Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 57

SMALL HOLDER FARMING IN EARLY MEDIEVAL ICELAND: SKUGGI IN HÖRGÁRDALUR
Figure 3. Skuggi Trench 1 Radiocarbon dates (Atmospheric data from Reimer et al. 2009,
https://cl4.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal/OxCal.html, v. 1.6, Bronk Ramsey 2010,).
et al 2010). All faunal remains reported
here were recovered ffom Skuggi in 2008
and 2009 and collected from Trench 1
(TRl), a 4 m long (N - S) and 3 m wide (E
- W) section containing midden deposits
about 1 m to 1,30 m deep. The midden
possibly extends at least two more meters
to the west, and further to the south and its
eventual complete excavation may double
the amount of archaeofauna and other
archaeological and ecological materials
collected so far. The deposits were entire-
ly sieved (4 mm dry mesh) except for 1
liter whole soil samples ffom each context
retained for flotation.
Time and Place: Radiocarbon
Dates, Tephrochronology, and
Phasing
Radiocarbon analysis provides calibrated
dates for the Skuggi midden deposits rang-
ing between ca. AD 890 - 1208 (2 sigma
range) (SUERC samples no. 27379-
27382, Cook and Ascough 2010);
Tephrochronology further aids in dating
this site: All midden deposits are sealed by
H1300, and most of them by H1104
(Richard Streeter, U Edinburgh/NABO,
personal communication, August 2010).
The turf structure below the midden con-
tains tephra layers resulting from the vol-
canic landnám eruption (LNS) that
coincided with Icelandic settlement in AD
871.
So far, fíve occupational phases have
been encountered at Skuggi, all associat-
ed with the midden trench TRl. Phase I
refers to the initial site settlement phase
and is associated with the turf structure
emerging under the midden. This struc-
ture’s in situ walls contain the volcanic
ash layers referred to as LNS 871 land-
nám sequence.
The sigma 2 (95.4%) calibrated C14
dates listed in Table 1 are used.
The Skuggi artifacts
Datable objects are often rare in Viking
and medieval deposits in Iceland, but the
2008-09 Skuggi excavations produced
some artifacts consistent with the radio-
carbon and tephra chronology. Two like-
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