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·史密斯将带领一个国际团队在一个考古研究季节探索冰岛西部一处新发现的纪念碑遗址。该遗址名为Efres-1，是在卫星图像上发现的，并在2007年短暂访问过，包含了大约7500平方米的毗连建筑。它似乎是北大西洋已知的最大的草皮建筑，也是该地区独一无二的“纪念性”建筑，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在当代文献中描述了前工业化国家形成过程的地区，正是建立国家的酋长们描述了这一过程。这些文献提供了关于酋长们关于他们为什么巩固权力以及冰岛国家是如何产生的独特信息，但冰岛关于国家形成时期-12-13世纪-的考古记录仍然没有得到充分的发掘。这一时期的行政中心--它的集结地--国家缔造者展示他们的权力并将他们的地区整合为一种新的政治制度的地方，还没有被考古探索过。历史记载、地名和考古线索表明，Efres-1就是这样一个遗址：Thverárthing-冰岛最大的前国家政体的集结地，冰岛本土国家的统治节点，也是1262年冰岛人向挪威国王哈孔四世放弃独立的地方之一。2008年在Efres-1的实地工作将使用标准的考古遗址评估技术来(1)记录该遗址的范围和地下复杂性，(2)确认其年代，以及(3)获得足够的信息，以使Smith的团队能够评估它是否是Thverárthing，以及是否需要在那里进行更大规模的调查。如果Efres-1是这次大会的地点，它具有独特的潜力，提供关于中世纪冰岛国家和国家前治理的实践和组织的信息，可以平衡土著文本对人物和事件的重视。结合考古学和考古学的数据，有可能在目前世界其他地方无法获得的水平上测试和改进全球国家形成模型。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宣传部分，以及培训布朗大学和其他地方的学生实地考古的机会。美国国家科学基金会2008年的SGER资金支持这个试点项目，该项目将测试这个令人兴奋的网站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Historical references, place-names, and archaeological clues suggest that Efranes-1 was such a site: the Thverárthing - the assembly site for Icelands largest pre-state polity, a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.