Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 33

Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, Sophia Perdikaris and
Thomas H. McGovern
FISH BONES AND FISHERMEN: THE POTENTIAL OF
ZOOARCHAEOLOGYIN THE WESTFJORDS
The date for the onset of full scale commercial fisheries in Iceland remains some-
what controversial, but thus far the earliest radiocarbon dated seasonal fishing sta-
tion (llth-13th century) is in NW Iceland's Strandasýsla County at Akurvík. This
paper presents a preliminary report of the ongoing analysis of the large archaeo-
fauna from the farm mound at Gjögur, 3 km from Akurvík, places the site of
Gjögur in the wider context of the North West region of Iceland by comparing the
site with the Akurvík archaeofauna, and outlines new methodologies of recon-
structing live fish size and age based on recovered fish bones. Although the
Akurvík site provides a first zooarchaeological look at a Medieval fishing station,
it is the site of Gjögur that would have controlled and integrated Akurvík's catch-
es into the larger regional arena of Northem Iceland, as well as using fishing to
aid the economy of Gjögur itself.
Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, CUNYNorthern Science and Education Center,
Dept of Anthropology and Archaeology, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford
Avenue, Brooklyn NY11210
Sophia Perdikaris, Brooklyn College Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Dept of
Anthropology and Archaeology, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Avenue,
BrooklynNY 11210
Thomas H. McGovern, Hunter College Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Dept. of
Anthropology, Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY10021
Keywords: North West Iceland, North Atlantic, Fishing Farm, Zooarchaeology
Introduction
This paper presents a brief overview of
archaeological excavations in 1990 at the
site of Gjögur, Strandasýsla, NW Iceland,
and presents preliminary results of the
animal bone collections from both the
lower and the upper contexts from
Gjögur as compared with results from
excavation of nearby físhing booths at
Akurvík (Amundsen, et al. 2005 in press,
Krivogorskaya, et al. in press). The sites
of Akurvík and Gjögur have radio-carbon
dates spanning the 12th-15th centuries
A.D., and this paper compares early and
later early medieval contexts of both
sites. The Akurvík site archaeofauna
(animal bone collection) came from two
thick but stratigraphically separate layers
of físh bone associated with two small
turf structures exposed along an 18 m
long erosion face. Stratigraphic evidence
indicates multiple periods of abandon-
ment and re-use of these lightly built
structures, suggesting a seasonal rather
than permanent occupation. The Akurvík
ruins are best interpreted as one of a
series of superimposed seasonal físhing
booths - lightly built structures designed
to temporarily house a boat's crew but
not a farming household (Edvardsson, et
Archaeologia Islandica 4 (2005) 31-50