Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 83

RECONSTRUCTING ASPECTS OF THE DAILY LIFE IN LATE 19TH AND EARLY
20TH-CENTURY ICELAND: ARCHAEOENTOMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE
VATNSFÖRÐUR FARM, NW ICELAND
villages (Eggertsson et al. 1987, 184;
Karlsson 2000b, 148; Reynolds 1927,
47). Nevertheless, Icelanders were gener-
ally not wealthy, and until the second half
of the century, most households could
barely afford more than the basic necessi-
ties (Karlsson 2000b, 294).
After the 1930s, hygiene and sanita-
tion were regulated by law, but before
this time, it was not unusual for houses to
lack running water and indoor plumbing
(Gunnlaugsson 1997). In 1843, magazines
such as Arnbjörg and Kvennafrœðarin
published guidelines on how to keep the
house clean and comfortable, suggesting
particular types of lights and fuels, as
well as ways to dispose of rubbish, in
order to avoid bad smells, insect infesta-
tions and dampness.
Archaeoentomology and the
study of past daily life
The historical and ethnographic accounts
of daily life in the Icelandic countryside
in the late 19^ and early century
suggest that living standards varied
between different households. However,
further work is required to understand the
relationships between geographic
regions, environments and the social con-
texts of domestic practices. Furthermore,
when relatively detailed descriptions of
domestic activities and sanitary condi-
tions are provided in ethnographic
accounts (e.g. Amgrímsson 1997, 9-54;
Gunnlaugsson 1997; Jónasson 1961),
they usually reflect isolated cases which
cannot necessarily be taken as represen-
tative of a specific region. It is also
important to keep in mind that written
documents, including ethnographic
accounts, are constructed archives which
need to be interpreted, as they are biased
by the processes involved in creating
them, including the motivations of the
authors, and the context in which they
were produced (Feinmann 1997, 372;
Galloway 2006). Integrating archaeologi-
cal evidence from different geographical
areas and sites of different status into the
study of past daily practices and living
conditions has the potential to generate a
more complete and critical portrait of the
changing lives of the people who experi-
enced the great transformations of the
Early Modem Period in Iceland.
Among archaeological approaches,
archaeoentomology, the use of preserved
insect remains in archaeological interpre-
tations, can be particularly useful in stud-
ies conceming past daily activities and
living conditions. Archaeoentomological
analyses are based on the concept of
species constancy as research has demon-
strated that the ecological niche of most
insect species has remained unchanged
throughout the Quaternary and perhaps
the Tertiary periods (P.I. Buckland 2000,
6; Coope 1978, 185; Kenward 1976, 8).
This means that most insects have not
evolved for the last 30 million years, pre-
ferring migration instead of adaptations
to changing environments. The current
ecological preferences of identified
insects are therefore analogous and repre-
sentative of past environments (P.I.
Buckland 2000, 9).
Some of the best examples of
archaeoentomological study used for the
reconstmction of past living conditions
have been undertaken on multiple occu-
pation phases from the city of York, in
81