Val Dufeu here reconstructs settlement patterns of fishing communities in Viking Age Iceland and proposes socio-economic and environmental models relevant to any study of the Vikings or the North Atlantic. She integrates written sources, geoarchaeological data, and zooarchaeological data to examine how fishing propelled political change in the North Atlantic. The evolution of survival fishing to internal fish markets to overseas fish trade mirrors wider social changes in the Vikings’ world.
Author(s): Val Dufeu
Series: The Early Medieval North Atlantic
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 254
Acknowledgments 11
I. Introduction 13
Fishing in the North Atlantic Scandinavian World: A Human-Environment Approach to the Role and Place of Iceland and the Faeroes 15
II. Reviewing Viking Studies and North Atlantic Realm Archaeological Research 19
Iceland 22
Archaeological Research and Environmental Sciences Studies Related to Fish in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland 32
The Faeroes 34
The Faeroes and Environmental Sciences Research 36
Archaeo-ichthyological Research 38
Fishing and Fishing Communities: Anthropological, Archaeological and Historical Approaches 42
III. Interdisciplinarity and Environmental History: Setting the Methodology 49
Primary Sources 50
Environmental History and Theories 53
Consilience 54
Historicism, Materialism, Functionalism and Behaviourism 55
Economics and Anthropology 57
Environmental Archives 59
Geoarchaeology and Micromorphology 59
Zooarchaeology 62
A Holistic Approach 64
IV. Sagas and Archives 65
Part 1: Icelandic and Faeroese primary sources and the writing of history 66
Sagas 67
'Íslendinga sögur', The Sagas of the Icelanders 70
'Landnámabók' or Book of Settlement 72
'Grágás' and 'Íslendingabók' 74
Church & Public Records: 'Diplomatarium Islandicum' 77
Part 2: Reading the sources thematically 79
Exploiting Sea and Rivers 79
Fishermen and Those involved in Fishing 84
Traders and Commercial Partnerships 86
Ship and Cargo 91
Icelanders and Norwegian Kings 96
V. Modelling the Exploitation of Aquatic Resources and the Emergence of Commercial Fishing in Iceland and the Faeroes 103
The Climate and Geography of Iceland 104
The Climate and Geography of the Faeroes 107
Marginality and Rationality as a Conceptual Framework 110
Marginality: Adaptation and Resilience 111
Behaviour and Rationality 112
Environmental Factors and the Norse Pioneers of Iceland and the Faeroes 115
Environmental Determinism and the Settlement of Iceland and the Faeroes 116
Resource Possibilism and the Settlement of Iceland and the Faeroes 119
Exploitation of Aquatic Systems 126
Icelandic and Faeroes Waters 126
Off shore, Inshore and Riverine Fish Resources 127
Marine Species 128
Riverine Species 131
Economic Commonwealth: Core and Periphery within the North Atlantic Realm 133
Economic Patterns from the Later Iron Age to the Medieval Period 134
Emergence of an Original Icelandic Economy or Scandinavian Continuity? 135
An Atlantic Economic Commonwealth 136
Emergence of Specialised Workers 137
Exploiting Renewable Resources for Commercial Purposes 138
Icelandic and Faeroese Merchants? 140
Regulating the Trade and Fishing Rights: Sea and Riverine Rights 142
Trading Network 143
National-Regional Trade, Markets and Fair: Alþíng og Þíng 143
Fishing and Settlement Patterns 145
High Status Farm – Coastal and Inland 147
Mid-Rank Farm 148
Fishing Stations 149
Gender Exploitation of Ecosystems 151
Church and Fish 152
Icelandic Seafaring 157
Navigation Skills 157
Ship and Seafaring Regulations 159
Iceland and the European Fish Markets 160
VI Geoarchaeology of the Emergence of Commercial Fishing: Testing Historical and Environmental Reconstructions of
the Emergence of Commercial Fishing 167
Geo-archaeology: Understanding Human Economic History through the Use of Landscape 167
Identifying Settlement Patterns 167
The Soils of Iceland 169
Micromorphology: Investigating Human Economic Patterns through Soil Analysis 170
Methodology 173
Zooarchaeology: Understanding Human Economic Behaviour through Bone Finds 173
Bone Recovery: Archaeological Contexts 174
Methodology 175
The Norse Fish Horizon 176
Reconstructing Commercial Fishing: Case Studies 178
Árneshreppur, Strandasýsla, North West Iceland 180
Gjögur 181
Akurvík 189
The Westfjords: Vatnsfjörður 195
Mývatnssveit: Skútustaðir 198
The Faeroes 204
Undir Junkarinsfløtti 205
Á Sondum 209
Environmental Archives and Human behaviour: modelling fish based paleo-economies in Iceland and the Faeroes 214
VII Conclusion 219
Bibliography 231
Index 251
