Investigation of economy and settlement chronology in SVARF and HÖRG through farm midden surveys and excavations.

WP 2 targets farm middens for insight into people‘s everyday lives in SVARF and HÖRG throughout Iceland´s settlement history. It connects to the other work packages by analyzing the basis of the economy, livestock organization and agricultural (predominantly pastoralist) interaction with the environment. Anthropogenic materials collected from household middens comprise discarded materials (organic and inorganic) indicative of craft working, farming, belief system, ritual, resource utilization, access, and restriction; trade and exchange, and ideas of adornment and beauty. A lot of this information results from analysis of animal bones which are those organic materials that often preserve best in the archaeological record. WP2 employs multi-disciplinary approaches to understand the region’s economy and human-landscape interaction dynamics in the context of settler societies in island settings. In HÖRG, the project builds on and extends the work that has already been done on middens associated with the farms from different social strata such as low status Skuggi (not present in written sources) and low-middle status Oddsstaðir (abandoned in the 14th century). Research on a third farm, middle-high status Staðartunga (STÖ), was begun in 2014 and needs to be continued in field and laboratory.

Articles, publications, slides etc.

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Power, wealth and plague in two valleys: Field report of 2021, work packages 1 & 2

Medieval Zooarchaeology at Staðartunga farm in Northen Iceland.