Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland

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1 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 283 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland G U ð m U n D U r Ó L A F S S o n, K e V i n p. S m i T h & T h o m A S m CG ov e r n i n T ro D U C T i o n in recent years, c.500 icelandic lava caves have been discovered, explored and mapped. more than 00 of these have produced some form of evidence for human occupation or activities, dating from the time of iceland s initial settlement to the present day (Björn hróarsson 006). while many caves appear to have been used as animal sheds, archaeological remains in others suggest that these were used for human occupation over longer or shorter periods of time. hidden entrances, fireplaces, sleeping alcoves and middens suggest that some may have been temporary hide-outs for outlaws. A smaller number have internal fortifications or other structures that suggest larger, more permanent or more contested occupations. only two such caves had received some archaeological attention prior to the investigations discussed in this paper (Gísli Gestsson 960; Guðmundur Ólafsson 000; Sigurður Sveinn Jónsson and Björn hróarsson 99 ). Gísli Gestsson s pioneering cave research at hallmundarhellir, in the inner reaches of the western icelandic hallmundarhraun lava flow, demonstrated the potential for intact and unusual archaeological deposits to exist in the forbidding subterranean environments of iceland s lava tubes. At hallmundarhellir, Gestsson ( 960) recorded dividing walls, partitions, hearths and a small assemblage of artefacts and bones hidden behind a massive wall that blocked the mouth of this sand-choked lava cave. Further west in the hallmundarhraun lava field, near its terminal end, investigations in the Víðgelmir cave in 993 documented ephemeral features and a small assemblage of artefacts and faunal remains suggestive of a short visit by a small number of occupants intent on remaining hidden. These investigations, presented at the fourteenth Viking Congress in 00, also provided strong evidence that charcoal from the settlement period, apparently gathered from very old standing trees or well-preserved logs and branches, could be up to 00 years older than the actual site they were taken from, providing an explanation for mysteriously old dates from the Settlement period of iceland (Guðmundur Ólafsson 005, 04 6). in 00, an expedition by the national museum of iceland and Brown University explored the 3.5km long Surtshellir Cave, the longest lava cave in 3

2 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern 28.1 Location of Surtshellir in iceland. iceland and one of seven caves known within the hallmundarhraun lavaflow of west iceland (Guðmundur Ólafsson et al. 004; Fig.. ). This expedition sought to document traces of stone constructions within the cave, described periodically from the seventeenth century onward, but never scientifically explored, and to investigate reports that visitors were removing bones from deposits within the cave. e A r LY i n h A B i TA n T S o F S U rt S h e L L i r The name Surtshellir means, variously, the Black Cave or the Cave of Surtur, a powerful fire giant according to norse mythology (Þórhallur Vilmundarson 9 3, 4 5). Surtshellir is mentioned several times in icelandic medieval literature and seems to have been well-known as a threatening place, inhabited by giants or outlaws. According to the twelfth-century text Landnámabók, the first settler of Surtshellir was thought to be the giant Surtur. in the tenth century, however, two brothers named Þórarinn and Auðunn Smiðkelssynir became the leaders of an outlaw band, which was said to have occupied the cave. eighteen outlaws from Surtshellir were reported to have been killed by local farmers in an ambush (Landnámabók, 5, 40).

