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A Millennial Sustainability at the District Center farm ofSkútustaðir N. Iceland
Megan T. HICKS City University of New York, Ph.D. Program in Archaeology
CUNY HERC Open Corkshop in Sustainability Science and Education
North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (nabohome.org),
US National Science Foundation International Polar Year
ArchaeologicalInstitute Iceland
CUNY Northern
Science and Education Center
REU
From McGovern et al 2007
Sites bandoned before 1300
Skútustaðir’s Main Farm Area
Historic Farm Mound
Framengjar (outer hayfields)
Mývatn’s major southern route
Arctic Char Fishing grounds
Eider duck habitat
Hay infields
Hay infields
Hay infields
E3
DG
E1&2
H
Excavation Areas: approximate locations
2008 E1 & 2, D and F2009 G and H2010 H and E32011 H
10 M
F
Top of farm Mound
Aerial Kite Photograph by Garðar Guðmundsson (FSI)
N
Skútustaðir Present Infield & Midden Excavation Area
Area G
Profile by Edwald 2009, radiocarbon dates provided by SUERC
V1717
V1477
H1300H1300K1262
V940
V871
SkútustaðirTotal Number of Fragments (TNF) and Number of Identified Specimens (NISP)(Hicks 2010)
Analysis began in 2009 and is ongoing. Results are preliminary.
DATA from Hicks 2010
Zoo‐archaeology Preliminary Results
Caprine per Cattle : Myvatn Archaeofaunas (Brewington et al. 2004)
Increasing climate variability. Dugmore et al. 2012
13th c.
A greater focus on cows than other Mývatn farms? DATA from Hicks 2010
Hay Portioning Reports late 19th c through early 20th c.
Hay portioning reports in the Mývatn area apparently came into use after “catastrophic shortages” in the mid to late 1800’s
‐ The reports categorize hay and tally livestock
‐ Tracked which farmers might need support
‐ not all farmers complied with this practice at first
Hay Portioning Reports Show:• Individual level and community level
decision making to manage risk• Landscape use• Livestock demography• Status differences
Supported by the Comparative Island Ecodynamics project lead by Thomas H. McGovern (National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs grant 1202692).
Example of a hay portioning report 1896
Species Proportions from 1882 Skútustadir District Hay Report
Cattle
Horses
Sheep
Cattle to sheep ratio at this time is 1:75
1,5 1,5 2 2 0 3 1 1 2 2 2 1 0,5 0,5 00 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 1 01 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
80
26
8064
20
90
54 56
7460
85
2817 10 12
70
20
76
68
17
55
40 40
67
15
65
22
1213 12
32
12
22
0
4
0
23 18
20
30
30
5
00 0
8
2
6
4
2
3
3 3
5
6
7
3
12 1
0
50
100
150
200
250
Livestock Counts from Skutustaðir District Hay Report 1889
Horses
Wethers
Lambs
Ewes
Calves
Steer
Milk Cows
Sheep are the near total focus of early modern production
Ewes and lambs are the majority while wethers are more rare
Among cattle, milk cows outnumber steer and calves
Visible status differentiation between farms and farmers.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Hay Stores in Skútustadir district 1896measured in Vt. (1 Vt. = 80 pounds)
Outfield Hay
Infield Hay
Land tenure and resources-this hay report from 1896 shows the two farms richest in hay, border the framengjar or, “wet meadows”
IMPORTSColonial vs. Post‐industrial
Photographs by A. Kendall, T. Petursdottir, M. Hicks, A. Edwald
1477 - 1717 tephra Early Modern
Sheet Copper
Luxury imports(walrus ivory or incisor)
Tobacco Pipes
Fish HooksRed earthenware
Industrial whitewares/porcelain
Industrially produced nails
Bird eggs and bird bones: long term sustainable resource management
Egg shell in situ at Skútustaðir
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Hrisheimar
Sveigakot
Steinbogi
Skútustaðir
Hofstadir
Waterfowl
Ptarmigan
Coastal Birds
23
12
2
101 12
17 9
23 697 6
7 230
Data from McGovern et al. 2006 and Hicks 2010(All phases combined, no AVSP)
Egg Shell, magnified Egg Shell,
In situ at SKU
8
Fish and Marine Resources‐ “coping with hard times?”
