Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 10

Gavin Lucas
the material both confirmed Steffensen’s
original diagnoses, but greatly extended it
in detail and precision. An unusually high
proportion of the population had osteoar-
thritis compared to a cemetery of similar
date in England, and the authors suggest
this may have been a genetic trait, as a
similar pattern exists among the present
day Icelandic population.
From human bones we move to
animal bones and George Hambrecht’s
study of the important faunal assemblage
that has been recovered from the recent
excavations at the Episcopal manor and
school of Skálholt. Hambrecht’s paper
- part of an ongoing analysis into the
17th—18th century material from this site,
presents the exciting, preliminary results
of his research, in particular the extraor-
dinary high proportion of cattle, which
are related to beef rather than dairy farm-
ing. Given the high status of the site, high
numbers of cattle might be expected but
the ratios exceed any normal expectations.
Hambrecht situates this in the context of
possible agricultural experimentation
through the fact that these cattle appear to
be predominantly polled, either naturally
(as imported breeds) or artificially (local
cattle). Such experimentation is not out
of place given the wider cultural changes
in farming practice in northern Europe at
this time, but it does suggest that farm-
ing at Skalholt was taking a much more
active role in this process, which can be
critically seen as ideological as much as
economic.
The papers in this volume signi-
fy yet again, an increasing maturity to the
archaeological literature in Iceland, and
in particular it is re-assuring to see many
of them engaging with wider theoreti-
cal issues, while still being grounded in
empirical work. I think it not too prema-
ture to claim that Icelandic archaeology is
moving up a new level of sophistication,
fostered in large part by the inter-discipli-
nary and international nature of its work.