Chiefdom to Manor: An archaeological settlement survey of Viking Age and Medieval Skagafjordur, Iceland

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. John Steinberg and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological fieldwork in the Skagafjordur region of Northern Iceland. The goal of the fieldwork is to survey 26 farms in five areas of this important Icelandic fjord valley to understand the changes in the settlement pattern from the Viking Age through Early Danish Rule (AD 874-1800). Over this period, Iceland was transformed from a system of chiefdoms to a manorial organization incorporated into the larger Norwegian State. The research seeks to outline the factors and timing involved in this transition. Specifically, the Skagafjordur Archaeological Settlement Survey (SASS) will track the selected farms over 900 years to assess the variation in building construction and the economic potential of each farm. The result of this work will be an archaeological characterization of the household economy, which can then be related to the larger, documented, political economy described in the written sources. The Medieval sagas, written down in the 13th century, describe the events of the Settlement of Iceland (AD 874-930) and of the Commonwealth (AD 930-1264). For the Late Medieval (1264-1500) and Danish periods (1500-1800) a series of tax records tell much about the manorial organization. During the Settlement and Commonwealth periods, Icelandic social structure changed from a collection of autonomous farmers who each held large territories, to a nationwide assembly of chieftains, and finally to state. Over this period, the climate became more variable and cooler. At the same time, overgrazing and forest clearance destroyed a substantial percentage of the productive land. The Medieval and Danish periods saw the rise and fall of the manorial system. In our study area, the Bishopric of H-lar and other church organizations owned upwards of 65% of the farms. The independent farmer, wooed by the local chieftains of the first period, ended up a serf on the land. While the sources tell us who was successful and who failed, they do not tell us why. Most buildings from these periods were constructed of turf and are now buried in deep wind-blown deposits, thereby making them almost impossible to identify systematically. In 1999, Dr. Steinberg's NSF-funded "High Risk Experimental Research" addressed these archaeological problems with electro-magnetic remote sensing techniques. The research showed that specific electrical conductivity signatures signaled deeply buried and sometimes well preserved Viking Age houses. Once these buried structures are located, dating their construction with the sequence of volcanic tephra layers is routine. If the sagas are correct, Settlement Age Iceland is one of the relatively few examples of the formation of property rights without the presence of a strong central government. The other notable example is that of 1849-1852 California (before it became a state) when miners formed districts. Solving the buried-turf-structure problem opens up Iceland to the examination of the demographic changes that took place from the initial formation of property rights, through the development of chiefdoms, and to the incorporation into the Norwegian State. The archaeological data gathered by the SASS project will allow scholars to better understand the advantages of being the first to settle a landscape, the importance of farm economic potential for political success, and the changing ratio of land and labor to the fall of the chiefly and manorial systems.