Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 36

Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, Sophia Perdikaris &THOMAS H. McGovern
Context & Laboratory number Radiocarbon age delta C13 two sigma calibrated date ranqe (AD)
GjögurAU 1 Uppermidden GU 9742 525 +/- 55 BP -21.40% 1300-1400
Gjögur AU 2 Lower midden GU 9743 750 +/- 55 BP -20.40% 1160-1390
Akurvík context 22 (upper) Midden Beta 116969 460 +/- 70 BP -22.50% 1310-1640
Akurvík context 30/31 (lower) hut floor Beta 116971 750+/- 40 BP -16.10% 1210-1380
Akurvík context 24 (lowest) midden Beta 116970 850+/- 70 BP -20.60% 1030-1290
Table 1. AMS Radiocarbon Assay Results, Calibration OxCal 3.9 (Bronk-Ramsey 2003), all
samples caprine bone collagen
llth century (plateau effects again limit
precision).
This preliminary paper reports
samples taken from the lower (early
medieval) and upper (late medieval) lay-
ers at Gjögur contemporary with the
early medieval and late medieval
deposits at the nearby fishing station of
Akurvík. Analysis continues on the large
Gjögur archaeofauna, and some conclu-
sions may be later modified in the fmal
report, but the sample reported here is
substantial, with Number of Identified
Specimens NISP (Grayson 1984) cur-
rently numbering 19,933.
Methods
Analysis of the Gjögur collection was
carried out at the Brooklyn College and
Hunter College Zooarchaeology
Laboratories and made use of extensive
comparative skeletal collections at both
laboratories and the holdings of the
American Museum of Natural History.
The contexts of the two sites used for the
purposes of this paper represent directly
comparable types of deposit (accretional
midden rather than floor layers or short
term specialized dump). All fragments
were identified as far as taxonomically
possible and selected element approach
was not employed. The identifications of
gadids follow the ICAZ Fish Remains
Working Group recommendations (see
Perdikaris, et al. 2004; Cannon 1987;
and Mujib 1967). Following the NABO
Zooarchaeology Working Group recom-
mendations and the established traditions
of North Atlantic zooarchaeology, we
have made a simple identified fragment
count (NISP) the basis for most quantita-
tive presentation. Measurements
(Mitutoyo digimatic, digital caliper) of
fish bones follow Wheeler & Jones
(1989). All collected data was digitally
recorded following the 8th edition
NABONE recording package (Microsoft
Access database supplemented with spe-
cialized Excel spreadsheets). All digital
records, including archival element-by-
element bone records, will be permanent-
ly curated at the National Museum of
Iceland. CD Rom versions of all archived
data are also available on request from
nabo@voicenet.com. All archaeofauna
used for comparisons in this paper were
collected using closely comparable exca-
vation strategy and analyzed using the
same laboratory procedures and data
management programs.
34