3 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 285 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland 5 in the fourteenth-century Harðarsaga, an outlaw is said to have fled from a fight with farmers near hvalfjörður, to have taken refuge in Surtshellir with six other outlaws and then to have gathered more outlaws in the cave with him. They were finally driven away and later killed (Harðarsaga: ). it is unclear whether the incidents described in Landnámabók and Harðarsaga represent separate episodes of outlaw activity or different accounts reflecting the same period of regional distress, as is suggested in the nineteenth-century Hellismanna saga, where Surtshellir is identified as the base of an outlaw band that fortified the cave in the late tenth century, preying on the surrounding countryside until routed by a coalition of local chieftains (Hellismanna saga: ). Surtshellir also plays an interesting role in Sturlunga saga. After taking his cousin and enemy Órækja, son of Snorri Sturluson, captive, Sturla Sighvatsson takes him in July 36 on a 30km trip from reykholt to Surtshellir to humiliate and punish him. he has him castrated and blinded upp á virkið ( on the top of the fortress : Sturlunga saga, 3 0 ). which location this text means, whether a fortification wall or that part of Surtshellir that is today called Vígishellir ( fortified cave ), can be debated, but clearly the existence of a fortress in the cave was well known in the thirteenth century, and was considered to be the proper place for undertaking such a foul deed. A closer look at outlaws in the icelandic sagas shows that they were considered to be a serious problem, especially in the tenth century. many raids on farmers livestock by large groups of outlaws are described. The most notorious gang of outlaws is described in Harðar saga, where it is said that forty outlaws had stolen eighty wethers in one raid, and in another raid sixty outlaws tried to steal a herd of cows and bulls. in most sagas, this raiding goes on until the farmers finally get fed up and kill the outlaws. outlaw stories usually follow the same pattern and even if it is often hard to separate legend from reality, they undoubtedly reflect some truth (Harðar saga, 4 5; Jón árnason 64, 300 4). A rc h A e o L o G i C A L e XC AVAT i o n i n S U rt S h e L L i r As previously mentioned, the presence of a fortification is implied in the written record and other remains, deeper in the cave, have been known for centuries. however, while the structural remains and midden deeper in the cavern were described as early as the 600s, the fortification wall has never been described in detail and has, until recently, been covered through the summer by snow drifts that enter the cave through a collapsed portion of the ceiling. even in the summer of 000, it was entirely buried beneath snowdrifts, but warmer weather in the summer of 00 exposed the wall completely. in 00 the first archaeological expedition into Surtshellir was undertaken to check on the condition of remains in the cave. easy access to the cave has made it a popular tourist attraction, and rumours were circulating that the large pile of

4 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern 28.2 plan of the Surtshellir cave and the research area (Guðmundur Ólafsson). bones described by earlier explorers had disappeared into the pockets of souvenir hunters. As we entered the cave and transited its first roofed section, we were surprised to find our route blocked by a heavily built, drystone wall stretching across the width of the cave where we had earlier been required to climb a snowfield. Bringing in a generator and good lights, the cave was properly lit for the first time in a thousand years. The dwelling area in a side cavern was mapped (Fig.. ) and part of its associated midden was excavated. Analyses of the finds have been con - ducted by the authors of this paper and radiocarbon dates have been analyzed by árný Sveinbjörnsdóttir and Jan heinemeier from the Aarhusreykjavik AmS-laboratory (Fig..3). while Víðgelmir was a short-term temporary hideout for one or two men, Surtshellir was a permanent dwelling for many men. The 3.5km long cave has three openings, each roughly 00m apart, formed by collapse of the ceiling. A F o rt i F i C AT i o n wa L L The stone wall stretches more than 3m across the width of the cave just before the second opening in its roof, c. 00m into the cave (Fig..4). it still stands, in places, to a height of more than m and may originally have been higher, judging from the extent of the boulder field beside it. it is partly covered by blocks of rock fallen from the roof and from the collapse of the cave s ceiling behind it, indicating that the wall is older than the collapse and pre-dates the opening in the roof. At the top of the wall there are later additions, or a collapsed wall, said by

