Chiefdom to Manor: Using Ground Penetrating Radar on Viking Age and Medieval Archaeological Sites in Skagafjordur, Iceland

从酋长领地到庄园：使用探地雷达探测冰岛斯卡加峡湾的维京时代和中世纪考古遗址

• 批准号: 0453892
• 负责人: John Steinberg
• 金额: $ 4万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-03-01 至 2006-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0453892&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Chiefdom; Manor; Using; Ground; Penetrating

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. John Steinberg and his colleagues will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in Skagafjordur, Northern Iceland, to test the effectiveness of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR-Slice) images for guiding the excavation of well-preserved but deeply buried turf long-houses of the Viking Age.Iceland was uninhabited until AD 874, when chieftains and wealthy farmers, along with their household retinues, began to arrive in their open boats. Accounts of the settlement and of the resulting chiefly society are given in semi-historical sagas. However, these sagas are ambiguous, contradictory, or silent on several critical socio-economic issues that would help scholars understand why this Viking Age chiefly society was stable for so long and why, in the end, it finally turned into a medieval manorial state society. Archaeological investigations of the settlements can help by yielding information on economic status of farmsteads. Unfortunately, the archaeology of Iceland is paradoxical: in the fertile coastal lowlands early archaeological sites are difficult to identify. Conversely, once found, preservation at these sites is often outstanding. The funded research will specifically address this paradox with GPR.This research follows up on a successful NSF-funded subsurface survey, which identified a series of previously unknown Viking Age sites. The survey results indicate a dynamic settlement pattern sequence: large farmsteads were initially established, they then later spun off smaller farmsteads, and finally many of those larger farmsteads moved locations. One of the sites discovered during the subsurface survey, at a farm called Glaumbaer, is probably the farmstead of the family that returned from Greenland and the New World and told the story of Erik The Red and his son Leif. This discovery has received substantial media attention.The proposed work is a prelude to future excavations. Excavation of turf structures is notoriously difficult and time-consuming. GPR has the highest resolution of any remote sensing technique and GPR-Slice images would aid significantly in excavation. GPR-Slice imaging would be employed on several Commonwealth sites in Skagafjordur (including Glaumbaer) and on two pagan burial grounds. Excavations would follow, allowing us to test the GPR-Slice images and determine their value for future research. More generally, the ability to create accurate subsurface maps of Icelandic buried turf architecture would have a substantial and beneficial effect on archaeological practices in Iceland and in other regions with wet clayey soils. Substantial areas of Iceland are under threat from development and accurate subsurface maps of archaeological deposits would be useful to those agencies in charge of historical preservation. This is especially important since our past work has demonstrated that many of the earliest sites cannot be identified by surface features.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，John Steinberg博士和他的同事将在冰岛北部的Skagafjordur进行为期一季的考古田野工作，以测试探地雷达(GPR-Slice)图像在指导挖掘维京时代保存完好但埋得很深的草皮长屋方面的有效性。直到公元874年，冰岛一直无人居住，当时酋长和富有的农民以及他们的家庭随从开始乘坐敞篷小船抵达冰岛。关于定居点和由此产生的主要社会的描述是以半历史传奇的形式给出的。然而，这些传奇故事在几个关键的社会经济问题上是模棱两可、相互矛盾的，或者是沉默的，这将帮助学者们理解为什么这个主要是维京时代的社会稳定了这么长时间，以及为什么它最终变成了中世纪的庄园国家社会。对定居点的考古调查可以提供有关农庄经济状况的信息，从而有所帮助。不幸的是，冰岛的考古是自相矛盾的：在肥沃的沿海低地，早期的考古遗址很难识别。相反，一旦发现，这些遗址的保存往往很出色。这项资助的研究将专门解决与GPR的这一悖论。这项研究是对美国国家科学基金会资助的一项成功的地下调查的后续行动，该调查确定了一系列以前不为人知的海盗时代遗址。调查结果显示了一个动态的定居模式序列：最初建立大型农庄，然后剥离出较小的农庄，最后许多较大的农庄搬迁地点。在地下调查中发现的地点之一，位于一个名为Glaumbaer的农场，很可能是一个从格陵兰和新大陆回来的家庭的农庄，他们讲述了红人埃里克和他的儿子雷夫的故事。这一发现引起了媒体的高度关注。拟议中的工作是未来挖掘的前奏。草坪结构的挖掘是出了名的困难和耗时。探地雷达具有所有遥感技术中最高的分辨率，探地雷达切片图像将大大有助于挖掘。将在Skagafjordur的几个英联邦遗址(包括Glaumbaer)和两个异教徒墓地使用GPR切片成像。随后将进行挖掘，使我们能够测试探地雷达切片图像，并确定它们对未来研究的价值。更广泛地说，能够为冰岛埋藏的草皮建筑制作准确的地下地图，将对冰岛和其他粘土潮湿地区的考古实践产生重大和有益的影响。冰岛的大部分地区正受到开发的威胁，准确的考古沉积物地下地图将有助于负责历史保护的机构。这一点尤其重要，因为我们过去的工作表明，许多最早的遗址不能通过地表特征来识别。