Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 122

Orri Vésteinsson, Thomas H. McGovern, Christian Keller
Model of three main types of
settlement in lceland
□ Large complex settlements
O Large simple settlements
O Planned settlements
Figl. 9. Schematic representation of the three
principal types of settlement in Iceland.
centuries. The three types are large com-
plex settlements, large simple settlements
and planned settlements. In the follow-
ing discussion a settlement is seen as
consisting of a number of households
which can be independent farms (imply-
ing ownership or at least control over the
holding) or cottages, which often were
periodically deserted; were always occu-
pied by tenants and were not considered
as units which could be bought or inher-
ited independently of the farm of which
they formed a part.
Large complex settlements.
Settlements dominating land which was
not forested at the time of the landnám
and which has rich meadows have as a
rule also access to a wide range of other
resources. They tend to own upland pas-
ture as well as lowland meadow, either as
a single continuous holding or as
detached segments. They also tend to
have access to at least one form of hunt-
ing (seals, marine- or freshwater fish,
birds) and gathering (eggs, kelp, edible
grasses) and have a good water and fuel
(wood, peat) supply. Properties of this
type are as a rule made up of a number of
households and in the Late Middle Ages
they appear either as large estates with a
single central (often quite complex)
household and a number of cottages clus-
tered around it and others scattered about
the edges of the property, or as a cluster
of middle-sized or even small properties
each with a single household which as a
rule have good conditions for cattle farm-
ing but may have limited access to other
resources. The large estates were nor-
mally the political centers in their areas,
usually occupied by a chieftain or at least
an independent farmer of local impor-
tance and they tended to have a parish-
church associated with them serving as
the focus of the local community. The
clusters of small or middle-sized proper-
ties found in some wetland areas are
rarely associated with political influence
but they are sometimes bordered by
smaller estates with parish-churches.
Large simple settlements.
These smaller estates represent the sec-
ond type of settlement. That is large hold-
ings with a smaller number of house-
holds than the large estates and clusters
of farms, but with reasonable access to
resources, although usually not as varied
as the large estates. Commonly they
have much less meadow, especially high
quality meadow, but they often have very
large areas of other pasture. This sort of
holding tends to occupy land which will
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