Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Side 30

Ragnar Edvardsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Noah Zagor & Matthew Waxman
evidence for the historically documented
shark fisheries carried out in this district
down to recent times (centred on both the
Greenland shark and the larger Basking
shark). Shark bone is soft and cartilagi-
nous and is not preserved in most deposi-
tional contexts, so the low frequency of
identifiable shark remains in this archae-
ofauna need not reflect the actual eco-
nomic importance of shark fishing. In
addition to Greenland shark and wolfíish,
at least two species of flatfish are present.
Most identifiable of these is the Atlantic
halibut, one of the largest of the flatfish-
es. Thomback rays are represented by
teeth only.
Fish skeletal element frequency
The distribution of the different portions
of the fish skeleton recovered from
archaeological sites has been used to
trace inter-regional trade in preserved
fish and to aid the recognition of special-
ized sites producing preserved fish for an
extemal market (Perdikaris 1999). Large
cod-family (gadid) fish are usually
processed by gutting and beheading, and
Fig. 4. Distribution of cod elements at three sites (TJR=Tiarnagata; FBS=Finnbogastaðir;
SVK=Sveigakot.
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