Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 22

Ragnar Edvardsson & Thomas H. McGovern
(Hjaltason n.d., 28). Vatnsfjörður owned
this site and thus was in control over the
distribution of this particular resource.
For most of the farms in
Vestfirðir, the marine resources were the
central focus of the economy and agricul-
ture was primarily for subsistence. In
most cases, farmers paid their rent in the
form of dried fish or other marine
products. This is a key element in the
economy of the region as these products
are easily exchanged and the archaeolog-
ical evidence strongly supports the idea
of an "Icelandic market," as marine prod-
ucts are found on sites far inland in vari-
ous places in Iceland (Amundsen et al. in
press).
Vatnsfjörður acquired dried fish,
shark and cod liver oil and driftwood
from its farm holdings located around the
entire Vestfirðir peninsula. The dried fish
and liver oil was probably stocked and
any surplus traded or exchanged with
other farms both within and outside the
Vestfirðir peninsula. Driftwood was
equally important for use in building
houses and boats and more than likely
also being traded or exchanged. It is like-
ly that prior to the 13th century, farms in
Vestfirðir traded marine products for agri-
cultural products with farms outside the
peninsula. In the 13th century, European
markets became available for Icelandic
marine products. This was due to devel-
opments in ship construction as ships
could, at that time, carry a larger cargo
than before which made the export of fish
products more worthwhile. The creation
of merchants' guilds, such as the Hansa,
also played an important role in the
development of the fish trade in the
Vestfirðir area during the Middle Ages
(Nash 1995; Kurtz 1983).
These developments opened a
new chapter in the history of the Vatns-
fjörður farm. The farm was already in a
position of power in the Vestfirðir area,
owning a number of farms and control-
ling land routes in and out of the northem
portion of the peninsula. The farmers paid
their rent in marine products, which now
could be sold directly to the foreign mer-
chants who, more than likely, exchanged
such items for prestige goods and also
paid cash. The base of the economic
power of the Vatnsfjörður farm is there-
fore firmly rooted in the ownership of
farms in the Vestfirðir area, not because of
their agricultural products but because of
the marine products they supplied. In the
13th-15th centuries Vatnsfjörður slowly
increased the number of farms in the area
and at the end of the 15th century most
farms in the peninsula were under direct
control of the Vatnsfjörður family.
Archaeological survey and test
trenches
The goal of the 2003 project was to test
the possibilities for archaeological
research on the site of Vatnsfjörður. The
objective was to survey the entire farm to
locate possible areas for more detailed
investigation. The archaeological survey
was divided into two parts: historical
research and field survey. The aim of the
historical research was to locate refer-
ences to possible sites, which were then
located during the field survey. The his-
torical research found references for 52
sites of which 33 were located during the
field survey (approximately 70%). The
sites that could not be located had disap-
peared as a result of field clearing, road
building and other 20th century constmc-
tion. A few sites were also located during
the field survey that were not mentioned
in the written sources. The majority of
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