Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 113

Enduring Impacts: Viking Age Settlement in Iceland and Greenland
Figure 5. Wild and domestic animals in bone assemblages in settlement sites in Iceland and
Greenland.
ularly in Iceland. The animal bone col-
lections from the two southern sites
(Tjarnargata 4 and Herjólfsdalur) are
dominated by seabird species
(Tjarnargata 4 has the only archaeologi-
cally recovered Great Auk specimens in
Iceland), suggesting a wide site catch-
ment consistent with Skallagrímr’s strat-
egy. The site of Tjarnargata 4 also pro-
duced walrus bones, including the
remains of a newbom calf normally asso-
ciated with breeding colonies. Archaic
place names in W-Iceland also suggest
the former presence of now extinct wal-
rus colonies in this part of the country
(Lúðvík Kristjánsson 1986, 91-110). The
two 9th-1 Oth century northern Icelandic
sites are located many hours travel from
the sea, but both contain substantial num-
bers of marine fish bones (mainly gadid,
cod family). Hofstaðir is 200 m from the
Laxá (“Salmon river”) and clearly made
use of this local resource, probably tak-
ing both Brown trout close to the farm-
stead and Atlantic salmon some distance
downstream. Bird bones and concentra-
tions of egg shells suggest predation on
nearby duck nesting colonies. The llth-
12th century layers at Svalbarð near the
shore of Þistilfjörður contain substantial
numbers of seal bones (all P. vitulina,
common or harbor seal), but gadid fish
were apparently a more heavily exploited
resource in this location. Interestingly,
the far inland site of Aðalból (twice as far
inland as Hofstaðir) also contained a few
gadid bones.
The Greenlandic sites show far more
uniform patteming in the use of wild
species, despite their location in Eastern
111