The Importance of Specialized Use Sites in the Settlement History of Iceland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sandvík, located in the Westfjords of Iceland, seems to have been a seasonally utilized site focused primarily on winter fishing and fish processing. The site is situated directly on the coast, quite near to the main farm of Bær, and dates to very early in the settlement period of Iceland, which began around AD 877. Even though it was only used for a short time it may have been visited during other times of the year as well. The marine fish signature at Sandvík indicates that the gadids they caught were being processed into a dried product and sent off elsewhere for consumption. This highlights the importance of such specialized sites for the provisioning of others, especially during the earliest periods of settlement while farms are still being set up. Recent research on similar kinds of sites has shown that, while they may not persist for the long-term, sites such as Sandvík were vital to the process of building up society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36710.0