Settlement Order & Site Size:

Transcription

1 Settlement Order & Site Size: Results of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey John M. Steinberg Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, UMass Boston Douglas J. Bolender Department of Anthropology, Field Museum Brian N. Damiata Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA

2 Initial Land Claims in Skagafjörður (Based on Landnámabók)

3 Historically known farms in Skagafjörður

4 Regional focus on settlement sequence: Langholt LANGHOLT

5 Langholt

6 Tools of the Trade Sources include: Gaffney, C. and J. Gater, Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists: Tempus, Stroud, Gloucestershire and Clark, A., Seeing Beneath the Soil:

7 Abandoned Turf Structures Dating from the Late 1960s Geophysical Targets (electrical, magnetic and electromagnetic contrasts) Turf Wall / Surrounding Soil and Fill Deposits Rock / Surrounding Soil and Fill Deposits Fill Deposit (Midden) / Naturally Compacted Soil Differences arising from Stratigraphic Layering Graves (Skeleton, Container, Disturbance / NCS

8 Summary of Geophysical Surveying in Langholt Method Year Total Electromagnetics Sites Investigated * Surveys Conducted Linear Coverage (m) 33, ,351 18,600 16,355 6,640 37, ,001 Resistivity Sites Investigated * Surveys Conducted Linear Coverage (m) 3,842 2, ,546 Ground-Penetrating Radar Sites Investigated * Surveys Conducted Linear Coverage (m) ,563 33,607 17,710 60, ,371

9 Integrated Survey Protocol EM surveying using a Geonics EM31 ground conductivity meter Apparent ground conductivity profiles across a turf wall at Skordugil Resistivity surveying using an Iris Instruments 24-channel meter Resistivity cross section across a turf wall at Glaumbaer GPR surveying using a Mala X3M system with 500 MHz antenna Overlay Image: cm bgs (wall) cm bgs (grave) from Stora- Seyla

10 Skeletal Remains from Stóra-Seyla Radar profile through churchyard and grave.

11 Skeletal Remains from Stóra-Seyla Radar profiles showing relatively wide hyperbolas associated with the upper body chest cavity (C-E) and the narrower ones with the lower body (H-K). Arrows point to reflections from long bones lying next to the chest cavity.

12 From Survey to Settlement Pattern Location Establishment date Viking Age farmstead size Area of turf and other cultural under the Hekla 1104 AD tephra layer

13 Initial Settlements, before ca. AD FARMSTEAD SETTLEMENT SEQUENCE Farmstead Size (m2) Farmstead Establishment Date

14 Late Settlements, ca. AD FARMSTEAD SETTLEMENT SEQUENCE Farmstead Size (m2) Farmstead Establishment Date

15 Fully settled after ca. AD FARMSTEAD SETTLEMENT SEQUENCE Farmstead Size (m2) Farmstead Establishment Date

16 Late farmsteads, ca. AD FARMSTEAD SETTLEMENT SEQUENCE Farmstead Size (m2) Farmstead Establishment Date

17 Small farmsteads, after ca. AD FARMSTEAD SETTLEMENT SEQUENCE Farmstead Size (m2) Farmstead Establishment Date

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20 Date and Size There are advantages to being first What are they? Imported pre-existing social status? Access to better land? Control over later settlers? But the fact that there are advantages helps to explain the rapidity of the settlement. These advantages seem to endure

21 An Enduring Landscape HAY R² = FARMSTEAD SIZE (M2) CA. AD 1100 But Icelandic society not static.

22 Practical approaches to change How do we understand these changes archaeologically? Back to the practicalities of region-wide investigations What can we recover that shows change on the regional scale?

23 Early Christian Churches New research shows many previously unknown early Christian household churches and cemeteries In Skagafjörður: The Church Project Guðný Zoëga and Sigríður Sigurðsdóttir, Byggðasafn Skagfirðinga Cemeteries as proxy for changing household status Who gets them? Who loses them? Who keeps them?

24 Churches as a geophysical target Grafarkirkja in Skagafjörður

25 Geophysics of church complexes

26 Churches, cemeteries and farmhouses: Viking Age Farmstead at Stóra-Seyla

27 An integrated project The Skagafjörður Church and Settlement Survey (SCaSS) Systematically investigate farmstead settlement history and the distribution of early household Christian churches. Langholt Hegranes

28 Special thanks The US National Science Foundation (BCS # , , , , ARC # , ) The Wenner-Gren Fund for Anthropological Research The Fulbright Foundation Sigríður Sigurðardóttir and Guðný Zoëga, Byggðasafn Skagfirðinga Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, UMass Boston Kristín Huld Sigurðardóttir, Fornleifavernd ríkisins Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson, Icelandic Radiation Protection Institute. Hjalti Pálsson and Unnar Ingvarsson, Sögufélag Skagfirðinga Skagafjarðarsýsla and the farmers of Langholt SASS project members