Ritual responses to catastrophic volcanism in Viking Age Iceland: Reconsidering Surtshellir Cave through Bayesian analyses of AMS dates, tephrochronology, and texts

Smith, Kevin P.; Ólafsson, Guðmundur; Pálsdóttir, Albína Hulda

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105316

Journal of Archaeological Science

2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2020.105316

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Ritual responses to catastrophic volcanism in Viking Age Iceland: Reconsidering Surtshellir Cave through Bayesian analyses of AMS dates, tephrochronology, and texts

Kevin P. Smith

Guðmundur Ólafsson²,

Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir

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Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

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Braided motivations for Iceland’s first wave of mass emigration to North America after the 1875 Askja eruption

Büntgen,

Eggertsson,

Oppenheimer

2024

Reg Environ Change

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More than 14,000 Icelanders emigrated to North America between 1870 and 1914 CE. Mass movement from Iceland accelerated the year after the explosive eruption of Askja in 1875, and both contemporary and recent commentators have linked the two circumstances. Despite an abundant scholarship on Icelandic emigration in this period, the direct and indirect roles of the eruption as a possible stimulus remain unclear. Here, we engage critically with a range of contemporary source materials as well as meteorological and climatological information to re-assess where Askja fits into the picture of Iceland’s first wave of mass migration. We find that emigration was undoubtedly fuelled by the hardships of Icelanders and their growing contacts with countrymen already in the Americas, and that the highest proportions of emigrants came from counties most directly impacted by the Askja eruption. However, it also emerges that the eruption served as a lever for interested parties in Britain and Canada to persuade large numbers of desirable migrants to settle in North America. Our study highlights the opportunities that discrete episodes of volcanic activity present to probe the complex interrelationships of nature and society.

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Braided motivations for Iceland’s first wave of mass emigration to North America after the 1875 Askja eruption

Büntgen,

Eggertsson,

Oppenheimer

2024

Reg Environ Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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All that glitters is not gold: Multi-instrumental identification of Viking Age orpiment (As2S3) from Surtshellir cave, Iceland

Smith

Ólafsson²

2023

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Speluncar slumber and the medieval time traveler: Unearthing the imagined cave of the Old English Seven Sleepers

D’Alisera

2024

Postmedieval

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Ritual responses to catastrophic volcanism in Viking Age Iceland: Reconsidering Surtshellir Cave through Bayesian analyses of AMS dates, tephrochronology, and texts

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Braided motivations for Iceland’s first wave of mass emigration to North America after the 1875 Askja eruption

Braided motivations for Iceland’s first wave of mass emigration to North America after the 1875 Askja eruption

All that glitters is not gold: Multi-instrumental identification of Viking Age orpiment (As2S3) from Surtshellir cave, Iceland

Speluncar slumber and the medieval time traveler: Unearthing the imagined cave of the Old English Seven Sleepers

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