The Vikings were not the first colonizers of the Faroe Islands

Abstract

. (2013) 'The Vikings were not the rst colonizers of the Faroe Islands.', Quaternary science reviews., 77 . pp. 228-232. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.011Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Quaternary science reviews. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in Quaternary science reviews, 77, 1 October 2014, 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.011. Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractWe report on the earliest archaeological evidence from the Faroe Islands, placing human colonization in the 4 th -6 th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated archaeologically. The evidence consists of an extensive wind-blown sand deposit containing patches of burnt peat ash of anthropogenic origin. Samples of carbonised barley grains from two of these ash patches produced 14 C dates of two pre-Viking phases within the 4 th -6 th and late 6 th -8 th centuries AD. A re-evaluation is required of the nature, scale and timing of the human colonization of the Faroes and the wider North Atlantic region.

Making degrowth locally meaningful: the case of the Faroese grindadráp

“…It has been argued that the practice of grindadráp predates the initial settlement of the islands, suggesting that grindadráp was a common practice in the Norse region, brought to the Faroes with Norse settlers during the 8 th and 9 th century (Thorsteinsson 1986). Archaeological excavations, and the mentioning of whale drives and distribution of whale meat and blubber in the first Faroese legal document, Seyðabraevið from AD 1298, strongly indicates that whales were always hunted for food in the Faroes (Church et al 2005;Dahl 1970). The historical practice of grindadráp involved not only the killing of pilot whales, but a number of other procedures and institutions, such as a system of signaling to neighboring villages when a school of whales had been sighted close to shore, 9 coordination of the boats participating in the whale drive (a process which could last several days, and not infrequently ended with the escape of the whales), the successful beaching of the whales, the killing itself, the butchering and dividing of the catch between participants and others entitled to shares, the celebration after a successful catch, the transportation and conservation of the meat and blubber, and finally the preparation and consumption of the grind meal.…”

The First European Colonization of the North Atlantic

“…Pigs were a major agent of environmental change in the North Atlantic Scandinavian settlements, and they, along with goats, would have been one of the primary terraforming agents used by the settlers to engineer their new environments (Arge et al 2009). The Faroes has recently produced strong archaeobotanical indications of a pre-Norse settlement (Church et al 2013). Previously it was thought that the Faroese settlement was a similar situation to that of Iceland which to date has produced no archaeological evidence of a pre-Norse settlement.…”

Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism

“…Pigs were a major agent of environmental change in the North Atlantic Scandinavian settlements, and they, along with goats, would have been one of the primary agents used by the settlers to engineer their new environments (Arge et al 2009). The Faroes has recently produced strong archaeobotanical indications of a pre-Norse settlement (Church et al 2013). Previously it was thought that the Faroese settlement was a similar situation to that of Iceland which to date has produced no archaeological evidence of a pre-Norse settlement.…”