Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2004, Side 106

Steindór Steindórsson (1950) Akuryrkja á Íslandi í fornöld og fyrr á öldum. Prentverk Odds
Björnssonar h/f,Akureyri.
Sunnlenskar byggðir VI Skaftárþing (1985) Hvammshreppur. Búnaðarsamband Suðurlands.
Þorleifur Einarsson (1961) Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen zur spät- und postglazialen
Klimageschichte Islands. Sonder veröffentlichungen des Geologischen Institutes der
Universität Köln 6.
Summary
There is convincing evidence that arable agriculture was a part of the subsistence economy
of the first settlers in Iceland; and it is generally accepted that cultivation of barley, believed
to have been the only cereal crop grown, was practised from very early on until it stopped,
due to deteriorating climatic conditions, in the 14th century. The evidence for barley
cultivation derives from four main sources: 1. written sources: a. the Sagas; b. contemporary
texts: Sturlunga, cartularies, deeds; 2. place names; 3. the palynological record (Hordeum
type pollen); 4. the archaeological record (e.g. plant macro remains). We lack, however,
knowledge of many aspects of early barley cultivation in Iceland. It is, for example, not
clear, given the country´s geographical location and its climatic condition, how reliable a
food source locally grown barley was and thus how large a component of the subsistence
economy it was. Our knowledge of the intensity of this cultivation through the almost six
centuries it is believed to have lasted is also limited.
In 1999 a research project was started which had two main aims: firstly, to shed light
on arable activities in the early agricultural history of Iceland by investigating four
alleged ancient barley fields in the south and south-west of the country, to date them and
establish if barley had indeed been grown in those fields. Secondly, the aim was to test a
set of research methods for archaeological investigation.The research design involved an
archaeological investigation, remote sensing and aerial photography, tephrochronological
dating, palynological and micromorphological investigation and soil chemical analysis.
The CENTURY agro-ecosystem model was used to examine turnover of key soil
macronutrients in relation to the potential grain yields of landrace barley for the fields
examined.
Alleged barley fields in Iceland broadly fall into two categories based on morpho-
logical features and their setting in the landscape. On the one hand there are fields
located on flatland and on the other hand there are fields on south-facing, often terraced
slopes. It was decided to investigate two alleged fields from each category. A prerequisite
for site selection was that there were visible surface features present and that a source,
either a place name, written records, e.g. cartularies, or oral tradition, indicated an arable
field. The sites selected, all located in the south and south-west of Iceland, were the
following:Akurey (akur meaning arable field), an island near Reykjavik, and a home field
at the farm Hólavellir representing the flatland category on the one hand and home fields
at the farms Ketilsstaðir and Fagridalur representing the fields located on south facing
slopes on the other.
Each site was surveyed and accurate contour models built from Differential GPS
measurements and aerial photographs in order to register surface features that could be
used to identify similar sites.Trial trenches were excavated at each site to study soil and
tephra layers and to facilitate sampling of soils for palynological, micromorphological and
chemical analyses.
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