Long-term Impact of Settlement Location on Economic Status: A Geospatial Analysis in Skagafjörður, Iceland

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Landscapes Above and Below in Northern Contexts (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Environmental resources are unevenly distributed, but does differential access have long-term effects on relative economic status? During Iceland's settlement in the 9th and 10th centuries, all of the island's agriculturally productive lowlands were claimed by powerful settlers. These large land claims were divided into smaller farm properties over the next few centuries, and the modern landscape is largely reflective of this late medieval settlement pattern. Geospatial and historical data from medieval sources, 18th and 19th century archival documents, and satellite-based land-cover models are used to assess the role of resource distribution in the initial settlement of the Skagafjörður region, and to suggest how farm wealth over the very long term may be related to resource availability within the immediate landscape. Results are contextualized within early modern Iceland's tenancy-based economic system, in which productivity benefited distant landlords more than the tenants who directly farmed the land.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Landscapes Above and Below in Northern Contexts (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology