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考古队进行一季的实地考古研究，探索冰岛西部一处新发现的纪念性遗址。这个名为Efranes-1的地点是在卫星图像上发现的，并于2007年短暂参观过，它包含了大约7500平方米的连续建筑。它似乎是北大西洋已知的最大的草皮建筑，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。几个世纪以来，国家的起源一直是一个争论的话题，但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前工业化国家形成过程的地区。这些文字提供了酋长们关于他们为何巩固权力以及冰岛国家如何形成的独特信息，但冰岛关于国家形成时期（12 -13世纪）的考古记录仍未得到充分探索。这一时期的行政中心——它的集会地点——国家的缔造者在这里展示了他们的权力，并将他们的地区整合成一种新的政治体系，考古学上还没有对这些地方进行过探索。历史参考文献、地名和考古线索表明，Efranes-1就是这样一个地点：Thverárthing——冰岛最大的建国前政体的集合地点，冰岛本土国家的统治节点，也是冰岛人在1262年向挪威国王Hákon四世放弃独立的地方之一。2008年在Efranes-1的实地考察将使用标准的考古遗址评估技术来(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，以及是否有必要进行更大规模的调查。如果Efranes-1是这次集会的地点，它具有独特的潜力，可以提供中世纪冰岛国家实践和组织以及国家前治理的信息，可以平衡土著文本对人物和事件的强调。这种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改进，其水平目前在世界上任何其他地方都无法获得。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、有益于当地和国际社区的外展组成部分，以及为布朗大学和其他地方的学生提供实地考古培训的机会。2008年，美国国家科学基金会的SGER基金支持了这个试点项目，该项目将测试这个令人兴奋的地点实现这些更广泛目标的潜力。

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Historical references, place-names, and archaeological clues suggest that Efranes-1 was such a site: the Thverárthing - the assembly site for Icelands largest pre-state polity, a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.