North Atlantic Archaeology, Culture, History and Human Ecodynamics

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

The site of Miðbær on the island of Flatey in Breiðafjörður, NW Iceland was test excavated by Thomas Amorosi and Thomas McGovern for the National Museum of Iceland in 1989, producing a column sample from a deeply stratified midden deposit. The initial faunal analysis conducted by Amorosi and McGovern revealed a dominant maritime component with high concentrations of bird, fish, and sea mammal bones. This paper both summarizes this unpublished analysis and adds a more detailed examination...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Megan Hicks. Adolf Fridriksson. Frank Feeley. George Hambrecht. Lilja Palsdottir. Gardar Gudmundsson. Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson.

Excavations have been ongoing at the N. Icelandic farm, Skútustaðir, since 2008 as an outgrowth of the Landscapes of Settlement project. The major objective of the 2011 excavation season at Skútustaðir was to complete the excavation of an already begun, large Trench, Area H (measuring 8.36 x 4 meters) by continuing the excavation down to the natural bedrock surface. This was completed by a four person team from CUNY and FSI directed by Adolf Friðrikson, with Francis Feeley, George Hambrecht and...

DATASET Ramona Harrison.

Myrkardalur access database of 2008 and 2009 faunal remains

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ramona Harrison.

The results of zooarchaeological analysis are presented here, with a very limited discussion on potential site economy. While the ruins visible in the landscape are likely from the medieval period and are reminiscent of medieval corridor houses from Greenland, faunal remains are from a later point in time and indicative of a long term use of this area, at least in terms of structural remains from the early 20th c. still standing. Today, this area is frequented by fox hunters and the land used by...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

Number of Identifiable Species (NISP) Table

DOCUMENT Full-Text Megan Hicks.

The discovery of an intact midden at Skútustaðir’s historic farmstead in 2007 was a key finding for the planned investigation of the medieval and early modern periods in the lake Mývatn area of northern Iceland. The 2009 field season followed a soil coring survey and surface collection in 2007 and the excavation of four test trenches in 2008. Work was carried out by international team of archaeologists (hailing from the City University of New York (CUNY), North Atlantic Biocultural Organization...

DATASET Ramona Harrison.

Access database of faunal remains analyzed from the 2009 excavation.

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ramona Harrison.

This report presents preliminary zooarchaeological results from the Viking Age and medieval midden deposits at the Oddstaðir farm ruins. Beyond providing a long term chronology on site management and farm economy, this site has produced faunal remains dating from the 13th to the late 14th c., contemporaneous with those found at the Gásir trading site and also those from the medieval monastic estate at Möðruvellir. Results from the Oddstaðir faunal analysis are highly valuable and suggest that...

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

HST spreadsheets

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ian Lawson. Mike J. Church. Alex Chepstow-Lusty. Frederick J. Gathorne-Hardy. Anthony J. Newton. Andrew Dugmore. Kevin J. Edwards.

Chapter on the paleoenvironment for the Hofstadir Monograph. Until recently very little was known about the history of environmental change in Myvatnssveit, although many other parts of Iceland have been investigated in some detail, beginning with the work of Sigurður Þórarinsson in the 1940s and Þorleifur Einarsson in the 1950s. Notable multi-disciplinary research at the landscape scale, associated with archaeological excavation, has taken place and is still continuing in Reykholtsdalur in...

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Hofstadir Phasing Information

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

HST spreadsheets

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ramona Harrison. Megan Hicks. Eileen Colligan. Amanda Schreiner.

In 2007 area G of the Eyri site in Ísafjörður, NW Iceland was object of a midden assessment undertaken by the Archaeological Institute of Iceland. The midden mound in area G is associated with the farm mound at Eyri in downtown Ísafjörður. The farm mound was previously trenched for occupational layers in 2003 and 2004 (Taylor et al 2005), yielding an assortment of animal remains that were analyzed in 2005 (Krivogorskaya & McGovern 2005). Upon coring the midden mound to define its edges, assess...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Frank Feeley. Sophia Perdikaris. Megan Hicks. Konrad Smiarowski.

This report is regarding the zooarchaeological remains excavated from Gufuskálar, on the north coast of Snæfellsnes in the west of Iceland, during the summer of 2008. The aim of this research was to investigate three mounds which are believed to be part of the long abandoned Gufuskálar fishing station. The inland farmstead at Gufuskálar has been documented as far back as 1274 and there were upwards of fourteen fishing booths along the coast during the 14th Century. The station was said to have...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Yekaterina Krivogorskaya. Thomas McGovern.

In 2004 a small archaeofauna was collected from a midd deposit in downtown lsafjord in NW Iceland. The species identified comprise the full range of domestic mammals (including a single pig bone), seal, whale, sea bird, and fish. The substantial amounts of domestic mammal bone, including new born sheep and cattle (usually indicating a dairy strategy) strongly st that this midden is associated with a farm and not a specialized fishing station. The collection shows variable bone preservation, but...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Konrad Smiarowski. Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir. Thomas McGovern.

The archaeofauna is still under study, and this report presents only a partial overview of the collection. However, a number of observations can be made at this stage: • The collection has been subject to severe attrition from freeze-thaw cycling and repeated flooding and drying. Only the most dense bone elements survive, and even teeth are badly preserved in some contexts. • While the conditions of preservation will limit the comparative value of the E74 archaeofauna and will probably make a...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern. Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir.

