Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 67

COMMERCIAL AND SUBSISTANCE FlSHING IN VESTFIRÐIR
that there are regional differences in farm
income and that Vestfirðir primarily
relied on what the sea provided, fish,
whale, fish and shark oil and driftwood.
Agriculture was only second to marine
products and never played an important
role as elsewhere in Iceland. The balance
between agriculture and fishing is an
important factor in the prosperity of
Vestfirðir and when this balance was
interrupted by environmental or human
factors, the consequences were devestat-
ing. The best example of this is in the
17th century when both environmental
factors and new laws, favoring agricul-
ture, forced farmers in Vestfirðir to rely
more on agriculture, resulting in increas-
ing poverty of the region.
The archaeological material
suggests that the economic system of
Viking age and medieval Iceland is much
more complex than previously thought.
The political and economic systems of
Viking age Iceland was partially based
on the control and manipulation of
resources both agricultural and wild. In
Vestfirðir the main source of income for
farmers was marine and not agricultural
products. The chieftains in Vestfirðir
understood that control over fishing and
the distribution of fish products gave
them an opportunity to gain power and
extra income. The surplus from marine
products could easily be exchanged with
agricultural products from other regions,
which could in tum be exchanged for for-
eign prestige goods. The control over the
resources in Vestfirðir was primarily
based on the landholding in different
areas. Farmers in Vestfirðir mostly paid
their rent in fish products which created
surplus products for the landowners.
Farms that were situated in a favourable
location to control the distribution of
resources, such as the Vatnsfjörður farm
(see Edvardsson & McGovem, this vol-
ume), soon became the main seats of
power in their individual regions.
The settlement of Vestfirðir and
its development throughout the ages
should not only be viewed from the land.
In order to traly understand the region
one must consider both the view from the
sea as well as from the land. Any archae-
ological research into Vestfirðir has to
make the sea its starting point and under-
stand its influence on all aspects of
human society in the area. If this is not
considered, we will eventually fail in our
quest for knowledge and understanding
as the 18th century scholar who com-
plained that farmers in Vestfirðir were
more interested in fishing than farming
and put minimal effort into agriculture
(Olavius 1964).
Acknowledgements:
This paper was made possible by gener-
ous support from the Leverhulme Trast
Landscapes Circum Landnám project,
the CUNY Northem Science & Educa-
tion Center, CUNY PSC Grants Program,
US National Science Foundation Oífice
of Polar Programs Arctic Social Science
program, US National Science Founda-
tion REU program, US National Science
Foundation Archaeology program, the
National Geographic Society, and
Strandagaldur, Náttúrustofa Vestfjarða
and various local institutions and people
in Vestfirðir. Ruth Maher gets special
thanks for all the help.
References
Amundsen, C., Brown, M., Perdikaris, S.,
McGovem, T., Krivogorskaya, Y.,
Smiarowski, K., Storm, S., Mod-
ugno, S., Frik, M., Koczela, M (in
65