Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Side 22

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Side 22
AGUSTA EDWALD AND KAREN MILEK building indicate the location of stalls in the byre and the presence of shelving or a box in the kitchen (see Figs 5 & 6). The wealth of artefacts found in the occupation surfaces, in turf collapse and wall packing in the building and from the midden deposits add greatly to the narrative of life at Hombrekka and activities related to keeping house where a series of material culture changes took place in the period represented in the excavation, for example, with the introduction of pottery for daily use, kerosene lamps, tables and chairs. Keeping House Dining practices and the elaboration of the dining table with matching ceramic sets and side dishes has been widely studied in archaeology (see e.g. Wall 1991, 1999, 2010; Rotman 2009). Dining is believed to have been one of the main ways that people communicated their status through the consumption of the right food ffom the correct vessels. Evidence of matching ceramics and vessel forms such as side dishes and gravy boats that indicate a set table are thus commonly interpreted to be indicative of improved households. Leone (1999) has, furthermore, argued that ceramics were essential in the teachings of discipline and time keeping associated with capitalist ideologies and Matthews has similarly argued that changes in ceramic use illustrate a ‘very deep influence of capitalism’ (2010, 72), and that eating of matched ceramics was a way families installed individuality in children, replacing ideas of kinship and cooperative behaviour for individuality and competition. This development is not noted in the ceramic assemblage at Hornbrekka. However, that cannot be interpreted as a deliberate resistance to a growing capitalist market as the change ffom using homemade wooden receptacles to purchasing and using industrially made imported ceramics is clearly a sign of the households being a participant in global market relations. Bjamason (1892), who grew up in the same district as Hombrekka discussed the produce farmers used to get from the local merchant in his youth. On the purchasing of ceramics he states that the women never grew tired of buying sundries, one or two cups a year, or one or two plates or bowls for special occasions such as when the priest visited. The variety of wares and decoration at Hombrekka, indeed, suggest that the ceramics were not bought in large sets but were more likely acquired in small quantities (Fig 7). Lucas has speculated that the variety of ceramics found at Icelandic 19th -century sites suggest that the practice of every person owning their own receptacle, as was the case with the wooden asknr, may have continued after ceramics became widely available (Lucas 2007). Different pattems and decoration may thus have been preferred so people could easily identify their bowls. Several sherds recovered from the excavation showed signs that the ^ According to the excavation the drain in the cattle byre had been filled in and the passage from the kitchen and the byre blocked up before Hólmffíður’s family moved to the farm. It is likely that the byre Hólmfríður spoke of was next to the kitchen, possibly attached to the ruined bam, which is to the north of the min. 20
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Archaeologia Islandica

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