Old Fences and Archeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Models" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fences form distinct patterns and are a prominent feature of most cultural landscapes. Such patterns contain information about people and their relationship with the land. Archeological mapping of extensive Viking Age fences in Iceland highlights the need for a theory of fence construction. How are fences expected to align with topography, soil, and other ecological factors? How are they shaped by purpose, land use, and social interaction? As fences in pastoral settings tend to run along farm boundaries, the collective fence pattern reveals the configuration of farms. The fences in Iceland were built shortly after the colonisation of the island and probably reflect the original land division by the settlers. A settlement process is dynamic, depending on resource level, resource predictability, density of earlier settlers, and topography. Settlement density and property boundaries are determined by costs and benefits leading to strategic behaviours of settlers and produces a settlement pattern which is geometric, equalised, and predictable. Fences also serve seasonal on-farm grazing management, where slope and distance from living quarters are important. The close ties of farm boundaries with population, resource characteristics, and landscape mean that archeological fence patterns hold high potential as a source of information about ancient communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Models   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23373