Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 71

GUÐRÚN ALDA GÍSLADÓTTIR, JAMES M. WOOLLETT, UGGI
ÆVARSSON, CÉLINE DUPONT-HÉBERT, ANTHONY NEWTON
AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
THE SVALBARÐ PROJECT
In 1986 to 1988, the Iceland Palaeoeconomy Project (IPP) conducted a large-scale archaeological
project in Svalbarðshreppur, N-Þingeyjarsýsla, conceming the church farm of Svalbarð and
smaller coastal farms throughout Svalbarðshreppur. This project has had considerable historical
and scientific significance as it succeeded in combining palaeoeconomic and palaeoenvironmental
research methods, both then still nascent in the 1980’s, in a coherent interdisciplinary research
strategy. Most notably, it was the first project in Iceland to focus on the strategic excavation of
stratified midden deposits from which rich palaeoenvironmental, archaeobotanical and
zooarchaeological collections could be obtained, and on the regional contextualisation of
palaeoeconomic data through regional scale palaeoenvironmental, ethnohistorical and
archaeological site surveys (Amorosi 1992, 1996; Zutter 1989, 1992, 1997; Ingimundarson 1989,
1995). The IPP research strategy has since been reapplied and refined at a number of subsequent
excavation projects throughout the North Atlantic. Nevertheless the Svalbarð project remains of
primary importance because of the quantity of data it provided (the zooarchaeological
assemblages in particular), the long-term perspective it provided and because it remains an
isolated study in Iceland’s north-east, a region which has seen next to no other archaeological
work but is unusual for its marginality in the Icelandic context and its sensitivity to climatic and
environmental change.
Twenty years later, from 2008 to 2012, Svalbarð has been the subject of renewed archaeological
research by a collaborative team of researchers fforn Fomleifastofhun Islands and Université Laval,
Québec, Canada. In 2008, the midden of Svalbarð’s central farm was reopened to re-examine its
complex stratigraphy and to refine its dating. Work conducted since 2009 has concentrated on the
identification and evaluation of the outlying components of the very extensive Svalbarð estate,
Svalbarðstunga. The territory historically attributed to the estate comprises 120 - 150 km2,
depending if the interior commons south of Svalbarðsnúpur is included or not. The project’s
operational presupposition is that auxiliary farm sites scattered over Svalbarðstunga represent
essential elements of the Svalbarð’s farming economy and are critical for understanding its economic
history in terms of modes of land use and strategies of economic production, such as the use of central
and outlying pastures and resources. The auxiliary farm sites are indispensable for the reconstruction
of the social history of the Svalbarð estate as the major farm and hub of its eponymous hreppur.
Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir, Fornleifastofnun Islands, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland.
Email: gudrun@instarch.is
James M. Woollett, Départment d'histoire, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Email: James. Woollett@hst.ulaval.ca
Uggi Ævarsson, archaeologist. Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland, Iceland.
Email: uggiuggi@gmail.com
Céline Dupont-Hébert, Départment d'histoire, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Email: archeocel@hotmail.com
Anthony Newton, School of GeoScience, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Email: anthony.newton@ed.ac.uk
Orri Vésteinsson, Department of Archaeology, University of Iceland, Iceland.
Email: orri@hi.is
Keywords: Iceland, Svalbarð, auxiliary farm sites, economic history, social structure,
subsistance, land use, shielings, rural settlement and abandonment
ARCHAEOLOGIA ISLANDICA 10 (2013) 69-103