Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Qupperneq 60

Frans-Arne Stylegar
also to the transition from thralldom to
tenant farming (Stylegar 2001:30-32).
The same trajectory - i.e. an 'original' set-
tlement structure dominated by large,
complex estate-like settlements - could
be the answer to some of Clouston's
questions regarding the Orkney town-
ships, too, and it is one possible explana-
tion for 'the considerably greater areas'
than single farms being fenced off in
many areas in the Scottish Northem isles.
What is the relevance of all this for the
Icelandic earthworks, then? Well, the
suggested similarities between these
earthworks and the great chains of hill
dykes in W Norway and the Scottish
Northem isles, logically lead to a number
of questions, the answering of which
might help us to throw new light on the
Viking Age and Medieval settlement
structure in Iceland. I will conclude by
asking some of these questions.
Are the perceived similarities
between, on the one hand, the Icelandic
earthworks and, on the other, the great
chains of hill dykes in W Norway and in
Orkney, superfícial, or can they be shown
to be more substantial? And, if the latter
is the case, what kind of settlement stmc-
ture and/or farming system can account
for the similarities? Do the transverse
earthworks represent a younger phase
than the horizontal ones, perhaps indicat-
ing that huge areas originally demarcated
by the horizontal earthworks, were
breaking up? Is it possible that the dyke
systems incorporated whole landnams?
Was the Icelandic landnam society aristo-
cratic and estate-based already from the
outset - and was the 'virgin' landscape of
Iceland organized after Scandinavian,
specifically W Norwegian, models - as I
suspect the Orkney landscape, by no
means a 'virgin' landscape at the time of
the Norse landnam, was (see Stylegar in
press)?
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