Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 139

The Visual Archive in Icelandic Archaeology
spatial distribution plots and miscella-
neous other types. All of these are fairly
standard forms of archaeological figures,
yet they are striking in the context of
Icelandic archaeology for their near com-
plete absence. Only two phase plans
occur in the whole of Arbók, only one of
which is a site phase plan of the farm
mound at Bergþórshvoll (1951) - patched
together by Eldjárn decades after
Þórðason's excavations (Figure 15) - the
other of postholes from Sámsstaðir
(1976). There are four spatial distribution
plots (Figure 16), but all occur in the
same paper on Granastaðir (1992); final-
ly there are four miscellaneous other
types, including a schematic stratigraphy
column from excavations at Varmá
(1970), two 'use of space' plans, again
from Granastaðir, and one reconstruction
of the church at Þórarinsstaðir (2000).
It is the paucity of these interpretive
illustrations - especially phase plans and
spatial distribution plots - which is per-
haps the most telling of the nature of
archaeological interpretation in Iceland.
Certainly part of this can be related to the
predominant focus of excavation on sin-
gle period sites and the general scarcity
of finds, yet equally it relates to the theo-
retical basis of the fieldwork, which until
the 1990s, was largely unaffected by
broader theoretical developments within
the discipline, both in Scandinavia and
more generally in northwestem Europe
and North America. Indeed, the majority
of the interpretive images cited above all
derive from a single publication -
Granastaðir by Einarsson (1992). This
paper, which draws from Einarsson's
doctoral thesis published a few years
later (Einarsson 1994), unquestionably
represents a major change in Icelandic
archaeological literature, primarily due to
the explicit adoption of a more theoreti-
cal approach. The only other major
Icelandic publication to figure more
interpretive plans is Hermanns-
Auðardóttir's research at Herjólfdalur,
also based on her doctoral thesis
(Hermanns-Auðardóttir 1989).
Discussion
Pulling all these observations together, a
number of broad trends in archaeological
illustration in Iceland can now be sug-
gested. These observations and statistical
analyses of illustrations in the Árbók
suggest that there are two main shifts in
the nature of archaeological illustration
in Iceland. The first occurs between c.
1890 and 1900, and sees the emergence
of images as technical, scientific records,
not mere illustrative sketches. Largely
through the influence of Bmun (and
Erlingsson), photography is adopted
while images use proper scales and
become fully integrated with the text, not
as appendices. The second major shift
occurs between c. 1940 and 1950 and
sees the concem for a new level of detail
in archaeological imagery - increased
numbers of drawings and especially pho-
tographs of artefacts, a new genre of
image focusing on features, an increase
in drawings of stratigraphic sections and
finally realistic rendering of the details of
stmctures such as stones and walls, all
attest to this focus on detail. How do we
account for these changes without falling
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