5 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 287 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland 28.3 Graph showing radiocarbon dates, from charcoal and bones from a fireplace, in Surtshellir cave, in comparison to the age of the Lavaflow and the so-called Settlement layer (árný Sveinbjarnardóttir, Jan heinemeier, Guðmundur Ólafsson). local informants to have been started in the mid-twentieth century above the earlier construction. Areas of concrete and iron rebar within smaller stones, loosely piled, make the identification of this later building episode quite simple. The original wall is well-built of large boulders laid so that their flat surfaces face forward to create a sheer, defensible wall. The amount of labour and effort that had to go into the construction of this wall suggests that it is the work of many men and that it probably served as a fortification to stop intruders. with the roof still standing and the wall stretching across its width in pitch darkness beyond the reach of light from the cave s natural entrance, the cave behind the wall would have been almost impenetrable. Another indicator that the roof collapsed after the wall was built is that it would not have made sense to put up a fortification wall in this place if the opening was there, with the defenders having their rear open to attackers from above. This is also supported by the fact that collapse is still in progress, and many examples of recent collapse can be found throughout the cave. S U B T e r r A n e A n h o U S e Beyond the second opening in the roof, side galleries branch off the main cave, roughly.5m above the floor of the central passage. To the left is the so-called bone cave, which is said to have once had a huge pile of bones, now completely gone. To the right is the fortified cave, Vígishellir, which seems to have been the main dwelling area, with a stone building and a bone-rich midden (Fig..5).

6 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 288 guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern 28.4 part of the fortification wall, Surtshellir cave. The presence of bone piles and a stone-walled structure in Surtshellir have been recorded since the seventeenth century (eggert Ólafsson 9, 3 46), and a single radiocarbon date was obtained from a cattle bone fragment in 969 by the icelandic author halldór Laxness. These fragmentary records have been used in the past to suggest archaeological support for the historical narratives. however, the calibrated age of Laxness s date spans the entire Settlement and Commonwealth periods (AD 0 64) and could, therefore, reference activities undertaken at any point in the early middle Ages. Furthermore, in the absence of any detailed archaeological record of the cave s cultural features, no framework existed for protecting its archaeological resources, assessing the nature of the activities that once took place in Surtshellir, or comparing its deposits with those from other icelandic sites associated with outlaw activity through historic references or archaeological inferences. The stone-built structure in Vígishellir has some similarities in shape to the Viking-Age hall, with one side slightly curved (Fig..6). it has, however, no central fireplace or long-hearth. This subterranean house is m long, 3.5m wide at the centre, and m wide at both gables. The walls, built of large boulders, stand up to m high. in some parts they are not very well built and may have been tampered with or restored in later times. Apparently, however, the walls have never been any higher and nothing indicates supports for a roof. while the house

7 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 289 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland plan of the stone building with curved wall, a gable-end fireplace and the bone- midden in Vígishellir (Guðmundur Ólafsson). may have had a tent-like roof, it remains unclear why one would need a roof inside a cave, except, perhaps, to protect personnel and goods from dripping water. But why would one need a house in a cave anyway? Given that the hallmundarhraun lava flowed just a few decades before the site was occupied, the lava would most likely have been comfortably warm. The house does not seem to be necessary as fortification. it is possible that it was a practical shelter inside the cave, but perhaps it functioned more as a symbolic gesture and was mainly built because of the inhabitant s psychological need to live in a house, even if it was not really needed inside the cave. The house is, after all, built across the width of the passage in which it is located, potentially closing off access to deeper parts of that passage. interestingly, according to new speleological discoveries, this is not the only subterranean house that has been found in icelandic caves. At least two other stone examples have been found, although they are from much later periods and are of different shape (Björn hróarsson 006). The building has two entrances: one leading into the house from the main part of the cave system and the other leading into deeper parts of the cave behind the house, where no remains have yet been found. The fireplace seems to have been built into the gable and the floor is the lava rock covered, in part, by a very thin cultural layer comprised of ash, minuscule burnt bone fragments and few jasper

