Preliminary Report of Archaeological Fieldwork at Svalbard (Svalbardshreppur), 2008 (field report)

Summary

This document is a preliminary report of archaeological fieldwork conducted at

and around the farm of Svalbard, Svalbardshreppur, in June 2008. An initial

evaluation of the archaeological potential of Svalbard was made by archaeologists of

the Iceland Palaeoeconomy Project (IPP) in 1986, revealing the presence of deep

midden deposits adjacent to the extant farm mound, on the bank of the bank of the

Svalbarsa River. Test excavations and then large scale excavations of this midden

were undertaken in successive projects in 1986 and 1988. The Svalbard project

yielded one of the largest faunal collections yet recovered in Iceland, the initial

analysis of which was instrumental in the development of methods and models of

reconstructing palaeoeconomies, landscape history and human-environment

interactions in the North Atlantic region. Since 1988, however, North Atlantic

archaeology has benefited from ongoing developments in palaeoclimatology,

palaeoenvironmental studies, tephrachronological dating, fieldwork methodologies

and a tremendous number of new survey and site-oriented field projects which have

brought new, data-rich regional perspectives on landscape change, subsistence and

social movements. While north Iceland has seen particular emphasis in these new

projects, the bulk of this work has been carried out in the Myvatn, Eyjafjordur and the

Westfjords regions. Despite the ambitious start made by the IPP project, the northeasternmost extremities of Iceland (Thistilfjordur, Oxarfjordur and Melrakasletta) have

seen little ongoing archaeological research and Svalbard remains the sole major site

excavated the region.

Due to its greater exposure and vulnerability to arctic climatic influences (air

masses, currents and sea ice, for example) relative to other parts of Iceland, the

extreme northeast remains an ideal region in which to examine human-environment

interactions, such as Little Ice Age climatic impacts on subsistence economies.

Furthermore, the diversity of economic activities based on the extraction or collection

of local biological resources, ranging from stock raising and dairying, to cod fishing,

to seal and sea bird harvesting practised at Svalbard possibly indicates an interesting

capacity for diverse adaptations to environmental variations through employment of

alternative economic strategies. With this in perspective, a new round of fieldwork

was conducted at Svalbard in 2008, intending to refine the stratigraphy and dating of

the midden excavated in 1987 and 1988, to gather new radiocarbon,

geoarchaeological and ecofact samples to supplement landscape history and site

formation reconstructions for the site and for the Svalbard region, and to identify

potential locations for further archaeological archaeological research.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Jim Woollett

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