Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland: Historical Ecology of Human Impact and Climate Fluctuation on the Millennial Scale

Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. The sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to focus on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of M´yvatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change

Polity and Neighbourhood in Early Medieval Europe

How were early medieval people connected to each other and to the wider world? In this collection, archaeologists and historians working in very different areas of early medieval Europe explore diverse evidence — from landscape and burial archaeology to charters and chronicles — to discuss the relationships that constituted neighbourhoods and the roles these played in the processes of state formation that can be observed in the peripheries of the Frankish world. What these case-studies teach us, the contributors argue, is that polities are formed not through the exclusive operation of either top-down or bottom-up agencies, but from the interplay between them. By exploring the ways in which local knowledge, social ties, and understandings of landscape interacted with higher-level authorities and institutions, we can gain real insights into the nature of early medieval power and people’s experiences of it.Marking the culmination of a collective effort that has spanned over a decade and three funded projects, this volume brings together case-studies from Spain, Italy, England, northern Frankia, Norway, and Iceland to offer a comparative view of polities and neighbourhoods in early medieval Europe. Drawing on new research, and offering new perspectives driven by an interdisciplinary approach, this volume is of relevance to a range of disciplines including archaeology, history, onomastics, geography, and anthropology.Peer reviewe

How\u3csup\u3e14\u3c/sup\u3eC 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 \u27chronometric hygiene\u27 protocols, which aim to enhance the overall accuracy and precision of14C 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 \u27old-wood\u27 effect, and so they are often removed from analyses, despite \u3e40,000 being available worldwide, representing \u3e $25 million. We show that when a Bayesian chronological model is used, which incorporates an Outlier Model specific to wood charcoal, the14C dataset of Iceland\u27s Viking Age settlement agrees well with ice core-dated tephrochronology and written sources. Greatest accuracy comes from an even temporal distribution of14C dates and more dates lead to greater precision (years). This shows how charcoal-based14C chronologies can pinpoint the transformational human settlement of islands in the Atlantic, Oceania, and elsewhere

Five thousand years of fire history in the high North Atlantic region:natural variability and ancient human forcing

Biomass burning influences global atmospheric chemistry by releasing greenhouse gases and climate-forcing aerosols. There is controversy about the magnitude and timing of Holocene changes in biomass burning emissions from millennial to centennial timescales and, in particular, about the possible impact of ancient civilizations. Here we present a 5 kyr record of fire activity proxies levoglucosan, black carbon, and ammonium measured in the RECAP (Renland ice cap) ice core, drilled in coastal eastern Greenland, and therefore affected by processes occurring in the high North Atlantic region. Levoglucosan and ammonium fluxes are high from 5 to 4.5 kyr BP (thousand years before 2000 CE) followed by an abrupt decline, possibly due to monotonic decline in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. Levoglucosan and black carbon show an abrupt decline at 1.1 kyr BP, suggesting a decline in the wildfire regime in Iceland due to the extensive land clearing caused by Viking colonizers. All fire proxies reach a minimum during the second half of the last century, after which levoglucosan and ammonium fluxes increase again, in particular over the last 200 years. We find that the fire regime reconstructed from RECAP fluxes seems mainly related to climatic changes; however over the last mil-lennium human activities might have influenced wildfire frequency/occurrence substantially

Landscapes of settlement in northern Iceland: Historical Ecology of human impact and climate fluctuation on the millennial scale

A thousand years ago Viking age voyagers crossed the grey waters of the North Atlantic, colonizing the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland between AD 800 and 1000. However, early transatlantic migration was not to have the historical impact of the later European re-discovery of North America, and by the 16th century the Scandinavian North Atlantic island communities had become either extinct or were marginalized colonies of continental states. Climate change and unintended human impact upon island ecosystems have long been proposed as root causes of the decline of the Norse Atlantic colonies, but interdisciplinary research had usually been restricted to short term investigations of single sites. In an attempt to better understand the complex interactions of culture and nature in early Iceland and to contribute a long term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change, since 1996 the NABO research cooperative has mounted a sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration focused upon 9th-13th century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of Mývatn. A multi-site, interdisciplinary, landscape based approach to human-environment interaction on the millennial scale has modified many early assumptions about human impact in the region, while documenting a case of 1200 year-old sustainable management of wildfowl and substantial internal exchange of marine products within 9th-10th century Iceland. Organizational background of the research cooperative and management lessons learned are also presented