8 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern 28.6 overview of the building with curved walls and a gable-end fireplace (photo: Kevin p. Smith). fire-starter splinters. The floor of the house seems to have been kept fairly clean and tidy. instrumental neutron Activation analyses of the jasper fire-starters show that they included fragments with trace-element geochemistries consistent with those recorded from local or regional west icelandic jasper sources, as well as others whose chemical signatures suggest that they came from sources elsewhere in iceland. in contrast, jasper fire-starters from the smaller outlaw shelter, Viðgelmir, and from the tenth-century iron production complex at háls, 0km southeast of Surtshellir (Smith 005), have each produced jasper assemblages with more homogeneous jasper geochemistries. The diversity of the jasper recovered from Surtshellir, despite the small size of the sample recovered in 00, may imply that the cave s occupants came from a more disparate and diverse set of home districts, or that the cave was occupied several times by groups arriving from different regions, or a combination of these possibilities. B o n e-midden To the northwest of the house is a bone-rich midden, 3. m long and m wide (Fig.. ). A m long and 50cm wide trench was cut through the bone pile in 00 and all recovered material was collected as bulk samples that were dryscreened through nested 4mm and mm screens, with the fine sediments retained for micro-artefact recovery.

9 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 291 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland The surface of the Vígishellir midden (photo: Kevin p. Smith). The bone layer, when excavated, was only cm thick, but traces on the wall behind indicated that the pile of bones had originally been c.50cm thick. Bones at the surface are extremely well preserved, although they were all very fragmented as the occupants most likely obtained and utilized the marrow inside, even from the least marrow-producing bones. The bones showed severe butchery marks, but no gnawing marks by dogs. of the c. 500 bone fragments collected, 3 could be identified to species. of these, ninety-four were cattle bones, twenty-seven were pig bones, fourteen were horse bones, with the remainder derived from goats and sheep. when compared to faunal collections from other icelandic Viking-Age farmsites (Fig.. ), the mix of domestic animal bones present at Vígishellir shows a distribution pattern very similar to that of a fairly prosperous Settlement-Age farm. But when all of the major identified taxa are considered, the Vígishellir collection is exceptional no other icelandic collection from any period consists entirely of domestic mammals, and many Settlement-Age collections are instead dominated by wild species. This indicates a consumption pattern that is totally reliant on domestic animals for food. Those who accumulated this midden were not hunting or gathering food as other Viking-Age farmers were doing. everything points to this being an outlaw settlement, not participating in any social activity, but stealing animals from the local farmers.

10 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern 28.8 proportions of domestic and wild taxa in quantifiable ninth- to twelfth-century icelandic archaeofaunas. A comparison of the remains in the Viking-Age hideout caves in Víðgelmir and Surtshellir shows that even though they are both arguably outlaw shelters and were both occupied in the tenth century, they are very different sites. one was used for only a few days; the other maybe several months or years. one probably represents the activities of a single individual; the other indicates the residue of many actions undertaken by group of people. Yet even if the occupants of both caves preyed on neighbouring farms by stealing their livestock, it seems that they tried to maintain a typical Viking farmer s lifestyle. These sites give us a glimpse into the lives of outcasts in Viking-Age society. DAT i n G The bone-rich deposit in Vígishellir can be dated both indirectly through tephrochronology and directly through radiocarbon dating (Fig..9). The lava field in which Surtshellir and Vígishellir formed, hallmundarhraun, rests above the landnám tephra layer (Jóhannesson 9 9), which has been independently dated to AD +/- (Grönvold et al. 995). Two AmS radiocarbon dates (AAr- 4 and AAr- 4 3) run on collagen from cattle bones collected in 00 imply a date for the deposit of AD