Introduction : This is a preliminary report of the animal bone collected in 2005-06 by international teams led by Ragnar Edvardsson for the Greenland National Museum and Archives (NKA) and NABO. The bone collections come from stratified contexts in the midden area south of the Brattahlið North Farm (E29N under the old Bruun system: now KNK 2629) whose structures were excavated in 1932. Degerbøl (1934) has provided a pioneering and still valuable zooarchaeological report of the early excavations,...

DOCUMENT Full-Text George Hambrecht.

2005 Skalholt Zooarch Report

DOCUMENT Full-Text George Hambrecht.

This report presents results of a preliminary analysis of the archaeofauna at the Episcopal farm of Skálholt, Arnessyslá, southern Iceland. This report presents the preliminary analysis of group 634. Group 634 was a 3X5 meter trench oriented lengthwise north to south opened up on June 28th of 2004 by Birna Lárusdóttir. Further excavation of this group was conducted by George Hambrecht during June of 2005, and a 1x3 meter extension was opened up off of the north end of the initial trench....

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

2006 Skalholt Zooarch Report

DOCUMENT Full-Text Konrad Smiarowski.

The excavation at E47 Gardar took place during the 2012 collaborative fieldwork carried out in a cooperation between the Greenland National Museum and Archives, CUNY, U Stirling, National Museum of Denmark, and the Archaeological Institute Iceland coordinated by the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization research cooperative (NABO www.nabohome.org). In response to initial reports on substantial drainage ditch disturbance by Hans Kapel (Kapel 2005) and the ditch profile cleaning and column...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern. Sophia Perdikaris.

In 2001 the FSĺ / NABO project Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland collected animal bones from a stratified midden deposit associated with the abandoned site Selhagi on the property of the modern farm Haganes. Selhagi is located in the lushly vegetated lakeshore zone and its environmental setting presents a strong contrast with the eroded uplands to the S of the lake where the early sites at Sveigakot and Hrísheimur are under excavation. Close to both major migratory waterfowl nesting...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern. Sophia Perdikaris. Colin Amundsen.

During rescue excavations in downtown Reykjavík in 1999 nearly 100 kg of well-preserved animal bone was recovered in investigations at Tjarnargata 3 C by Fornleifastofnun Islands (FSÍ) directed by Mjöll Snaesdóttir. This bone collection (or archaeofauna) was largely sieved (4 mm and 1 mm mesh wet screen) and represents one of the largest archaeofauna recovered from Iceland to date. Analysis was carried out at City University of New York’s Northern Science & Education Center’s two zooarchaeology...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

Small archaeofauna from two highland sites located above 400 m above sea level, over 100 km inland in the upper reaches of the Skjálfandafljót river valley indicate the early presence of human settlement in this far inland area. While heavily deflated, the site of Undir Sandmúla produced an archaeofauna from stratified context directly above the Landnam sequence tephra, probably dating to the late 9th or early 10th century. This collection is from a highly burnt ”fireplace cleaning” deposit...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern. Ramona Harrison. Seth Brewington. Peter Kuchar.

Small archaeofauna from two highland sites located above 400 m above sea level, over 100 km inland in the upper reaches of the Skjálfandafljót river valley indicate the early presence of human settlement in this far inland area. While heavily deflated, the site of Undir Sandmúla produced an archaeofauna from stratified context directly above the Landnam sequence tephra, probably dating to the late 9th or early 10th century. This collection is from a highly burnt ”fireplace cleaning” deposit...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Seth Brewington. Ramona Harrison.

Report on the Dettifoss archaeofauna

DOCUMENT Full-Text Seth Brewington.

The 2006/7 archaeological excavations at the site of Á Sondum, in the Faroe Islands, produced an archaeofaunal assemblage of 271 bone and shell fragments. Only about half of the heavily fragmented, poorly preserved assemblage was identifiable to species or taxonomic level. Of the species identified, caprines (sheep/goat) are the most numerous, followed by seabirds. The overall poor condition of the assemblage unfortunately prohibits a robust examination of the Sondum domestic economy.

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST Monograph graphics

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

Phasing for contexts from which Tom McGovern has analysed animal bones at Reykholt

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Reykholt faunal spreadsheet

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Reykholt zooarch database

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ramona Harrison.

This report presents results on zooarchaeological analysis from the Möðruvellir Midden Mound, or Öskuhóll, adjacent to the site’s extensive farm mound. Möðruvellir, likely a chieftain’s farm during the Settlement period, became House of Canons/Augustinian Monastery in the late 13th C, and remained an important ecclesiastical center even after the Reformation. Beyond functioning as religious institution, it served as seat for the regional governor for the Danish Crown at least during the Early...

DATASET Ramona Harrison.

Access database

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

IMAGE Thomas McGovern.

HST cattle skull pictures

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Sandmuli database

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Sandmuli zooarchaeological summary

DATASET Thomas McGovern.

Selhagi database

DOCUMENT Full-Text Ramona Harrison.

This report provides initial analysis of the Siglunes faunal collections rescued in 2011 and 2012. Currently, there are limited data sets available, mainly a breakdown of the major taxa, and selected fish elements, all gadids or members of the codfish family, and a majority thereof cod (Gadus morhua). One context from Mound E, 187/184, has been analyzed in its entirety. Radiocarbon Analysis places this context into the 14th c. Analysis of the marine fish remains from this context’s provides a...

DATASET Ramona Harrison.

Access database of currently analyzed Siglunes archaeofauna.

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas McGovern.

2002 Skalholt Excavation Report

DATASET Megan Hicks.

Access database

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Worked bone

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Clay pipe

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Fish hook