Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 110

Orri Vésteinsson, Thomas H. McGovern, Christian Keller
tury.
Again, both archaeology and paleoe-
cology suggest a rapid, widespread set-
tlement and associated environmental
impact rather than a very gradual expan-
sion from a few early centers. We need to
seek explanations for why a small num-
ber of settlers managed such wide impact
and broad pattern of early occupation.
While more data are always wel-
come, current archaeological and envi-
ronmental evidence contemporary with
the settlement age suggest that something
other than simple population pressure
and resource competition among equal
settlement units produced the rapid dis-
persion of settlement and environmental
impact in Viking Age Iceland and
Greenland. Investigation of patterning
evident in later landscapes may add to
our understanding of the settlement
process but before we tum to the late-
medieval evidence it is useful to consider
the increasingly substantial direct evi-
dence for early subsistence strategies
afforded by zooarchaeological evidence.
Zooarchaeology.
Animal bone collections of useful size
are now available for six 9th - lOth cen-
tury sites in Iceland (Tjamargata 4 in
Reykjavík, Herjólfsdalur in the Westman
Islands, Hofstaðir and Sveigakot near
lake Mývatn, Granastaðir in Eyjafjörður
and Gjögur in Strandir - Amorosi 1992,
1996, Amorosi & McGovern 1994;
McGovern et al. 1998, Tinsley 2001).
Two additional somewhat later llth -
12th century collections are available
from Svalbarð in Þistilfjörður and
Aðalból in the Eastem interior (Amorosi
1992, 1996).
In Greenland, three settlement period
(llth - 12th century) collections are now
available, with a fourth very important
new early collection from GUS under
study (Andreasen & Ameborg 1992).
These include an early site at 017a in
modern Narsaq in the Eastem Settlement
area (in modem Qaqortoq & Narsaq dis-
tricts - McGovern et al. 1993), midden
deposits at the large site W51 Sandnes
and the very small site W48 in the
Western Settlement (Modern Nuuk
District -McGovern et al. 1996,
McGovern et al. 1983, Vebæk 1992,
1993).
These early Icelandic and
Greenlandic bone collections may be
usefully compared to the early Viking
period (8th-9th c.) deposits at the rich site
of Áker near Hamar in southem Norway
(Perdikaris 1997). This elite farmsite is
associated with graves producing jewelry
of the highest quality, and it is probably
fair to say that this was the sort of estate
that every Viking-Age landnámsman
would like to have owned. These
Norwegian data may thus provide a con-
crete example of at least one concept of
“model farm” that would have been in
the minds of the hopeful first settlers of
the North Atlantic.
As Figure 4 indicates, the domestic
mammal collections show consistent
broad similarities in species composition:
all are made up of cattle, caprines, pig
and horse, sometimes with traces of dog
and cat remains as well. The 8th-9th cen-
tury southern Norwegian site is particu-
larly rich in cattle and pig bones, with
caprine remains coming in third. The
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