Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 17

The idea of landscape in Icelandic archaeology
Figure 3. Brynjúlfur Jónsson ’s Um Þjórsárdalur. Representation of a landscape and a map show-
ing the sites mentioned in his text (Brynjúlfur Jónsson 1885).
rather than the day on which it was sur-
veyed, and tended to produce maps of the
whole survey area with a site key that
was related to the text. When Brynjúl-
fur’s approach is compared to Sigurður
Vigfússon’s survey approach, which
was geographical but an apparatus for a
“new” reading of the Sagas, it becomes
further apparent that his archaeological
approach was distanced from and not a
straight reading of the Sagas. However
by 1914, the year of Brynjúlfur’s death,
Matthías Þóraðarson’s editorial of Arbók
and the approach to archaeology in gen-
eral was more focused on the historical
information relating to single archaeolog-
ical sites rather than regional survey, and
the type of approach pioneered by Bryn-
júlfur. However, Matthías Þóraðarson’s
study of Þingvellir and íts surroundings
is a complete description of one site with
an exploration of its wider context, from
both historical and geographical perspec-
tives (Matthías Þóraðarson 1945).
During the early part of the twen-
tieth century a Danish commission began
to systematically map Iceland. Included
on these maps were land types (in par-
ticular homefield areas), tracks, roads,
topographic features, place-names and
the approximate locations of abandoned
farms. This provided an important source
of information for regional archaeologi-
cal surveys, which did not appear to have
been exploited by archaeology. This per-
haps tells us about how the archaeology
and landscape were perceived. Mapping
and detailed land survey was necessary
for the Danish administration to legitimize
their authority over Iceland, just as it was
in Ireland and Scotland by the English
in the latter part of the nineteenth cen-
15