Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 41

A FIREWOOD EXPERIMENT AT EIRÍKSSTAÐIR: A STEP TOWARDS QUANTIFYING THE USE OF FIREWOOD
FOR DAILY HOUSEHOLD NEEDS IN VIKING AGE ICELAND
landnám until around AD 1300, after
which birch pollen levels stabilize, which
does not indicate any kind of large-scale
woodland management during or
immediately after the settlement period
(Lawson 2009).
The studies mentioned above have
examined proxy data which suggest the
management of woodlands in Iceland, but
in order to be more certain it is necessary
to deal with the primary source - the wood
itself. There have been very few
archaeobotanical studies conducted on
wood charcoal írom early Icelandic sites,
and even fewer have been published.
However, analyses of assemblages ffom
charcoal-making pits in Eyjafjallahreppur
in the south and Höskuldsstaðir in the
north-east have suggested that roundwood
was being periodically harvested for
charcoal production, in a form of
coppicing, from the 10th - 14th centuries
(Church et al 2007, Church et al 2006).
These observations, combined with the
inferences from proxy data and the wood
requirements outlined by this study,
suggest that woodland management is
likely to have been much more widespread
in Iceland than was previously thought,
and further work in this area will help to
illuminate the ways in which early
Icelanders met their requirements for
domestic and industrial fuel. It is only by
further experimentation and research that
it will be possible to understand whether
the fuel needs of ordinary households
could have been met through woodland
management in the post-Settlement
period, or if the declining availability of
wood led early Icelanders to rely on
altemative fuels such as peat or dung,
which have been shown to be common at
numerous sites (e.g. Simpson et al 2003,
Sveinbjarnardóttir et al 2007, Zutter
1992).
While this experiment did not provide
fully robust fíndings about the use of
wood as fuel in Viking Age houses, it has
contributed a valuable element that can be
used to form an overall picture: it has given
an illustration of credible consumption
levels during the summer season. The
question of winter consumption remains to
be addressed; it is hoped that this will be
done in another stage of this study during
the winter season.
References
Benediktsson, J. (Ed.). 1968. íslenzk fomrit I.
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Church, M.J., Vésteinsson, O., Einarsson, Á. &
McGovem, T.H. 2006. Charcoal production
pits at Höskuldsstaðir, Mývatnssveit.
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Iceland.
Church, M.J., Dugmore, A.J., Mairs, K.A., Millard,
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