A medieval merchants’ church in Gásir, North Iceland

En middelalderlig købmandskirke i Gásir, Nordisland Af Orri Vésteinsson I 2004 og 2006 udgravedes en kirke på handelspladsen Gásir i Nordisland. Der blev fundet tre faser af kirkefundamenter, der menes at repræsentere mindst 200 år, fra midten eller anden halvdel af 12. århundrede til det sene 14. eller tidlige 15. århundrede. Alle var bikamerale stavkirker med et mindre kor ved østenden, men den yngste kirke var langt den største, med en betydelig udvidelse af skibet mod vest. Den tidligste kirkes fundamenter var store stenfyldte gruber, der skulle understøtte store hjørnestolper, selv om det formodede kor kan have haft jordgravede hjørnestolper. I anden fase havde kirken lignende dimensioner, men i stedet for de stenfyldte gruber stod skibets hjørnestolper på store, flade stenheller. Beviserne for koret i denne fase er endnu dårligere, end i den første. Henimod slutningen af anden fase blev der på skråningen omkring kirken skabt en kunstig platform, omgivet af en cirkulær tørvemur med en indgang på østsiden, der vendte over mod købmændenes lejr. Byggeriet af platformen og indhegningen fandt sted i anden halvdel af 13. århundrede, og blev hurtigt fulgt af byggeriet af den tredje og sidste kirke på stedet. Denne større kirke havde ingen særlige arrangementer til hjørnestolperne; væggene stod i stedet på rækker af sten i fundamentsgrøfter, og nord- og sydvæggene havde støttestolper. Denne kirke blev blæst af sine fundamenter i 1359, og det vides ikke om den blev genopført derefter. Der var ingen grave på kirkegården, og der blev ikke fundet genstande, der kunne associeres med kirkens religiøse funktion. Der var imidlertid en betydelig mængde beviser for håndværk og andre sekulære aktiviteter på kirkegården, hvilket antyder, at den til tider blev brugt som en udvidelse af købmændenes lejr. Kirken menes at have været ejet og vedligeholdt af de norske købmænd på Gásir, og blev sikkert kun brugt nogle få dage hvert år

Fuel resource utilisation in landscapes of settlement

One little understood aspect of the settlement and colonisation of Iceland is fuel resource use. In this paper we identify fuel ash residues from temporally constrained middens at two contrasting settlement age sites in Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland, one high status, the other low status and ultimately abandoned. Fuel residues derived from experimental combustion of historically defined fuel resources are used to provide control for thin section micromorphology and complementary image analyses of fuel residue materials found in the midden deposits. The results suggest that fuel resources utilised at the time of settlement were for both low temperature and high temperature use, and included a mix of birch and willow wood, peat, mineral-based turf and cow dung. There are, however, marked variations in the mix of fuel resources utilised at the two sites. This is considered to reflect social regulation of fuel resources and socially driven changes to local and regional environments that may have contributed to the success or failure of early settlement sites in Iceland

Constructing chronologies in Viking Age Iceland: Increasing dating resolution using Bayesian approaches

yesPrecise chronologies underpin all aspects of archaeological interpretation and, in addition to improvements in scientific dating methods themselves, one of the most exciting recent developments has been the use of Bayesian statistical analysis to reinterpret existing information. Such approaches allow the integration of scientific dates, stratigraphy and typological data to provide chronologies with improved precision. Settlement period sites in Iceland offer excellent opportunities to explore this approach, as many benefit from dated tephra layers and AMS radiocarbon dates. Whilst tephrochronology is widely used and can provide excellent chronological control, this method has limitations; the time span between tephra layers can be large and they are not always present. In order to investigate the improved precision available by integrating the scientific dates with the associated archaeological stratigraphy within a Bayesian framework, this research reanalyses the dating evidence from three recent large scale excavations of key Viking Age and medieval sites in Iceland; Aðalstræti, Hofstaðir and Sveigakot. The approach provides improved chronological precision for the dating of significant events within these sites, allowing a more nuanced understanding of occupation and abandonment. It also demonstrates the potential of incorporating dated typologies into chronological models and the use of models to propose sequences of activities where stratigraphic relationships are missing. Such outcomes have considerable potential in interpreting the archaeology of Iceland and can be applied more widely to sites with similar chronological constraints.British Academy (MD120020) awarded to C. Batt. Rannís PhD funding for M.Schmid.The full text was made available at the end of the publisher's embargo

Tephra isochrons and chronologies of colonisation

This paper demonstrates the use of tephrochronology in dating the earliest archaeological evidence for the settlement of Iceland. This island was one of the last places on Earth settled by people and there are conflicting ideas about the pace and scale of initial colonisation. Three tephra layers, the Landnám (‘land-taking’) tephra layer (A.D. 877 ± 1), the Eldgjá tephra (A.D. 939) and the recently dated V-Sv tephra (A.D. 938 ± 6) can be found at 58% of 253 securely-dated early settlement sites across the country. The presence of the tephras permits both a countrywide comparison, and a classification of these settlement sites into pre-Landnám, Landnám and post-Landnám. The data summarised here for the first time indicate that it will be possible to reconstruct the tempo and development of the colonisation process in decadal resolution by more systematically utilising the dating potential of tephrochronology

