Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 36

Raonar Edvardsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Noah Zaoor & Matthew Waxman
lematic as they were probably calculated
at an earlier period, sometime around
AD1100. From the period 1100 to 1706 a
number of things have changed and some
farms may have lost parts of their values.
However, the sources indicate that the
farm values for most farms have
remained the same from their original
calculation. Statistical analysis of the
farm values suggest that they were calcu-
lated from the number of domestic ani-
mals and all benefits that the farm had,
driftwood, stranding, etc. (Edvardsson,
Ragnar, 2003).
The Jarðabók entry reveals some pat-
tems common to much of 18th century
Iceland. A complex pattem of absentee
land ownership was not unusual, in this
case a four tiered structure extending
from the actual occupants up to the King
of Denmark, with a local farmer (Jón
Magnússon from Reykjanes), providing
oversight within the hreppur. Multiple
tenant households within the same farm
were also common in this period, with up
to four sharing the same holding (not
necessarily all occupying the same stmc-
ture). The two tenant households occupy-
ing the farm at Finnbogastaðir in the late
fall of 1706 were clearly of different eco-
nomic (and probably social) status. The
larger household was of Sr. Bjarni
Guðmundsson, the local priest. Sr. Bjami
maintained four servants (both male and
female) as well as his wife and four chil-
dren (it was not uncommon for poor ten-
ants to have still more impoverished
landless servants living in their house-
holds). Sr. Bjami has a mix of milk cows,
wethers, milk ewes, and two horses as
well as younger cattle and sheep appar-
ently being maintained over the winter
with an eye to stock renewal. He also
owned some additional stock maintained
at the nearby church farm Ames. The
smaller household was that of Brandur
Bjömsson, who had only his wife and six
children to support, but who also only
had a single cow and five milk ewes. If
we apply the Friðriksson provisioning
formula, both households appear to have
had a provisioning shortfall: Sr. Bjami
had approximately 5.3 human rations to
maintain his ten household members
while Brandur had only 1.1 human
rations to feed his family of eight. The
households of early 18th century
Finnbogastaðir, like the great majority of
their contemporaries in Vestfirðir, must
have relied on other resources to main-
tain bare subsistence. We are informed
that seal hunting is sometimes successful
and that both households have access to
boats for fishing, but the register typical-
ly makes no attempt to quantify non-agri-
cultural production.
Jarðabók and Zooarchaeology
The bone assemblage recovered from
Finnbogastaðir corresponds in most
respects with the information on stock
keeping provided in the land registry. All
animals mentioned in the registry are
present in the assemblage and the ratio of
cattle to caprine bones (1:9.96) in the
archaeofauna matches the overall ratio of
cattle to sheep in the registry (1:9.43).
The seals mentioned in the entry appear
as bones in the midden, and whalebones
correlate with recorded (disputed)
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