Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 54

Ragnar Edvardsson
tant decline in agricultural production of
the period as farmers lost many of their
farmhands to the growing fishing indus-
try. Shortly after 1400 plagues and
famines caused a major decline in popu-
lation making farmland available for the
poor and landless. People moved again,
this time from the shoreline to abandoned
farms inland, reversing the cycle thus
causing fishing to decline. In the 16th
and early 17th centuries the fishing
industry increased yet again but shortly
before the end of the 17th century it fell
into decline and did not begin to
strengthen until the late 19th century
(Þorsteinsson 1965; Jóhannesson 1965).
The pattem presented here has encour-
aged the belief that the entire Icelandic
society was based solely on agriculture
and that there were no real differences in
income between regions. It furthermore
suggests that Icelanders in general pre-
ferred agriculture over fishing and when
land became available they abandoned
fishing for farming.
It cannot be denied that fishing
in open boats in the North Atlantic is
much more hazardous than farming; thus
it is likely that many would have pre-
ferred to fárm than fish. However, agri-
culture is not feasible everywhere in the
country and in some cases it could not
sustain entire households on its own.
Fishing was, therefore, a major econom-
ic factor for subsistence in some areas of
Iceland in the Middle Ages and in the late
Middle Ages it became even more impor-
tant, both socially and politically, and
remained so at least until the 17th centu-
ry-
It is extremely difficult to get a
clear picture of the Icelandic economy
and society prior to the 18th century. The
reason for this is partially due to the one-
sided view of the written sources, which
makes it nearly impossible to detect any
clear evidence for regional economic
differences. In this respect, archaeology
is of great assistance but unfortunately,
too few sites have been excavated
exploring this issue and those that have
are mostly sites that belonged to the
upper classe of Icelandic society. How-
ever, in the last decade archaeologists
have begun paying more attention to
different sites and the results are most
promising.
It is nevertheless still possible to
use some of the 18th century written
sources to find evidence of an earlier eco-
nomic system. In the 18th century the
social and economic structures that had
been created in the period between 900
and 1200, were still in existence in some
form. While these structures probably
had changed throughout the period,
nonetheless some aspects were still very
much in use and therefore can be identi-
fied. For example, the written sources
clearly show that the value system for
farms had changed little from its original
creation in the 11 th-12th centuries (D.I.
I-XII). Some changes had occurred; but
generally farms were valued the same as
they had been earlier. Other economic
factors had also remained relatively sta-
ble, such as rent of land and the tenant
system.
The written sources that are of
most use for recreating earlier economic
systems are the land registries of the 18th
century. The land registries give numeri-
cal data to which statistical analyses can
be applied and compared with archaeo-
logical data. This information can then be
used to build models of farm economy at
earlier periods.
In 1702 the Icelandic-bom Ámi
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