Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 72

RAMONA HARRISON
Perdikaris and McGovem 2008:73-77).
A second way of ascertaining which
part of the gadid fílet may have arrived at
Skuggi is to compare the relative abun-
dance of vertebral series, i.e. thoracic,
precaudal, and caudal vertebrae.
The Skuggi gadid vertebral series
thus far include only the caudal (tail) ver-
tebrae and none from the upper portion of
the físh. This pattern suggests that the
people at Skuggi likely supplied them-
selves with a flattened, air dried product,
where the upper thoracic and precaudal
vertebrae have been largely removed
along with the head (Perdikaris &
McGovern 2008:64). This profile dis-
playing a klipfisk-like product at Skuggi
is nicely mirrored in a 'producer' profile
in some Gjögur midden contexts, with
the gadid head, thoracic, and precaudal
vertebrae discarded as offal during pro-
duction of a small, flattened and dried
product for export from this site.
Skuggi is not located 50 - 70 km
inland as are Sveigakot, Hrísheimar,
Hofstaðir, and other Mývatnssveit sites
reflecting an inland trade of processed
gadid species, but the 20 km distance to
the coast and its location on the slopes of
Hörgárdalur still place it into an inland
environment. The Skuggi gadid fish and
the odd Halibut were most likely brought
to the site in a processed form; likely split
open, although it is not sure whether they
were only flattened and dried (klipfisk),
or dried and salted (bacalao). The few
cranial bones in the lower deposits could
be from one whole fish, from one dried
fish head consumed by humans, or the
result of a scavenger importing cranial
elements from a coastal processing area.
The Skuggi marine fish assemblage
so far indicates that the products were
likely imported in processed form and
were part of a typical Viking Age/early
medieval site subsistence pattern. The
sample size is too small to make any gen-
eral assessments on the local fish econo-
my employed (Prof. Sophia Perdikaris,
personal communication, September 27,
2010). This access to a fish product
processed elsewhere does however sug-
gest that Skuggi was firmly connected to
the Hörgárdalur community (the archaeo-
fauna from Vígishellir presents a very
clear example of which food animals
were available to people who may have
been outlaws and as such not permitted
access to communally distributed foods
(McGovem 2003).
Access and claims to natural
resources
While the Skuggi residents seem to have
been part of a larger social constmct,
their status in this potentially hierarchic
regional power stmcture may have been a
low one. They potentially were not free to
choose their own herding strategy and
likely had very limited access to the natu-
ral resources in their surrounding. This is
clearly indicated by the lack in certain
species to expect in a Hörgárdalur
archaeofauna. The natural resource issue
may be a further clue that Skuggi was
operated as a holder farm and the
landowners may have resided further
away, claiming some of the natural
species on their land for themselves.
Freshwater fish
The total fish assemblage analyzed so far
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