Preliminary Assessment of the faunal remains from the 2007 Midden Excavation in Eyri, Westfjords

Summary

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 its depth, and sample its contents, a large trench (15 m2) was opened up to allow for open area excavation (Lucas 2003). Members of FSÍ and CUNY New York collaborated on the midden assessment. The 2007 midden excavation yielded a generous amount of animal bones, domestic and wild. Bone preservation ranges from good to excellent and the large fish proportion is slightly more varied than witnessed from roughly contemporaneous faunal collections (i.e. Harrison et al 2007, Hambrecht 2006). All the bone materials discussed in this preliminary report were from one context (1045). The total weight of this context’s archaeofauna was more than 11 kg. This archaeofauna can be placed into the early modern period; it very likely stems from the 19th century, the last century of Eyri farm occupation, as was discussed in the excavation report for the test trenching at the Eyri farm mound (Taylor et al 2005).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Eyri

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Ramona Harrison

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