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

在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方的斯卡加峡湾进行一个季节的考古实地考察，以测试探地雷达的有效性（GPR-Slice）图像，用于指导发掘保存完好但埋藏较深的维京海盗时代的草皮长屋。冰岛直到公元874年才有人居住，当时酋长和富裕的农民，沿着他们的家庭随从，开始乘坐他们的敞篷船到达。 关于定居点和由此产生的主要社会的描述都是半历史性的传奇。 然而，这些传奇故事在一些关键的社会经济问题上模棱两可、自相矛盾或保持沉默，这些问题有助于学者理解为什么这个维京海盗时代的主要社会能稳定这么长时间，以及为什么它最终变成了中世纪的庄园制国家社会。 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确定。 相反，一旦发现，这些遗址的保护往往是突出的。 这项研究是在国家科学基金会资助的一项成功的地下调查的基础上进行的，该调查确定了一系列以前未知的维京海盗时代遗址。 调查结果表明，一个动态的解决模式序列：大农场最初成立，然后他们后来剥离较小的农场，最后这些较大的农场移动的位置。 在地下调查期间发现的一个地点，在一个名为Glaumbaer的农场，可能是从格陵兰岛和新世界回来的家庭的农场，并讲述了Erik The Red和他的儿子Leif的故事。 这一发现引起了媒体的广泛关注。这项拟议中的工作是未来挖掘工作的前奏。 草皮结构的挖掘是众所周知的困难和耗时。 探地雷达具有任何遥感技术中最高的分辨率，而探地雷达切片图像将大大有助于挖掘。 GPR-Slice成像将用于斯卡加峡湾（包括Glaumbaer）的几个英联邦遗址和两个异教徒墓地。 随后将进行验证，使我们能够测试GPR-Slice图像并确定其对未来研究的价值。更一般地说，创建冰岛埋藏草皮建筑的准确地下地图的能力将对冰岛和其他潮湿粘土地区的考古实践产生重大而有益的影响。 冰岛的大部分地区都受到开发的威胁，准确的地下考古沉积地图对负责历史保护的机构很有用。 这一点尤其重要，因为我们过去的工作已经表明，许多最早的网站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.