Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Qupperneq 12

RAGNAR EDVARDSSON • ARNAR ÞÓR EGILSSON
tophiforme in the same fjords and ideas
have been discussed about large scale
industrial factories in the region.
This increase in projects affecting the
underwater environment could possibly
threaten and damage submerged
archaeological sites, i.e. shipwrecks, boat
landings, fishing stations, old harbor
facilities, etc. It is therefore of a high
importance for heritage management in
Iceland to gain understanding of the
number and extent of underwater sites,
especially in shallow waters and around
old trading posts, whaling stations, fishing
stations, etc (Fig. 1).
Archeological research on trading
posts, whaling and fishing station in
Iceland for the past 10 years have clearly
shown that the function of such sites can
only partially be explained from
excavations on land and it is important to
examine the seabed in the proximity of
these sites in order to gain a fuller picture
(Edvardsson, Ragnar 2009, 2010). This
project was started alongside the
excavations of the 17th whaling station at
Strákatangi but quickly developed into
including other sites from different
periods.
The main research question at the
beginning of the project was set to address
the problem of the extent of whaling at
Strákatangi and the species targeted by the
whalers. However, as the project
developed including other sites from
different time periods and of different
function the questions became more
general and more focused on
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Figure 1. The Vestfirðir peninsula.
10