Skútustaðir: Preliminary NISP of Seals
DATA from Hicks 2010
Higher proportion of fish into the early modern period?
Future Directions
• Ongoing faunal analysis• SEM Identification of egg shell from all phases • Additional Archival Research• Continued outreach with the Kids’ Archaeology
Program http://www.nabohome.org/projects/kap/fornleifaskolibarnanna1.pdf
Colleagues: Thanks to Dr. Thomas H. McGovern, Dr. Sophia Perdikaris. Our work partners at Fornleifastofnun Islands, especially Thora Petursdottir and Agusta Edwald. Orri Vesteinsson and the field teams in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 which included CUNY Graduate students George Hambrecht, Frank Feeley, Aarron Kendall, Seth Brewington and Amanda Schriener, Marianne Robson (Uni. Bradford), Veronique Forbes (Aberdeen) and Val De Feu (Stirling). Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students from Brooklyn College under the supervision of Dr. Sophia Perdikaris also contributed greatly in the field.
Community: Thanks to our hostess at Skútustaðir, Gerdur Benediktsdóttir. We also owe many thanks to Dr. Arni Einarsson for locating this important site in 2007 and providing us with excellent support and hospitality at the splendid Mývatn Research Station. Thanks are also due to the students, community supervisors, and school staff of the Kids Archaeology project, Iceland (KAPI, formerly Fornleifaskóli barnanna).
Support: Funding support from the US National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Arctic Social Science Program through International Polar Year grant 0732327 is gratefully acknowledged. This report is a product of the International Polar Year program and of the NABO research cooperative.
THANK YOU
Sources CitedBrewington, S., R. Harrison, C. Amundsen, and T. H. McGovern.2004. An early 13th‐century Archaeofauna from Steinbogi, Mývatn District, NorthernIceland. NORSEC Laboratory, CUNY. New York, NY, USA. Report No. 11
Andrew J. Dugmore, Thomas H. McGovern, Orri Vésteinsson, Jette Arneborg, Richard Streeter, and Christian Keller. Cultural Adaptaion, componding vulnerabilities and conjunctures in Norse Greenland 2012 PNAS March 6, 2012 vol. 109 no. 10 3658‐3663
Hicks, Megan. 2010. Skútustaðir: an Interim Zooarchaeological report following the 2009 field season. Norsec Report No 48. www.nabohome.org.
Karlsson, Gunnar. 2000. Iceland’s 1100 years: the history of a marginal society. C Hurst: London.
McGovern, Thomas, Sophia Perdikaris, Arni Einarsson, and Jane Sidell. 2006 Coastal Connections, local fishing, and sustainable egg harvesting: patterns of Viking age inland resource use in Mývatndistrict N. Iceland. Environmental Archaeology. Volume 11 No.2.
McGovern, Thomas H., Orri Vésteinsson, Adolf Fridricksson, Mike Church, Ian Lawson, Ian A. Simpson, Arni Einarsson, AndyDugmore, Gordon Cook, Sophia Perdikaris, Kevin J. Edwards, Amanda M. Thompson, W. Paul Adderly, Anthony Newton, Gavin Lucas, Ragnar Edvardsson, Oscar Aldred, and Elaine Dunbar. 2007. Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland: Historical Ecology of Human Impact and Climate Fluctuation on the Millenial Scale. American Anthropologist 109(1) 27‐51.
ISLEIF Database administered by Fornleifastofnun Islands, Icelandic Institute of Archaeologywww.instarch.is/english/ Iceland
Hicks 2012, 77th SAA’s