Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 32

Ragnar Edvardsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Noah Zagor & Matthew Waxman
(TJR) and from lOth-llth century
deposits from the rural farm site
Sveigakot (SVK). The Tjamargata 3c
deposits are defínitely the refuse of a
fully commercial fishery in large-scale
production of cod for export (mainly as
stockfish) and show a full range of skele-
tal elements with a predominance of
bones from the head and jaws (Perdikaris
et al 2002). The Sveigakot (SVK) cod
bone collection comes from an inland
site nearly 60 km from the shore, and
lacks any jaw or upper head bones. The
Sveigakot collection is made up entirely
of vertebrae and the bones around the gill
slit (mainly cleithmm) which are usually
left in preserved fish to hold the body
together (Barrett et al. 2001, Perdikaris et
al 2003, Nicholson 1998). The deposi-
tional pattern of cod bones at
Finnbogastaðir (FBS) appears far closer
to the 18th-19th century Tjamargata pat-
tem, with a full range of cranial bones
present, as might be expected in a site
close to the shore.
The distribution of vertebrae recov-
ered can also shed light on the disposi-
tion of físh bodies once separated from
their heads (a complete skeleton would
show equal height bars for all vertebrae).
Figure 5 again compares the same three
sites. The consumer's site at inland
Sveigakot clearly shows a surplus of
lower tail (caudal) vertebrae relative to
upper vertebrae (pre-caudal and tho-
racic). The two early modem coastal sites
show the reverse pattem of an apparent
surplus of upper vertebrae and shortage
of lower tail vertebrae normally exported
in a preserved físh (either as dried stock-
fish or split salt físh). If the inland
Sveigakot archaeofauna shows a "con-
sumer's profile" (more lower body verte-
brae, no head bones), both the
Finnbogastaðir and Tjarnargata 3c
archaeofauna show a "producer's profíle"
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