From Chiefly Provisioning to Commercial Fishery: Long-term Economic Change in Arctic Norway

Stratified farm mounds with excellent organic preservation in the Lofoten and Vesterålen islands in Arctic Norway provide a long-term record of changing human use of fish. In Arctic Norway, zooarchaeological signatures of intensive dried fish production extend back into the Iron Age, indicating a substantial role for cured cod prior to the beginning of the historical stockfish trade in c. AD 1200. North Norwegian chieftains of the late Iron Age and Viking periods clearly disposed of substantial staple surpluses of stockfish as well as the better documented prestige goods (furs and ivory). A comparative study of substantial collections spanning the Iron Age–Early Modern period underlines both continuity and change in the developing North Norwegian fisheries and suggests the complexity of interaction between subsistence and commercial fishing

Three Decades in the Cold and Wet: A Career in Northern Archaeology

Thomas H. McGovern has been a pioneering researcher in the North Atlantic region for most of the past 40 years. He has taken his specialty in zooarchaeology beyond counting bones to actually addressing questions about human environment interactions and human response to extreme environmental events. A prolific writer and researcher with a multitude of publications and an impressive funding record, McGovern has always been a proponent of multidisciplinarity and international collaboration. His vision resulted in the creation of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) that currently has more than 400 scientific partners and has been leading projects throughout the Circum Atlantic for over 25 years. The interconnectivity of regions and global events has always been the key to his research, and as of last year, with support from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, it resulted in the creation of the Global Human Ecodynamics Alliance (GHEA) that is now taking interdisciplinarity and international collaboration to a global perspective

Climate change, site formation, and indigenous use of coastlines in Barbuda

This article explores the landscape dynamics at the island of Barbuda in the context of changing climate to understand (1) the environmental setting of indigenous settlements; (2) the impacts of current coastal processes; and (3) the potential threats moving forward toward increasing pressure of climate change. Focusing on the site of Seaview, on the east coast of Barbuda, we use geoarchaeological methods to reconstruct the ancient geomorphological setting, investigate changes post-abandonment, and identify the hazards faced under future sea-level projections. Our study shows that (1) sea level stabilization after the Mid-Holocene allowed the formation of coral reefs, seagrass beds and other benthic ecosystems that allowed for biogenic sediment accumulation and growth of sand dune retention ridges. (2) These environmental characteristics, including rich marine food sources, supported the establishment and flourishing of Seaview starting ca. 160 BC. (3) Occupation ended at some point between AD960 and 1000. This change coincided with a period of increased storminess, higher SSTs, and possible coral reef mortality that affected both food availability and sediment supply. (4) Lack of sediments triggered progressive sand dune erosion that continues today and has left the sand dune ridge past the tipping point of erosion. (5) Looking into a future of rapidly changing climate, sea level rise poses a severe and devastating threat to the land- and seascapes of Barbuda. With the lowland coastal plain at or only slightly above current sea level, a rate of SLR comparable to Mid-Holocene rates, and rapid loss of sand dune ridges and coral reefs as natural barriers, it is just a matter of time before the lowlands become transformed beyond recognition. The results of this analysis can be used to improve long-term management of the heritage resources of Barbudans and shed light on parallel challenges experienced on other tropical coastal locations

Cultural Heritage and Local Ecological Knowledge under Threat: Two Caribbean Examples from Barbuda and Puerto Rico

While the impacts to the infrastructures in Barbuda and Puerto Rico by Hurricanes Irma and Maria have received attention in the news media, less has been reported about the impacts of these catastrophic events on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of these Caribbean islands. This report provides an assessment of the impacts on the cultural heritage by these storms; tangible heritage includes historic buildings, museums, monuments, documents and other artifacts and intangible heritage includes traditional artistry, festivities, and more frequent activities such as religious services and laundering. While the physical destruction was massive, the social contexts in which these islands existed lessened the resiliency of the people to respond and rebuild after the storms. While change may be inevitable for Barbuda and Puerto Rico, disaster capitalism is threatening the cultures of the people, and may result in the loss of local knowledge and practices

Bioarchaeology and Cod Fisheries: A New Source of Evidence

Archaeological excavations in the North Atlantic basin over the past two decades have recovered large amounts of fishbones from datable deposits extending back over 8000 years in some areas. Coverage of the last 1000 years (with particular emphasis on the climatic cooling of the “Little Ice Age”) is increasingly complete. Recent research makes it possible to reconstruct live lengths from commonly recovered fishbone elements. Preliminary findings indicate that cod of 1 to 1.5 m were being regularly taken in the eleventh to nineteenth centuries throughout the North Atlantic. Changes in fish size and mix of species taken probably reflect technological as well as biological variables. The development of commercial fisheries and the interaction of climate are major research concerns of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO), and recent NABO data from Iceland, Greenland, and northern Norway are reported here. Both archaeology and fisheries science may benefit from more active collaboration toward a better integration of a growing body of bioarchaeological evidence with existing documentary and statistical records

A Fishing Farm in the West Fjords of Iceland: A Preliminary Report of the Archaeofauna from Gjögur

The date for the onset of full scale commercial fisheries in Iceland remains somewhat controversial, but thus far the earliest radiocarbon dated seasonal fishing station (11th- 13th century) is in NW Iceland’s Strandasýsla County at Akurvík. This paper presents a preliminary report of the ongoing analysis of the large archaeofauna from the farm mound at Gjögur, 3 km from Akurvík, places the site of Gjögur in the wider context of the NW region of Iceland by comparing the site with the Akurvík archaeofauna, and outlines new methodologies of reconstructing live fish size and age based on recovered fish bones. Although the Akurvík site provides a first zooarchaeological look at a Medieval fishing station, it is the site of Gjögur that would have controlled and integrated Akurvík’s catches into the larger regional arena of Northern Iceland, as well as using fishing to aid the economy of Gjögur itself