11 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 293 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland 93 AAR 7412 (top layer) 4±4 Bp [AmS, Bos taurus bone fragment] one sigma (6. % probability) calad 0 90 Two sigma (95.4% probability) calad [ (92.7%), (2.7%)] AAR 7413 (basal layer) 9 ±36 Bp [AmS, Bos taurus bone fragment] one sigma (6. % probability) calad 0 90 Two sigma (95.4% probability) calad [ (5.8%), (82.6%), (7.0%)] K 1435 (Laxness 1969) 0 0± 00 Bp [Standard, Bos taurus bone fragment] one sigma (6. % probability) calad [ (5.4%), (62.8%)] Two sigma (95.4% probability) calad 0 40 [ (0.9%), (94.2%) (0.3%)] 28.9 radiocarbon dates from Vígishellir cave, iceland. with the landnám tephra providing a firm terminus post quem for the formation of the cave itself, the bone-bearing deposits tested in 00 can be dated to the period AD with a high degree of certainty. Although these two AmS dates on bones from the top and bottom layers of the thin deposit examined in 00 cannot be statistically separated, suggesting a rapid accumulation of the sampled portion of the midden, the standard radiocarbon date run on a cow bone by halldór Laxness ( 9 ) has a somewhat later calibrated age (Fig..9: K- 435). while it is unknown whether Laxness s sample was recovered from the deposits sampled in 00, from higher levels of the same midden, since removed, or even from deposits found in the now-empty Beinahellir gallery within Surtshellir, that date overlaps both of the new AmS age-ranges at two standard deviations. Together, the three dates support a late ninth- or tenth-century date that is generally consistent with the period of outlaw activity noted in medieval accounts. Q U e r i e S A n D i n T e r p r e TAT i o n S Surtshellir is an unusual Viking-Age icelandic site. place-names within the cave, coupled with the documented archaeological features and deposits, suggest a relatively extensive and complex suite of archaeological remains including fortifications, a subterranean house, middens, and extremely thin and fragile

12 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern occupation deposits. The main habitation zone is located c. 00m from the cave s entrance, well beyond the penetration of any natural light. Separated from the entrance passages by a massive fortification wall and located in a hidden side passage, the house and its associated midden were obviously not meant to be accessible places. The thickness of the original midden layer, as indicated by remnants on the cave wall, shows that it must have accumulated over some time. AmS dates confirm a late ninth- or tenth-century date for the bone-bearing deposits, while the form of the adjacent structure bears some similarities to known Viking-Age halls. The massive wall spanning the main tunnel, the presence of firestarter fragments from diverse and perhaps distant origins, and the unusual archaeofauna recovered from Vígishellir all match reasonably well with correlates one might reasonably derive from medieval accounts of the lairs of outlaw bands. The 00 archaeofauna from Vígishellir, while small and fragmented, shows both similarities with and differences from other known icelandic Settlement- Age and early Commonwealth samples. it would be anomalous (except in relative proportions of domestic mammals) even if it did not come from a cave with such a colourful legend. it lacks any of the fish, birds and shellfish common on Settlement-Age sites in iceland, suggesting that the cave s occupants were not reduced to scavenging wild resources despite the site s marginal location 0 5m underground in a lava field on the fringes of iceland s uninhabitable interior highland. recent work indicates that farms 60km or more from the coast were regularly provisioned with preserved marine fish, sea birds and mammals, raw materials and other critical resources from the Settlement period onwards (Smith 995; 004; 005; Amundsen et al. 005). if the cave s occupants were indeed outlaws, they may have been cut off from regular access to some resources because they no longer had access to the social networks that allowed such provisioning. Yet the mix of domestic mammals present suggests that the cave s occupants had the ability to acquire a wide range of domestic stock from surrounding farms, due perhaps to their success as raiders or to their support, willing or coerced, from nearby farms. newborn calf bones, common in farm middens, are missing from this assemblage, and this may point to either seasonality in their raiding activity, problems in capturing young animals normally kept within farmyards, or a simple focus on adult animals that could provide more meat when slaughtered. Similarly, the site s apparent surplus of meat-rich long bones could reflect the butchery of some captured animals away from the cave, or raids on farm smoke-houses or meat stores. And yet the pattern of bone fragmentation also suggests that while the cave s occupants may have enjoyed considerable success in carrying off domestic stock, they had to process animal carcasses completely for meat, marrow, and bone grease. perhaps they were attempting to get the most out of the animals they caught because they lacked other food sources (dairy produce, fish, birds, cereals), or possibly they attempted to limit their exposure to

