Landnám, Land Use and Landscape Change at Kagaðarhóll in Northwest Iceland

ABSTRACT

Palaeoecological studies from across Iceland, in tandem with historical and archaeological examinations, have helped improve our understanding of patterns and processes involved in the initial settlement of Iceland. Here, we present a new high resolution reconstruction of vegetation and landscape dynamics for the farm Kagaðarhóll, a lowland site in Austur-Húnavatnssýsla, Northwest Iceland, a region with a notable scarcity of known archaeological sites. Through palynology and the analysis of lithological proxies, the study locates and examines human influence at the study site and evaluates the mechanisms of environmental change. Prior to settlement, following long-term vegetation regression, Betula woodland interspersed with sedge bog was prevalent at Kagaðarhóll. Woodland clearance and grazing was initiated no later than AD 900, illustrating the arrival of humans. Over the following centuries, the record shows continued grazing, increased soil erosion and a transition into heathland and shrubland indicative of anthropogenic environmental degradation. Woodland conservation and management practices are also inferred. The study is important in extending knowledge of Icelandic environmental change and anthropogenic activity where archaeological research is scant and in bringing together regional patterns of settlement in order to understand wider settlement processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Palynology
• Iceland
• land use
• environmental change
• tephrochronology
• anthropocene

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Ólafur Eggertsson, Höskuldur Þorbjarnarson and Þorsteinn Jónsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh and Jakobína Ósk Sveinsdóttir for technical and laboratory support. The Blönduvirkjun hydropower plant kindly hosted us during fieldwork. Two anonymus reviewers and editor are thanked for valuable comments that improved the paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund [grant numbers NÝR-05-2019, NÝR-07-2020]; the Icelandic Research Fund [grant number 141842-051]; the University of Iceland Research Fund and the Hatfield Trust, Durham University [Gant Fund, 2018].

Notes on contributors

Rupert Bates

Rupert Bates studied Geography at Durham University, graduating in 2019. He is interested in Quaternary environmental history and environmental degradation, particularly in vulnerable environments.

Egill Erlendsson

Egill Erlendsson is Professor of Geography at the University of Iceland. Research interests include how anthopogenic activity, climate change and tephra deposits influence terrestrial environments across different temporal and spatial scales.

Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir

Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir (PhD in Geography) is a post-doctoral research fellow at Uppsala University and an expert in palynology. Her research interests include late-glacial migriation of biota, Holocene environmental change and anthropogenic impacts upon lacustrine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Susanne Claudia Möckel

Susanne Claudia Möckel is a PhD student of Geography at the University of Iceland. Her research focuses on carbon cycling in peatlands of volcanic regions along altitudinal and climatic gradients and gradients of mineral deposition.

Leone Tinganelli

Leone Tinganelli is a geographer (MSc), based at the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland. Fields of expertise include landscape stability, land degradation and reclamation, and carbon sequestration in soils and vegetation.

Guðrún Gísladóttir

Guðrún Gísladóttir is Professor of Geography at the University of Iceland. Her fields of research include terrestrial ecosystem development, vegetation, soil development and soil erosion on various temporal and spatial scales, and the interactive impacts of land-use, climate and volcanism thereon. Her research also includes the societal impacts of natural hazards, risk, and emergency managements. Her studies are often of inter-disciplinary character.