Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 9

GAVIN LUCAS
EDITORIAL
This is the tenth volume of Archaeologia
Islandica to be published and offers as
ever, a range of quite different papers. The
opening article takes us to the nineteenth
century and an examination of the
material conditions of everyday life on a
farm in the north of Iceland. Drawing on
Agústa Edwald’s doctoral research, the
paper offers us an archaeological
perspective on rural life during a period of
major changes in Icelandic society, and
shows how a new generation of Icelandic
archaeologists are contributing to a much
wider rise in interest in the archaeology of
the recent past within Europe. This is a
fairly new field of research but it is one
that has tremendous potential in Iceland.
The following piece by Sólveig
Guðmundsdóttir Beck treats us to a very
detailed review of the extant historical
archive on bird exploitation in Iceland,
linking it to archaeological data. Wild
fowl, as much as físh, have always
constituted an important element of
subsistence practices in Iceland, and the
rich ethnographic and historical writing on
such usage is a vital resource for
archaeologists, aiding interpretation of
faunal assemblages. From birds to insects,
the next paper presents some preliminary
remarks and reflections on beetle remains
from the major archaeological project at
Hólar in the north of Iceland, revealing
their important interpretive potential,
epsecially in terms of understanding the
material conditions inside buildings, but
also outside. Moving east, the paper by
Guðrún Gísladóttir and colleagues on the
long-term project at Svalbarð, summarizes
the current state of research so far. This
project is an important reminder of
understanding sites in terms of local
economies and although the centre of the
project is the farm at Svalbarð, of equal
importance are all the other sites
connected to the property and locale in
order to understand how they are
enchained as part of a broad economic
community. Our fmal contribution is from
Howell Roberts and Elín Hreiðarsdóttir,
and provides a long overdue review of
Viking age boat burials in Iceland, in light
of recent excavations at Litli-Núpar in the
north-east of the country. Research on
pagan burials in Iceland has been
undergoing a major resurgence in recent
years and we are sure to see our
understanding transformed in quite
important ways over the coming years as
this research reaches publication.
In closing, I would also like use this
opportunity to celebrate this tenth volume
of the joumal. Beginning with volume 1 in
1998 and with articles in both Icelandic
and English, subsequent volumes were
exclusively in English as part of an