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

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，约翰·斯坦伯格博士和他的同事们将在冰岛北部的斯卡加夫约杜尔进行一季的考古实地考察，以测试探地雷达（GPR-Slice）图像的有效性，以指导挖掘保存完好但深埋的维京时代草皮长房屋。直到公元874年，当酋长和富有的农民以及他们的家庭随从开始乘坐他们的敞船到达冰岛时，冰岛才有人居住。关于定居和由此产生的主要社会的记述都是半历史的传奇故事。然而，这些传奇故事在几个关键的社会经济问题上模棱两可、矛盾或沉默，这些问题将有助于学者理解为什么维京时代的主要社会能够稳定如此之久，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场经济状况的信息。不幸的是，冰岛的考古学是自相矛盾的：在肥沃的沿海低地，早期的考古遗址很难辨认。相反，一旦被发现，这些遗址的保存往往是杰出的。受资助的研究将专门利用探地雷达解决这一矛盾。这项研究是在美国国家科学基金会资助的一项成功的地下调查之后进行的，该调查确定了一系列以前不为人知的维京时代遗址。调查结果显示了一个动态的定居模式序列：最初建立了大的农场，然后它们分离出较小的农场，最后许多大农场迁移了地方。在地下调查中发现的一个地点，在一个叫格劳姆贝尔的农场，可能是从格陵兰岛和新世界回来的那个家庭的农场，他们讲述了红色埃里克和他的儿子雷夫的故事。这一发现受到了媒体的广泛关注。拟议的工作是未来挖掘的前奏。挖掘草皮结构是出了名的困难和耗时。探地雷达是所有遥感技术中分辨率最高的，探地雷达切片图像对挖掘有重要的帮助。gpr切片成像将被用于斯卡加夫约杜尔的几个英联邦遗址（包括格劳姆贝尔）和两个异教徒的墓地。随后将进行挖掘，使我们能够测试gpr切片图像并确定它们对未来研究的价值。更一般地说，能够绘制冰岛埋藏草皮建筑的精确地下地图，将对冰岛和其他潮湿粘土土壤地区的考古实践产生实质性和有益的影响。冰岛的大片地区正受到开发的威胁，考古沉积物的准确地下地图将对那些负责历史保存的机构有用。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表面特征来识别。

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.