Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 53

RAMONA HARRISON
SMALL HOLDER FARMING
IN EARLY MEDIEVAL ICELAND:
SKUGGI IN HÖRGÁRDALUR
This paper provides archaeological data from a midden excavation that was part
of the Gásir Hinterlands Projeet carried out in 2008-09. Spatial and temporal data
on this small scale inland farm is presented and especially the results from the
faunal but also the fmds analyses are discussed. Skuggi was probably never an
independent fann but rather started out and continued as a tenant farm from its
establishment in the Viking Age until abandonment some time in the late 12* c.
The Skuggi archaeofauna provides thus far a unique view of the farm economy of
what was likely a dependent small holder during the transition from the Viking
Age to early Middle Ages in Hörgárdalur. The current research provides some
answers on site economy and site formation processes at this small farm, and
raises questions to drive future archaeological investigations of the region.
Ramona Harrison, Graduate School and University Center City University of
New York, Í/SA
Email: ramonaharrison@yahoo. com
Keywords: Iceland, Zooarchaeology, VikingAge, Medieval, Eyjafjörður, NABO
Introduction
‘Although it is obvious that ecology and
climate affect sociocultural processes, it is
equally obvious that sociocultural
processes - always embedded in specific
systems of meanings - have an impact on
landscapes and ecosystems (Homborg
2006:8).’ Zooarchaeology in socially
complex societies provides data on both
human use of local natural resources and
upon a wider spectrum of past economic
activities. These activities may be affected
as much by status and tribute relations as
by ecology and the impact of long distance
trade and distant markets on local econo-
my is not only a phenomenon of the past
five hundred years (Abu-Lughod 1989,
Albarella 1997, 2005, Crabtree 1996a,b,
Epstein 2009, Findlay and O'Rourke
2007). While we inevitably excavate and
analyze each archaeofauna in its particular
site context, we also need to be aware of
forces operating on a scale greater than a 5
or 10 kilometer catchment zone. Perhaps
especially in a region like Eyjafjörður long
known for its powerful secular and eccle-
siastical elites, any analysis of a small and
probably dependent site needs to keep the
potentially larger political and economic
landscape in mind.
Such an approach is attempted by the
Gásir Hinterlands Project 2007-09 (GHP;
largely funded by a Dissertation
Improvement Grant through the US
National Science Foundation (OPP ARC
0809033, and Fornleifasjóður Iceland).
GHP is a collaboration between
Fornleifastofnun íslands and City
ARCHAEOLOGIA ISLANDICA 8 (2010) 51-76