The Viking Age settlement pattern of Langholt, North Iceland: Results of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

et al. 2017

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The results of a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey over a Viking-Age Christian churchyard (ca. AD 1000-1100) that was subsequently fully excavated are reported. During excavation, broadband time-domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements of apparent relative permittivity were made of various features which helped to constrain interpretations of the radar data. Although four probes of different lengths were used (0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.3 m), the longest waveguide yielded effective frequencies that most closely matched the bandwidth of the radar data, which was collected using a 500 MHz antenna. The excavation revealed 25 graves. Comparison of the radar data to the archaeological record indicated that all graves containing skeletal remains produced signatures from the bones, but only half of those were interpreted as such prior to excavation. The skeletons of three adults

Section: Methods and Instrumentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface imaging a Viking-Age churchyard using GPR with TDR: Direct comparison to the archaeological record from an excavated site in northern Iceland

Damiata

Steinberg

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

et al. 2017

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“…From a contemporary 21st century perspective, it is difficult to imagine that near total deforestation and subsequent erosion of large areas could signify anything other than environmental degradation. However, the archaeological evidence shows that this transformation was accompanied by a rapidly growing population and increasingly dense settlement, which does not fit the narrative of degradation and reduced productivity and requires explanation (Steinberg, Bolender, and Damiata ; Vésteinsson and McGovern ).…”

Section: Colonial Ecodynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Settlement patterns were far more stable than in highland regions, and there is limited evidence for farm abandonment. The results of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey illustrate the closure and stability of the lowland landscape, through analysis of the settlement sequence and environmental context of medieval households in the Langholt region of North Iceland (Bolender, Steinberg, and Damiata ; Steinberg and Bolender ; Steinberg, Bolender, and Damiata ). New farms were created throughout the late 9th and 10th centuries, but by approximately 1000 CE, no land remained for additional settlement.…”

Section: Social Inequality and The Domestication Of Icelandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The archaeological record of lowland farms in Langholt shows a remarkable continuity of place, of practice, and of social differentiation from the settlement to the early modern period (Bolender, Steinberg, and Damiata 2011). The largest farms during the medieval period became the highest producing farms of the 19th century (Steinberg, Bolender, and Damiata 2016). Today, most contemporary farmhouses are situated atop the ruins of their medieval predecessors, and hay is grown on the same tracts of land to feed the same kinds of animals.…”

Section: The Icelandic Landscape As Second Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

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7 Were the Vikings Really Green? Environmental Degradation and Social Inequality in Iceland's Second Nature Landscape

Catlin

Archaeological Papers of the American

2018

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Iceland was settled by the Norse ca. 870 CE. Within the next few centuries, 40% of Iceland's soil cover was lost to deforestation and erosion. By the late medieval period, the social landscape had also changed from a population of nominally equal landowning households to one comprised mostly of tenant farmers subject to a small class of elite landlords. Interpretations of the changing landscape have described the Norse as unaware of the environmental consequences of their agricultural practices, or as thoughtfully responsive to degrading conditions. Using estimates of the available biomass in different regions and measurements of changing soil depth in lowland Langholt, Skagafjörður, we suggest that what appears to modern researchers as catastrophic environmental devastation was in part an agricultural benefit, at least to some people. While some farmers did well, others were forced to leave failing land and enter service or tenancy. At the same time, agricultural strategies focused on transhumant pastoralism and production of grass fodder created distinct changes to the landscape that reinforced the emerging social hierarchy until it came to seem natural and inevitable. We imagine the earliest Icelanders not as violent raiders of the landscape, nor as sensitive custodians of a changing environment, but as intelligent farmers and politicians who mobilized the transformed landscape into a political economy that would keep their farms productive and their descendants in power for a millennium.

“…The cemetery at Seyla offers a unique view of early Christian practice through its establishment, usage, and closure. The farm of Seyla (the present-day farm of Sto´ra-Seyla) in the northern valley of Skagafjo¨rôur was established as part of the initial Norse colonization of Iceland sometime around A.D. 900 (Steinberg et al, 2016). The original farm site was situated at the foot of a relatively steep if short hill, just south of a stream.…”

Section: Archeological Moments In the Early Christian Cemetery At Seylamentioning

confidence: 99%

An archeology of moments: Christian conversion and practice in a medieval household cemetery

Zoëga

Journal of Social Archaeology

2017

The Christian conversion of Iceland in A.D. 1000 was accompanied by distinct changes in religious practice and ritual places. In the following century, household cemeteries were established at many farms. Examining the early Christian household cemetery at Seyla in northern Iceland, we explore how the establishment, usage, and closure of these cemeteries provide an opportunity to examine how the new religion was realized in Icelandic society. At the same time Seyla represents cemetery management at a household level, which provides rarely witnessed household level social actions. The individual moments discussed can be used to enlighten the agency of family as well as its realization of the social and religious changes of the 11th century. Here, we argue that the isolation and discussion of these specific archeological moments at Seyla add to our understanding of the experiences and actions of early Christian households during a time of religious transformation.