Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 96

DOUGLAS J. BOLENDER, JOHN M. STEINBERG AND BRIAN N. DAMIATA
farmsteads at the farms of Stóra-Seyla and
Glaumbær but it makes sense to consider
localized environmental changes as a
potential factor encouraging farmstead
relocation. Flooding, landslides, or
lOcalized erosion could motivate the
relocation of a particular farmstead while
not triggering the abandonment of the
farm. Considering only the farm
relocations in the survey area the evidence
for environmental change and farmstead
relocation is ambiguous. The environment
of Langholt is relatively similar and most
of the farms occupy the same ridgeline
above wetlands and the valley bottom.
However, there is localized variation in the
geology and hydrology area as well as
variation in soil accumulation and
erosional pattems (Catlin 2011).
At Stóra-Seyla there is evidence of
localized environmental change around the
time that the farmstead relocated. Lower
Seyla is located on a ridge approximately 2
meters above the now-drained wetlands
located immediately east of the site in the
valley bottom. The eastem edge of the site,
consisting ofmiddens and two possible out
buildings are actually below this ridge in
what is now the valley bottom. Test
excavations in the wetlands show rapid
soil accumulation after the deposition of
the Hekla 1104 tephra (infoimation about
earlier sedimentation has not been
recovered due to the depth of the current
water table). The topography and
dampness of the eastem flank of the
farmstead during the Viking Age is
unknown, although it is likely that during
the Yiking Age the edge of the wetlands
were further ftom the site than they are
today. Rapid alluvial accumulation within
the valley during the Viking Age could
have raised both the land surface and water
table in the valley bottom and made the
Lower Seyla location less appealing.
Soil sequences recovered in systematic
coring of the farm show a disruption in the
soil sequence between the 871±2 Landnám
and Hekla 1104 tephras along the top of
the ridgeline that Upper Seyla is situated
on. The absence of the Vj~1000 layer in
many of these sequences suggests that the
disruption came after that tephra,
sometime in the 111,1 century, a period
roughly coincident with the farmstead
relocation at Stóra-Seyla. Erosion on the
hilltop certainly could have been a
problem for the Lower Seyla. However,
the erosion on the upper ridge just as easily
could have been the result of farmstead
relocation as a cause of it. Much finer
chronological resolution is required to
resolve the temporal relationship between
erosion and fannstead relocation but
between the encroaching wetlands to the
east and possible soil erosion to the west it
is reasonable to think that that local
environmental change played a role in the
decision to relocate the farmstead.
The Glaumbær sequence provides little
support for the idea that environmental
change was a common factor underlying
fannstead relocation. Lower Glaumbær,
like Lower Seyla, is located downhill from
the Upper Glaumbær and closer to the
valley bottom. However, it is further from
and relatively higher above the wetlands
than Lower Stóra-Seyla (ca. 5 meters
above the wetlands in the current valley
bottom). The area around Lower
Glaumbær was poorly drained. Improved
drainage could have been a motivation for
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