Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2004, Page 131

Wood, Raymond og Donald Johnson,A survey of disturbance processes in archaeological
site formation, in M. B. Schiffer (ritstj.), Advances in archaeological method and theory 1:
315-381. New York:Academic Press, 1978.
Summary
In this article, we describe the methods and results of the first two years of the Skagafjörður
Archaeological Settlement survey (SASS).The rapid settlement of Iceland and the political
and economic changes that follow make the early society an important case study for the
development of social complexity. Reconstructing settlement patterns of Viking Age
Iceland is challenging because there are few surface artifacts and no native pottery to mark
the location of unobtrusive remains.Therefore, site identification primarily depends on the
surface preservation of architectural remains and dating sites usually requires excavation.
Unfortunately, Iceland has undergone extensive land modification (e.g., mudslides,
flooding, cryoturbation, land leveling, soil erosion and, most importantly, aeolian soil
deposition) which often obscures the earliest remains. The primary goal of the SASS
project was to address these survey biases with intensive sub-surface remote sensing in an
attempt to make settlement pattern analysis more reliable and productive.
The SASS project has developed a protocol of coring, remote sensing and test
excavation that, while slow, substantially reduces survey biases.We used soil samplers and
hand-augers to identify areas of deep soil and obtain information for environmental
reconstructions. In areas of deep soil, where archaeological remains might be preserved
beneath the present surface, we used a conductivity meter to identify linear low
conductivity anomalies, characteristic of the early turf walls. Identified anomalies were
then explored with a power auger and confirmed turf walls were then further explored
with a resistivity meter.
While we have only intensively surveyed a very small region of Skagafjörður, the
results are suggestive of significant changes in household organization and property in the
first 200 years following the settlement.The settlement pattern results suggest that from
the settlement in 874 AD until 1000, large farms were widely dispersed across the
landscape with little hierarchy among sites. Between 1000 and 1100 AD, small farms were
established around the pre-existing larger farms resulting in a two-tiered settlement
hierarchy. Finally, in about 1100 AD early large farms shift to new locations, where they
remained until the 20th century. One result of this pattern is that many of the original
Viking Age occupations are currently under modern homefields where they are at
substantial risk from farming activity. Overall, we find that it is essential for both research
and cultural heritage management to produce unbiased settlement patterns and we have
found that sub-surface survey must be a large component of such reconnaissance.
130 ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS