Primary and Secondary Icelandic Farmsteads

在国家科学基金会的支持下，约翰·斯坦伯格博士、道格拉斯·博伦德博士、布赖恩·达米亚塔博士、保罗·杜伦伯格博士和他们的同事将在冰岛北方的斯卡加峡湾进行为期三个季度的考古实地考察。田野调查的目的是比较维京海盗时代的大小农庄，以了解小型农庄是如何以及为什么从早期和大型农庄中明显细分出来的。 这一细分似乎是一个重要的一部分，创造了大量的经济不平等的后期挪威和中世纪的冰岛。这项研究后续的三个成功的NSF资助的项目：高风险奖，其中调查人员开发的遥感方法，以寻找深埋结构;一个为期两年的项目，其中这些方法被用于在斯卡加峡湾定位以前未知的维京海盗时代的网站;以及一项为期一年的资助，研究人员发现，探地雷达（GPR）可以有效地勾勒出维京海盗时代的草皮结构，为详细的挖掘做准备。这项工作继续与冰岛国家遗产局和斯卡加峡湾民俗博物馆密切协调。 这项工作也将为研究生和本科生的研究提供大量的研究机会。冰岛一直无人居住，直到公元874年，酋长和富裕的农民，沿着他们的家庭随从，开始抵达他们的开放船只。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。对聚落的考古调查可以通过提供有关农庄经济状况的信息来帮助学者理解这一社会变迁。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。 挖掘保存完好的草皮结构是出了名的困难和耗时。 PI的发现，遥感（浅层地球物理技术）使他们能够解决这个矛盾。 这个项目在方法和知识方面的影响超出了冰岛的维京海盗/挪威考古学。 为了有效地挖掘草皮结构，该项目将进一步开发各种在过去几年中被证明有效的浅层地球物理技术。 方法的发展将使学者能够创建准确的地下地图埋草皮建筑。 这些同样精致的技术可以应用于美国和世界各地的许多情况。 在冰岛，它们将对考古实践和保护产生具体和有益的影响：冰岛的大部分地区受到开发的威胁，获得准确的考古沉积地下地图的方法将有助于负责历史保护的机构对受影响地区进行环境评估。 这项应用尤其重要，因为斯坦伯格博士的研究小组过去的工作已经证明，许多最早的网站无法在表面上识别。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. John Steinberg, Douglas Bolender, Brian Damiata, Paul Durrenberger and their colleagues will conduct three seasons of archaeological fieldwork in Skagafjordur, Northern Iceland. The goal of the fieldwork is to compare large and small Viking Age farmsteads in order to understand how and why the smaller farmsteads were apparently subdivided from earlier and larger farmsteads. This subdivision appears to be an important part of the creation of substantial economic inequality of later Norse and Medieval Iceland.This research follows up on three successful NSF-funded projects: a High Risk award with which the investigators developed remote sensing methods to find deeply buried structures; a two-year project with which those methods were used in Skagafjordur to locate previously unknown Viking Age sites; and a one-year grant with which the researchers found that Ground Penetrating Rader (GPR) is effective at outlining Viking Age turf structures in preparation for detailed excavation. The work continues to be closely coordinated with both the National Heritage Agency of Iceland and the Skagafjordur Folk Museum. The work will also provide substantial research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research.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 scholars understand this social change 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. Excavation of well-preserved turf structures is notoriously difficult and time-consuming. The PI's have found that remote sensing (shallow geophysical techniques) allows them to solve this paradox. This project has both methodological and intellectual implications beyond the Viking/Norse archaeology of Iceland. To efficiently excavate turf structures, the project will develop further various shallow geophysical techniques that have proven effective during the past years. The methodological developments would give scholars the ability to create accurate subsurface maps of buried turf architecture. These same refined techniques could be applied in numerous situations in the US and around the world. In Iceland they would have a concrete and beneficial effect on archaeological practices and preservation: substantial areas of Iceland are under threat from development, and a methodology for obtaining accurate subsurface maps of archaeological deposits would help agencies in charge of historical preservation with their environmental assessments of impacted areas. This application is especially important since the past work of Dr. Steinberg's research team has demonstrated that many of the earliest sites cannot be identified on the surface.