Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 69

Harp Seals in the Icelandic Archaeofauna: Sea Ice and Hard Times
of harp seals in nets (Kristjánsson 1980,
361-62). Hunting methods were therefore
applied according to sea ice conditions i.e.
uppidráp on ice when appropriate and nets
when sea ice was limited or absent. This
was not an activity restricted to hard times
and nor was it opportunistic; as borne out
by the legal allocation, auctioning and leas-
ing of sealing rights and the apparent mar-
ket in harp seal derivatives i.e. the price on
derivatives implies a commodity.
Twentieth century surveys of harp
seals in Icelandic waters (Hauksson 1986;
Hauksson & Bogason 1997; Folkow et al.
2004) demonstrate that:
• Harp seals frorn Jan Mayen spend a
great deal of time migrating through
open water between the various quar-
ters of the Greenland Sea and beyond;
including Icelandic inshore waters.
• Harp seals are oífen found in Icelandic
waters when sea ice is absent.
• Harp seals found in Icelandic waters are
predominantly less than one year old.
• Harp seals are usually found in Icelandic
waters during winter and spring.
• Harp seals enter into Icelandic waters in
search of prey i.e. capelin.
The first two points challenge the assump-
tion that harp seal bone found in the
archaeological record was accumulated ex-
clusively during periods of extreme or se-
vere sea ice in Icelandic waters. Nor should
reference to harp seal pups in historical ac-
counts or the presence of neonate harp seal
bone in archaeofaunas necessarily suggest
that there were harp seal whelping areas
(and therefore sea ice) near Iceland. While
the interpretation of the Svalbarð neonatal
assemblage remains viable, with neonate
harp seals less than one month old, it is
worth noting that young harp seals, once
weaned, can potentially disperse into Ice-
landic coastal waters once they abandon
the sea ice in the whelping area (as early
as 6 weeks old) (Ronald & Healey 1981;
Amorosi 1992). This has some bearing on
the interpretation of the Akurvík assem-
blage and the assessment of new material
from Svalbarð and other Icelandic archaeo-
faunas (Amorosi 1996, 168).
The parity between the archaeological,
historical and ecological data with regard
to the distribution of harp seals in Iceland
and its surrounding waters is striking and
includes areas that are not commonly in-
undated by sea ice (Vilmundarson 1969,
313-32), in particular Icelands south coast
(Fig. 3). It is however important to ac-
knowledge the absence of harp seal bone in
seal bone assemblages from Breiðafjörður
i.e. Miðbær (Flatey) and Innri Hvanney
(Bjarneyjar), despite the historical and
modern evidence for their, albeit limited,
presence there (Amorosi 1996, 982-88;
Woollett 2007).
With regard to seasonality, there is a re-
markable consistency in the timing of harp
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