’s creditors, in which case it will deal only with sums of money. Otherwise, it should contain a list of the deceased’s moveable estate, that is, his or her possessions, or ’goods and geir’. ‘Moveable’ property, as opposed to ‘heritable’ property (i.e. land, buildings, minerals in the ground and mining rights) included household possessions, articles of clothing, livestock, machinery, farming implements, a tradesman’s tools and machinery, etc. From an examination of inventories it is thus possible to build up a picture of what social and economic conditions were like in a particular locality at a particular time. Each inventory supplies, as it were, a snapshot of the deceased’s lifestyle.