SGER: Defining the Center: Exploratory Research at the Efranes-1 site, Western Iceland

在国家科学基金会的支持下，凯文·史密斯将带领一支国际团队进行一个考古研究的实地考察，探索冰岛西部一个新发现的纪念碑遗址。 该网站，Efranes-1，在卫星图像上发现，并在2007年短暂访问，包括ca。7500平方米的连续建筑。 它似乎是北大西洋地区最大的草坪建筑，可能是该地区“纪念性”建筑的独特例子，类似于世界其他地区在国家形成过程中建立的政治中心。国家的起源几个世纪以来一直是争论的主题，然而，冰岛是世界上唯一一个由建立国家的酋长在当代文献中描述工业化前国家形成过程的地区。 这些文本提供了关于酋长们所说的关于他们为什么巩固权力以及冰岛国家如何崛起的独特信息，但冰岛国家形成时期（12 - 13世纪）的考古记录仍然没有得到充分探索。 这一时期的行政中心--它的集会地点--是建国者展示他们的权力并将他们的地区整合成一种新的政治制度的地方，考古学上还没有进行过探索。历史参考资料、地名和考古学线索都表明埃夫拉内斯1号就是这样一个地点：Thverárthing -冰岛最大的前国家政体的集合地，冰岛土著国家的管理节点，1262年，冰岛人将独立权交给挪威国王哈肯四世。 2008年在Efranes-1的实地考察将使用标准的考古遗址评估技术，以（1）记录遗址的范围和地下复杂性，（2）确认其年龄，（3）获得足够的信息，使史密斯的团队能够评估它是否是Thverárthing，以及是否有必要在那里进行更大规模的调查。如果Efranes-1是这个集会的遗址，它具有独特的潜力，可以提供有关中世纪冰岛国家和国家成立前治理的做法和组织的信息，从而平衡土著文本对人物和事件的强调。 总之，文本和考古数据的结合有可能使国家形成的全球模型得到测试和完善，其水平目前在世界其他任何地方都无法获得。 该项目的更广泛影响还将包括学术和社区利益，包括遗址管理/保护工作，公共教育，惠及当地和国际社区的外联部分，以及培训布朗大学和其他地方实地考古学学生的机会。 国家科学基金会的SGER基金在2008年支持试点项目，将测试这个令人兴奋的网站的潜力，实现这些更广泛的目标。

With National Science Foundation support, Kevin Smith will lead an international team in one field season of archaeological research to explore a newly discovered monumental site in western Iceland. The site, Efranes-1, discovered on satellite imagery and briefly visited in 2007, incorporates ca. 7500 m2 of contiguous architecture. It appears to be the largest-known turf-built structure in the North Atlantic and is potentially a unique example of "monumental" construction in that region, analogous to political centers erected during the process of state formation in other regions of the world.The origin of the state has been a subject of debate for centuries, yet Iceland is the only region in the world where the process of pre-industrial state formation was described in contemporary texts by the very chieftains who built their state. These texts provide unique information on what chieftains said about why they consolidated power and how the Icelandic state arose, but Icelands archaeological record for the period of state formation - the 12th-13th centuries - remains under-explored. This period's administrative centers - its assembly sites - where state-founders demonstrated their power and integrated their regions into a new kind of political system, have not been explored archaeologically.Historical references, place-names, and archaeological clues suggest that Efranes-1 was such a site: the Thverárthing - the assembly site for Icelands largest pre-state polity, a governing node in the indigenous Icelandic state, and one of the places where Icelanders relinquished their independence to King Hákon IV of Norway in 1262. Fieldwork at Efranes-1 in 2008 will use standard archaeological site assessment techniques to (1) document the extent and sub-surface complexity of the site, (2) confirm its age, and (3) obtain sufficient information to allow Smith's team to assess whether it is the Thverárthing and if larger-scale investigations are warranted there.If Efranes-1 is the site of this assembly, it has unique potential to provide information on the practice and organization of state and pre-state governance in medieval Iceland that could balance indigenous texts' emphasis on personalities and events. Together, this combination of textual and archaeological data has the potential to allow global models of state formation to be tested and refined at levels currently unavailable anywhere else in the world. The broader impacts of this project will also include academic and community benefits ranging from site management/preservation efforts, public education, outreach components to benefit local and international communities, and opportunities for training students from Brown University and elsewhere in field archaeology. The National Science Foundation's SGER funding in 2008 supports the pilot project that will test this exciting site's potential to realize these broader goals.