Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 103

THE SVALBARÐ PROJECT
are associated with turf rubble, fuel
wastes as well as industrially produced
artifacts. Deposits underlying the probable
VI477 tephra comprise dense and diffuse
accumulations of fuel waste (peat and
charcoal) with only small quantities of
calcined bone. The medieval deposits are
accumulated east and north east of the old
turf farmhouse and are deepest in
proximity to an old, rectilinear turf
stmcture extending northeast from the
more recent farm farmhouse. Some
limited deposition before H1300 appears
to be demonstrated in this area. The depth
and lateral extent of midden deposits
suggest that the recent farm house was
built on or into a real (if modest) farm
mound of perhaps as much as a metre
deep at most.
A third zone of accumulation was
demonstrated on the northeastem margin
of the built-up farmyard, in association
with an isolated turf structure which, due
to the presence of rich ash deposits and
slag in its floor deposits, may have
served as a smithy or forge in recent
history. Older structures predating
VI477 appear to have been present and
may have shared the same function. Deep
and conspicuous midden deposits are
present on the stream bank immediately
to the east of the ruins of this outbuilding.
These amount to an accumulation of ash,
slag, bone and household wastes over lm
deep. The scale of this accumulation was
important enough to have built the bank
up substantially and to have extended it
eastwards. Nevertheless, all of these
deposits appear to date to the 19th and
20th centuries.
Concluding remarks
This overview reports on the status of the
ongoing Svalbarð project. The objectives
of the project are to reconstruct a complete
history of the settlement of
Svalbarðstunga, which includes evaluation
of historical and environmental processes
played out over the longue durée within
one well-bounded and integrated
community. In particular, the project seeks
to date phases of occupation and
abandonment of sites and to defíne
changes in their function and the use of
land immediately around them. It is being
done through analyses of architecture and
material culture, and through
zooarchaeological, archaeoentomological,
and geoarchaeological approaches.
Because of the richness of its
archaeological record and its historical
importance, a study of Svalbarðstunga
provides an opportunity to look at the
development and resilience of a northem
Icelandic rural economy and to illustrate
the importance of social-economic and
environmental contingencies, significant
to the story of other mral communities.
Acknowledgements
The project members wants to thank the farmers in
Svalbarð, Einar Guðmundur Þorláksson and
Sigtryggur Þorláksson for all their goodwill, help and
enthusiasm for the project.
Bibliography
Amorosi, T, P.C. Buckland, K.J. Edwards, I.L.
Mainland, T.H. McGovem, J.P. Sadler, and P.
Skidmore. (1998) 'They Did Not Live by Grass
Alone: The Politics and Paleoecology of Animal
Fodder in the North Atlantic Region',
Environmental Archaeology 1:41-54.
Amorosi, T. (1992) 'Climate impact and human
response in northeast Iceland: Archaeological
investigations at Svalbard, 1986 - 1988', in
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