Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 35

Fish Bones and Fishermen: The Potential of Zooarchaeology in the Westfjords
Phasing of the Gjögur Midden
Even though structures on the farm
mound at Gjögur itself were reportedly
occupied down to 1860, the portion of
the midden excavated in 1990 does not
appear to extend into the early modem
period. The absence of characteristic
17th-19th century Icelandic artifacts such
as imported pottery, glass and clay pipes,
which were recovered in substantial
numbers at a nearby farm excavation at
Finnbogastaðir (Perdikaris, et al., 2003;
Edvardsson et al., 2004) combined with
the calibrated range of the upper AMS
radiocarbon date suggest a late 15th or
early 16th century terminus date for sig-
nificant refuse deposition on this area of
the site. A composite bone comb side-
plate post-dating ca. AD 1200 was
encountered in a context (SU 43) approx-
imately in the middle of the 1990 expo-
sure. Near the bottom of the excavated
profile (still ca. 80 cm above the non-cul-
tural surface) a base shard of a rounded
steatite vessel was recovered from con-
text SU 60. While steatite artifacts of
this sort are usually associated with
Viking Age occupations in Iceland, some
later imports are known and it is also
quite possible that this battered fragment
is residual evidence of earlier occupation
of the site. Other artifacts recovered
(worked whalebone, whetstones, iron
nails) are not temporally diagnostic. The
available radiocarbon dates and artifact
assemblage thus suggest that the lower
parts of the exposed midden deposit date
to the 13th century and earlier, while the
upper layers are mainly 14th and 15th
century in date. For the purpose of this
paper, the excavated stratigraphic units
(layers) at Gjögur are broken down into 2
analytical units (AU, phases): upper and
lower, with respective radiocarbon dates
listed in Table 1 and graphed in Figure 1.
As Figure 1 illustrates, the upper phases
of both Gjögur and Akurvík are probably
directly contemporary (despite some cal-
ibration plateau effects) and that the
lower excavated phase (AU 2) at Gjögur
is likewise approximately contemporary
with the lower layers at Akurvík,
although the basal layer at Akurvík (con-
text 24) may possibly extend into the
AnTEphericcÖafrcmStdveretá. (1996); OCd \a9B-crkRamsey(2003); abr:4sd12prcbusrictTcn]
Gjogur 1 ' 1 T
qu9742 525±55BP > ^
gu9743 750+55BP

Akurvik
Beta 116969 460±70BP
Beta 116971 750±40BP Bétá 116970 850+70BP 7^
250CalAD 500CalAD 750CalAD 1000CalAD 1250CalAD 1500CalAD 1750CalAD
Calibrated date
Figure 1. Distribution graph of calibrated radiocarbon dates from Akurvík and Gjögur. Note that
the basal date for SU 24 (Beta 116970) atAkurvik is potentially substantially older than the cur-
rent basal date for Gjögur (GU 9743). Beta 11971 dates floor layers of a booth directly above
the basal SU 24 midden.
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