The Inequalities of Households – Cemetery Management and Social Change in Early Medieval Iceland

Summary

In AD 1000 Icelanders adopted Christianity in an apparently swift and embracive fashion. The new tradition was implemented by discrete households that built private churches and cemeteries on their farms. These cemeteries were in use until the beginning of the 12th century and interred were all individuals of the household, men and women, the old and the young, householders and servants. The establishment, management, and abandonment sequences of these cemeteries reflect the religious, social, and political transformations that took place at both societal and household levels during the 11th century. A number of these cemeteries have been excavated in Skagafjörður, North Iceland in recent years. This paper examines the resulting funerary and osteological data for evidence of social hierarchies and changes in household structure during the time of their use. The osteological data points to a population subjected to marginal environmental constraints, but the funerary data indicates a people well versed in contemporary European traditions. The internal cemetery management, such as the positioning of burials and the selective removal of individuals from graves, is suggestive of internal social divisions that may infer social inequalities at the wider societal level.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20819