13 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 295 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland 95 community retaliation by spacing their raids apart as widely as possible. Given the density of this midden, its composition and its reported larger size in previous times, it would appear that the occupants of the cave must have had a heavy impact on the economies of the farms around them. C o n C LU S i o n The remains in the Surtshellir cave represent the work of a group of people who occupied the cave for some time during the tenth century. They put considerable efforts into building a massive fortification to ensure that no one could get to them and they built a subterranean house possibly the oldest still-standing Viking-Age house in the world which suggests that they planned to stay there for a long time. They lived only on domestic animals, most likely stolen from neighbouring farms, and must have put a lot of pressure on the surrounding region s economy. The material evidence from Surtshellir suggests that this unusual site was a Viking-Age shelter for a significantly large group of outlaws, matching quite well the Surtshellir legends recorded in the sagas and in Landnámabók. Yet this is only part of the story. while Vígishellir s occupants built significant structures and dined on the meatiest portions of many animals, crushing their bones while burning few and carefully separating the burned from the unburned, these patterns differ significantly from those recorded at Víðgelmir, another probable outlaw shelter in the same lava field. At Víðgelmir, an untidy scatter of burned and unburned bones, tossed unsorted around a small unframed hearth on a hidden ledge, testifies to a short stay, perhaps lasting no more than a few days, by one or two people eating the least desirable portions of a cow (eggert Ólafsson 000). That these two nearly contemporaneous sites, located no more than 5 6km from one another, are so different suggests at the very least that the archaeological records of outlaws and cave sites in iceland may be more complex than we currently realize. B i B L i o G r A p h Y Amundsen, C.p., S. perdikaris, T.h. mcgovern, Y. Krivogorskaya, m. Brown, K. Smiarowski, S. Storm, S. modugno, m. Frik & m. Koczela Fishing booths and fishing strategies in medieval iceland: an archaeofauna from the site of Akurvík, north-west iceland, Environmental archaeology, 0:, Bigelow G.F Sandwick, Unst, and the Late norse Shetlandic economy in B. Smith (ed.), Shetland archaeology: new work in Shetland in the 1970s (Lerwick), pp 95. Björn hróarsson Hraunhellar á íslandi (reykjavík).