Palaeoenvironmental evidence for woodland conservation in Northern Iceland from settlement to the twentieth century

Narratives of Norse arrival in Iceland highlight the onset of land degradation and loss of woodland cover as major and long-term environmental consequences of settlement. However, deliberate and sustained land resource management in Iceland is increasingly being recognised, and in this paper we assess whether woodland areas were deliberately managed as fuel resources. Our study location is the high status farm site at Hofstaðir in northern Iceland. A palynological record was obtained from a small basin located just inside the farm boundary wall and the geoarchaeological record of fuel use obtained from waste midden deposits associated with the farm. Both environmental records are temporally constrained by tephrochronology and archaeological records. When viewed within the broader landscape setting, our findings suggest that there was near continuous use of birch wood from early settlement to the present day, that it was actively conserved throughout the occupation of the site and that there were clear distinctions in fuel resource utilisation for domestic and more industrial purposes. Our analyses open discussion on the role of local woodlands and their management in the Norse farm economy

Land: Its Organisation and Management at Norse Hofstaðir

Land, its organisation and management as well as its intrinsic quality are little understood aspects of the settlement process in Iceland. Yet an understanding of the concept and significance of land is vital if we are to recognise the way in which environmental resources were used to create and maintain social structures, the role of management decisions in setting new directions of environmental change, and the adoption and adaptation of land management strategies to sustain food production. Organisation of land was needed to ensure the requirements of grazing domestic livestock (dominantly sheep, cattle and cows) and access to fuel resources were met in order to provide foundations for subsistence and local economies

How 14 C dates on wood charcoal increase precision when dating colonization: The examples of Iceland and Polynesia

Archaeological chronologies use many radiocarbon (14C) dates, some of which may be misleading. Strict ‘chronometric hygiene’ protocols, which aim to enhance the overall accuracy and precision of 14C datasets by removing all potentially problematic samples, mean that so few dates remain in some locations that accurate chronologies cannot be established. 14C dates on charcoal can be affected by an ‘old-wood’ effect, and so they are often removed from analyses, despite >40,000 being available worldwide, representing > $25 million. We show that when a Bayesian chronological model is used, which incorporates an Outlier Model specific to wood charcoal, the 14C dataset of Iceland's Viking Age settlement agrees well with ice core-dated tephrochronology and written sources. Greatest accuracy comes from an even temporal distribution of 14C dates and more dates lead to greater precision (<20 years). This shows how charcoal-based 14C chronologies can pinpoint the transformational human settlement of islands in the Atlantic, Oceania, and elsewhere.This project was funded by the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís 121153-0061), Watanabe Trust fund and National Science Foundation (USA, NSF 1202692 and NSF 1249313)

Soils and palaeo-climate based evidence for irrigation requirements in Norse Greenland

Establishing and sustaining agricultural production was a key factor in the success of Norse settlements during the landnám colonisation across the North Atlantic. In light of the occurrence of channel features in several abandoned home-field areas of the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland, and the irrigation requirements of present-day Greenlandic sheep-farmers questions are raised: was irrigation used by the Norse settlers of Greenland on their home-field areas? and, if so, how frequently? Modelling of soil chemical, physical and soil-water hydraulic properties integrated with contemporary high-resolution climatic data demonstrate a frequent requirement for irrigation. Soil moisture deficits are related to the duration and intensity of winter temperature. Using the winter Dye 3 ice core δ18O record as a climatic proxy, the frequency of moisture deficits, based on comparing mean winter temperatures, indicates that there was a frequent irrigation requirement to maintain home-field productivity, increasing throughout the period of settlement until the 14th Century

Disequilibrium, adaptation and the Norse settlement of Greenland

This research was supported by the University of Edinburgh ExEDE Doctoral Training Studentship and NSF grant numbers 1202692 and 1140106.There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and limiting the efficacy of seasonal hunting strategies. Recent climate data provide evidence of sustained cooling from the mid thirteenth century and climate variation from the early fifteenth century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Norse made incremental adjustments to the changing sub-arctic environment, but were limited by cultural adaptations made in past environments.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Modeling Historic Rangeland Management and Grazing Pressures in Landscapes of Settlement

Defining historic grazing pressures and rangeland management is vital if early landscape threshold crossing and long–term trajectories of landscape change are to be properly understood. In this paper we use a new environmental simulation model, Búmodel, to assess two contrasting historical grazing landscapes in Mývatnssveit Iceland for two key periods—the colonization period (ca. Landnám, A.D. 872–1000) and the early eighteenth century A.D. Results suggest that there were spatial and temporal variations in productivity and grazing pressure within and between historic grazing areas and indicate that land degradation was not an inevitable consequence of the livestock grazing introduced with settlement. The results also demonstrate the significance of grazing and livestock management strategies in preventing overgrazing, particularly under cooler climatic conditions. The model enables detailed consideration of historic grazing management scenarios and their associated landscape pressures