Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Síða 98

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Síða 98
DOUGLAS J. BOLENDER, JOHN M. STEINBERG AND BRIAN N. DAMIATA moving. There, at least, it seems clear that Christianization had nothing to do with the decision to relocate the farmstead. At Glaumbær no Christian church or cemetery has been identified at the Lower farmstead, despite extensive geophysical surveying. We therefore presume that the earliest church is close to the present church near the relocated Upper Glaumbær farmstead. The relatively late date for the farm raises the possibility that it was established by people already holding a Christian worldview. Certainly the farm is associated with early Christianity in later accounts (Þorláksson 2001). With no current evidence that the site ever had a pagan past, it nonetheless was relocated toward the end of the 1 lth century. The evidence from Skagafjörður should not be seen as undermining the idea that changing ritual and religious practices influenced the relocation of some farmsteads in the 1 lth century, only that it cannot be a general explanation of farmstead relocation. There is evidence that Hofstaðir was not a typical pagan household but rather a site of special ritual performance and sacrifice (Lucas 2009:404). Likewise, the superposition of early cemetery and longhouse at Keldudalur (Zoega 2008) raises the possibility that the adoption of Christian practices may have prompted other, more subtle, spatial reorganizations at farmsteads. Farmstead size and household status The association between relocated farmsteads and Christian churches may be due to other factors. In Langholt and other areas, Christian churches are often associated with larger farms (but see Zoéga and Sigurðarson 2010) and the single obvious fact that Stóra-Seyla and Glaumbær share is their large size (7200 m2 and 7100 m2) compared to most of the other farmsteads in the region. While farmstead relocation is relatively rare in Langholt when all of the farms are considered, half of the largest farmsteads relocate. Perhaps size, as an index of other attributes of the farm or farming household, may be relevant, if not detenninative, to their relocation. In the survey area, farmstead size is largely predicted by the order of farm establishment; earlier farms tend to be larger than later farms. Lower Glaumbær is a distinct outlier in this pattem being much larger than other farmsteads established around the same time. Elsewhere, we have argued that the order and location of new farmsteads may be related to changes in land tenure practices and the property status of later farms and farming households as the marginal productive value of household labor provided a strong incentive for landowners to settle former dependents on their own estates in exchange for rents or other labor obligations (Bolender, et al. 2008; see also Jakobsson 2005; Sölvason 1991). Many of the smaller and later farms are located between earlier, larger farms, and almost certainly on lands that were already included in the property of one or the other farm. The small size of these later farmsteads makes it unlikely that later households could have muscled their way into these lands without the explicit consent of their earlier neighbors. This 96
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Archaeologia Islandica

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