Pálstóftir: A Viking Age Shieling in Iceland

Abstract

This paper discusses the recent excavation of a 10th century shieling in the highlands of eastern Iceland and places it in the context of other sites and research into Viking age shielings in the North Atlantic. Although the basic economic role of shielings in relation to livestock and summer transhumance is not contested, it is argued that a more complex interpretation needs to be developed around such sites, to consider their ideological and political status. The presence of ‘subsidiary activities’ is often a prominent element in the archaeological record of such sites; the site of Pálstóftir provides indications of small scale craftwork, hunting and magico‐religious practices which need to be made a more central part of interpretation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Although the author was the director of the excavation, this paper would not be possible without all the people who were involved in the project, both in the field and subsequent specialist analysis. The author wishes therefore to thank the following: the excavators Adrian Chadwick, Anies Hassan, Banu Aydinoglugil, Kirsty Dingwall, Sigríður Þorgeirsdóttir, Óskar Sveinbjarnason and Stefán Ólafsson; the project manager Garðar Guðmundsson; the specialists Magnús Sigurgeirsson (tephra), Knud Rosenlund (zooarchaeology), Colleen Batey (artefacts), Lucy Verrill (pollen), Phil Buckland (insects), Karen Milek (micromorphology), Jacques Chabot (micro‐wear), Sólveig Guðmundsdóttir Beck (geochemistry). In addition, thanks are due to Orri Vésteinsson for his insightful comments on an earlier draft as well as two anonymous reviewers who made important suggestions for its improvement. The project was funded by Landsvirkjun and operated through Fornleifastofnun Íslands.

Notes

1. The site was discovered in October 2003 by Páll Pálsson (Pálsson 2003; hence the name of the site) and surveyed in 2004 as part of an assessment of the area affected by the dam project (Lucas & Guðmundsson 2005). In the same year, a small test pit (1×0.7 m) was dug to a depth of 1.2 m by the Icelandic State Heritage Agency (Fornleifavernd ríkisins) on top of the southern wall of one of the structures and in situ tephra sealing the wall determined that the structure dated to the Settlement period (Þráinsdóttir et al. 2004). Full excavation was carried out by Fornleifastofnun Íslands (http://www.instarch.is) on behalf of the energy company Landsvirkjun and in accordance with the Icelandic State Heritage Agency (Fornleifavernd ríkisins) and the State Law no. 107/2001 in the late summer of 2005.

2. A more recent study of shielings in Iceland using a larger database found that the average distance between shieling and farm was 2.2 km, though this varied regionally, the major anomaly being the north‐east county of Suður‐Þingeyjarsýsla where the average was 4.5 km (Pálsdóttir 2005). The study also found that most sites consisted of a single ‘ruin’, but these ruins were usually divided into separate rooms, three being the most common number of divisions (Pálsdóttir 2005:43–44).

3. I am indebted to Orri Vestéinsson for this idea.