Chiefdom to Manor: An archaeological settlement survey of Viking Age and Medieval Skagafjordur, Iceland

在国家科学基金会的支持下，John Steinberg博士和他的同事们将在冰岛北部的Skagafjordur地区进行为期两个季节的考古田野工作。田野调查的目标是调查这个重要的冰岛峡湾山谷五个地区的26个农场，以了解从维京时代到丹麦统治早期(公元874-1800年)定居模式的变化。在此期间，冰岛从一个酋长制度转变为一个庄园组织，并入了更大的挪威国家。这项研究试图勾勒出这一转变所涉及的因素和时机。具体地说，Skagafjordur考古聚落调查(SASS)将跟踪选定的农场900年来的情况，以评估每个农场在建筑结构和经济潜力方面的变化。这项工作的结果将是对家庭经济的考古特征，然后可以与书面资料中描述的更大的、有文件记录的政治经济学有关。记载于13世纪的中世纪传奇描述了冰岛殖民地(公元874-930年)和英联邦(公元930-1264年)的事件。在中世纪晚期(1264-1500)和丹麦时期(1500-1800)，一系列税务记录说明了庄园组织的许多情况。在殖民地和联邦时期，冰岛的社会结构从各自拥有大片领土的自治农民的集合，到全国范围内的酋长大会，最后变成国家。在这段时间里，气候变得更加多变和凉爽。与此同时，过度放牧和森林砍伐破坏了相当大比例的生产性土地。中世纪和丹麦时期见证了庄园制度的兴衰。在我们的研究区域，H-LAR主教和其他教会组织拥有超过65%的农场。这位独立的农民，在第一时期地方酋长的拉拢下，最终成为了土地上的农奴。虽然消息来源告诉我们谁成功了，谁失败了，但他们没有告诉我们为什么。这些时期的大多数建筑都是用草皮建造的，现在埋在被风吹得很深的沉积物中，因此几乎不可能系统地识别它们。1999年，斯坦伯格博士由美国国家科学基金会资助的“高风险实验研究”利用电磁遥感技术解决了这些考古问题。研究表明，特定的电导率特征表明，维京时代的房屋埋得很深，有时保存得很好。一旦这些埋藏的结构被定位，用火山特弗拉层序列来确定它们的建造时间是例行公事。如果这些传说是正确的，定居时代冰岛是相对较少的在没有强大中央政府的情况下形成产权的例子之一。另一个值得注意的例子是1849-1852年的加州(在它成为一个州之前)，当时矿工组成了地区。解决埋藏的草皮结构问题使冰岛得以审视从最初的财产权形成到酋长领地的发展到并入挪威国家所发生的人口变化。SASS项目收集的考古数据将使学者们更好地了解成为第一个解决景观的优势，农场经济潜力对政治成功的重要性，以及主要和庄园制度崩溃时土地和劳动力比率的变化。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. John Steinberg and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological fieldwork in the Skagafjordur region of Northern Iceland. The goal of the fieldwork is to survey 26 farms in five areas of this important Icelandic fjord valley to understand the changes in the settlement pattern from the Viking Age through Early Danish Rule (AD 874-1800). Over this period, Iceland was transformed from a system of chiefdoms to a manorial organization incorporated into the larger Norwegian State. The research seeks to outline the factors and timing involved in this transition. Specifically, the Skagafjordur Archaeological Settlement Survey (SASS) will track the selected farms over 900 years to assess the variation in building construction and the economic potential of each farm. The result of this work will be an archaeological characterization of the household economy, which can then be related to the larger, documented, political economy described in the written sources. The Medieval sagas, written down in the 13th century, describe the events of the Settlement of Iceland (AD 874-930) and of the Commonwealth (AD 930-1264). For the Late Medieval (1264-1500) and Danish periods (1500-1800) a series of tax records tell much about the manorial organization. During the Settlement and Commonwealth periods, Icelandic social structure changed from a collection of autonomous farmers who each held large territories, to a nationwide assembly of chieftains, and finally to state. Over this period, the climate became more variable and cooler. At the same time, overgrazing and forest clearance destroyed a substantial percentage of the productive land. The Medieval and Danish periods saw the rise and fall of the manorial system. In our study area, the Bishopric of H-lar and other church organizations owned upwards of 65% of the farms. The independent farmer, wooed by the local chieftains of the first period, ended up a serf on the land. While the sources tell us who was successful and who failed, they do not tell us why. Most buildings from these periods were constructed of turf and are now buried in deep wind-blown deposits, thereby making them almost impossible to identify systematically. In 1999, Dr. Steinberg's NSF-funded "High Risk Experimental Research" addressed these archaeological problems with electro-magnetic remote sensing techniques. The research showed that specific electrical conductivity signatures signaled deeply buried and sometimes well preserved Viking Age houses. Once these buried structures are located, dating their construction with the sequence of volcanic tephra layers is routine. If the sagas are correct, Settlement Age Iceland is one of the relatively few examples of the formation of property rights without the presence of a strong central government. The other notable example is that of 1849-1852 California (before it became a state) when miners formed districts. Solving the buried-turf-structure problem opens up Iceland to the examination of the demographic changes that took place from the initial formation of property rights, through the development of chiefdoms, and to the incorporation into the Norwegian State. The archaeological data gathered by the SASS project will allow scholars to better understand the advantages of being the first to settle a landscape, the importance of farm economic potential for political success, and the changing ratio of land and labor to the fall of the chiefly and manorial systems.