The Socio-economic Dynamics of Iron Production in Viking Age Northern Iceland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Understanding how an agricultural society organized the production of iron and the trade of farming implements allows us to describe how they managed natural resources and non-agricultural activities as a community. In the North Atlantic region known for its ephemeral material culture, slags and other metal smelting byproducts present a robust category of artifacts which can be analyzed. These materials including ferrous slags and other waste products, are often noted and discarded during survey focused fieldwork. Basic typological analysis allows for the identification of stages of production at a site. When placed into the context of a regional study, the degrees of specialization of sites can be determined. The Skagafjörður Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS) has identified several sites which include materials associated with iron production in the Viking and Medieval periods. This project presents methodologies, results and discussion of artifacts collected across multiple regions in the Skagafjörður Valley in northern Iceland. Results suggest small-scale production at the communal level distributed over the landscape using specialized activity sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24104