Regional Zooarchaeology and Global Change: Problems and Potentials

Zooarchaeology is a potentially critical tool for the reconstruction of past regional landscapes. The subfield is increasingly being asked to contribute to long-term studies of human interaction with the environment associated with national and international investigations of past and future global change. Intersite comparison of animal bone collections (archaeofaunas) is central to such regional approaches. However, zooarchaeologists have identified many factors of deposition, attrition, recovery, and analysis that might appear to make such comparisons problematic. Using selected examples drawn from the North Atlantic and Eastern Arctic, this paper suggests that, while intersite comparison is not a trivial problem, it may be possible to compare animal bone collections effectively if we carefully match our research questions to our data resources

Coping with Hard Times in NW Iceland: Zooarchaeology, History, and Landscape Archaeology at Finnbogastaðir in the 18th Century

During a cooperative archaeological project in NW Iceland (Strandasýsla) involving the Icelandic National Museum and Hunter College of the City University of New York.1990 season, a small rescue excavation at the site of Finnbogastaðir generated a quantifiable collection of animal bones dating to the early modern period, mainly to the 18th century. The 18th c was a period of hardship in much of Iceland, with widespread tenantry, adverse climate, and degradation of many terrestrial landscapes posing severe challenges to poor farmers- perhaps most intensely in the Vestfirðir. The animal bone collection from Finnbogastaðir reflects a multi-stranded subsistence economy involving seals, birds, and fish as well as domestic stock. Reconstruction of the fishing pattern indicates a mixed strategy that probably produced some stockfish for local exchange or for export but was mainly aimed at household provisioning. The nearly contemporary Jarðabók land register provides a direct comparison to the documentary record, and ongoing site survey and excavation in the NW provides a broader landscape/seascape perspective on the archaeofauna and documents. This small rescue investigation thus serves to illustrate the potential for an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to Iceland’s past, including periods with extensive documentary resources

Ship to Shore: Inuit, Early Europeans, and Maritime Landscapes in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence

Recent research at Hare Harbor on the Quebec Lower North Shore in the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence reveals great potential for archaeological and historical research on Basque and other early European activities in the northwestern North Atlantic. Although considerable data have been retrieved from Red Bay, Labrador, and a few other sixteenth-century sites in the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence, archaeological knowledge of the early European phase of North American history in this region is limited, and information about post-sixteenth-century Basque occupations is nearly nonexistent. This chapter reports on a multicomponent site with late sixteenth-century Basque and late seventeenth/ early eighteenth–century European (possibly Basque) and Inuit occupations at Hare Harbor, Petit Mécatina Island, 200 km west of the Strait of Belle Isle. The later historic occupation includes hearths, middens, and ballast piles from adjacent land and underwater sites. In addition to domestic cooking hearths and ballast piles associated with the sixteenth-century Basque occupation, the site’s later component contains two structures with paved stone floors, one interpreted as a cookhouse and the other as a blacksmith shop. The ethnic/national origin of these structures, which in earlier reports was designated as Basque on the basis of coarse earthenwares and large amounts of roof tiles, is now equivocal. Excavations in 2009 revealed a sixteenth-century Basque component adjacent to and deeper than the cookhouse (Structure 1) paved floor, raising the possibility that the cookhouse and blacksmith deposits may have a north Biscayan or Channel origin. Excavation also revealed a Labrador Inuit settlement that may be contemporary with the later European occupation. Information recovered from the European and Inuit contexts documents changing economic, social, and political conditions, including the appearance of Inuit in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and their participation in a European cod fishery at Hare Harbor. Given the breadth of activity, changes in technology and economy, and complex international and ethnic relations, a maritime landscape approach that links shore deposits with those from the underwater site over a period of more than 100 years provides a useful framework for interpreting the many strands of evidence from this small but fascinating site situated at the interface of European and Native nations, cultures, and traditions. Utilization of the landscape concept for interpreting maritime anthropology and archaeological sites is relatively novel. Landscape archaeology has traditionally been applied at terrestrial sites to link archaeological components with their broader ecological and social settings, including subsistence resource zones, site hierarchies, settlement patterns, and regional economic networks. Recently, this concept has been extended to maritime anthropological studies in circumpolar and subantarctic settings, but it has rarely been a component of underwater archaeological inquiry. The fortuitous adjacency of both land and marine components at a Basque/European/Inuit site makes Hare Harbor an ideal case study for exploring the utility of the landscape approach in a maritime archaeology context

An Interim Report of a Viking-Age & Medieval Archaeofauna from Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, Faroe Islands

Cooperative international excavations at the site of Undir Junkarinsfløtti (27020) in the village of Sandur on the island of Sandoy, Faroe Islands in May 2003 recovered a stratified bone - rich midden deposit extending from the Viking Age to the early medieval period. The animal bone collection contains domestic mammals (cattle, sheep, dog, goat, and pig) and substantial amounts of fish (mainly cod), birds (mainly puffin and guillemot), and shellfish (mainly limpet). While the current collection has the archaeological limitations inherent in column samples, it suggests persistence of substantial pig keeping into the 13th c, and strongly indicates a sustainable exploitation of sea bird colonies as well as some preparation of preserved fish on site. The site has considerable potential for shedding light on early Faroese economy and the environmental impact of the local Viking age settlers