14 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page guðmundur Ólafsson, Kevin P. Smith & Thomas mcgovern Björn hróarsson Hellar á íslandi i ii (reykjavík). eggert Ólafsson. 9. Ferðabók Eggerts Ólafssonar og Bjarna Pálssonar, um ferðir þeirra á Íslandi árin 5 5, (reykjavík). enghoff, i.b Hunting, fishing and animal husbandry at the Farm Beneath the Sand, Western greenland: an archaeozoological analysis of a Norse farm in the Western Settlement, meddelelser om Grønland: man & Society, (Copenhagen). Gísli Gestsson hallmundarhellir, Árbók hins íslenzka Fornleifafélags, 960, 6. Gísli Konráðsson Hellismanna saga in Guðni Jónsson (ed.). íslendinga sögur ii: (reykjavík). Grant, A. 9. The use of tooth wear as a guide to the age of domestic ungulates in B. wilson, C. Grigson & S. payne (eds), ageing and sexing animal bones from archaeological sites, British Archaeological reports, British Series, 09 (oxford), pp 9 0. Guðmundur Ólafsson, K.p Smith & A. Stefánsdóttir rannsókn á minjum í Surtshelli, rannsóknaskýrslur Þjóðminjasafns, 00, (reykjavík). Guðmundur Ólafsson, T.h. mcgovern & K.p. Smith outlaws of Surtshellir cave: the underground economy of Viking-Age iceland in J. Arneborg & B. Grönnov (eds), Dynamics of northern societies: proceedings of the SiLa/NaBO conference on arctic and North atlantic archaeology, Copenhagen, may 10th 14th, 2004 (Copenhagen), pp Guðmundur Ólafsson Fylgsnið í hellinum Víðgelmi, Árbók hins íslenzka Fornleifafélags, 99, 5 4. Guðmundur Ólafsson new evidence for the dating of iceland s settlement: a Viking-Age discovery in the cave Víðgelmir in A. mortensen & S.V. Arge, Vikings and Norse in the North atlantic: select papers from the proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, July 2001 (Tórshavn), pp 00. halldór Kiljan Laxness Lítil samantekt um útilegumenn, Tímarit máls og menningar (may 949), halldór Laxness. 9. Yfirskyggðir staðir. Ýmsar athuganir. aldur hellismanna (reykjavík), haukur Jóhannesson aldur Hallmundarhrauns í Borgarfirði, Fjölrit náttúruf - ræðistofnunar, 9 (reykjavík). hermann pálsson and p. edwards (trans.). 9. The Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), University of manitoba icelandic Studies, (winnipeg). Harðar saga = Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson (eds). 99. Harðar saga, Íslenzk fornrit, 3 (reykjavík). Hellismannasaga = Jón árnason (ed.). 64. Þjóðsögur og ævintýri, (Leipzig), Karl Grönvold et al Ash layer from iceland in the Greenlandic Grip ice core correlated with oceanic and land sediments, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 35, Lyman, r.l Taphonomy (Cambridge). matthías Þórðarson Tveir hellar í hallmundarhrauni, Skírnir, 4, mcgovern, T.h. 99. Bones, buildings, and boundaries: paleoeconomic approaches to norse Greenland in C.D. morris & J. rackham (eds), Norse and later settlement and subsistence in the North atlantic (Glasgow), pp 5 6.

15 21-30 Vikings 18/12/ :42 Page 297 Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West iceland 9 mcgovern T.h., S. perdikaris & C. Tinsley. 00. economy of landnám: the evidence of zooarchaeology in A. wawn & Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (eds), approaches to Vínland, Sigurður nordal institute Studies, 4 (reykjavík), pp mcgovern, T.h. and S. perdikaris. 00. preliminary report of animal bones from hrísheimar, n. iceland. report on file with Fornleifastofnun ĺslands and national museum of iceland (reykjavík). outram, A.K A comparison of palaeoeskimo and medieval norse bone fat exploitation in western Greenland, arctic anthropology, 36:, 03. perdikaris, S., C. Amundsen & T.h. mcgovern. 00. report of animal bones from Tjarnargata 3C, reykjavík, iceland. report on file with Fornleifastofnun Íslands (reykjavík). Sigurður Sveinn Jónsson & Björn hróarsson. 99. Fornminjar í íslenskum hraunhellum, Surtur, ársrit Hellarannsóknafélags íslands ( 99 ), 0. Smith, K.p Landnám: the settlement of iceland in archaeological and historical perspective, World archaeology, 6:3, Smith, K.p independent people, householders and outlaws: reconciling economic autonomy, political centralization, and trade in medieval iceland paper presented at the 69th Annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, montréal. Smith, K.p ore, fire, hammer, sickle: iron production in Viking-Age and early medieval iceland, in r. Bork with S. montgomery, C. neuman de Vegvar, e. Shortell & S. walton (eds), De re metallica: studies in medieval metals, AViSTA Studies in the history of medieval Technology, Science and Art, 4 (Aldershot), pp Stefán Aðalsteinsson. 99. The importance of sheep in early icelandic agriculture, acta archaeologica, 6, 5 9. Sturlunga saga = Örnólfur Thórsson (ed.). 9. Sturlunga saga, (reykjavík), 45. Þórhallur Vilmundarson Surtshellir, grímnir: rit um nafnfræði,, 4 5.