Deep Coring, Viking Age Accumulation Rates and Household Wealth in Skagafjörður, Northern

117 Pages·2016·5.93 MB·English

University of Massachusetts Boston
ScholarWorks at UMass Boston
Graduate Masters Theses Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses
6-1-2015
Deep Coring, Viking Age Accumulation Rates and
Household Wealth in Skagafjörður, Northern
Iceland
Eric D. Johnson
University of Massachusetts Boston
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Graduate Masters Theses.Paper 318.
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DEEP CORING, VIKING AGE ACCUMULATION RATES AND HOUSEHOLD
WEALTH IN SKAGAFJÖRÐUR, NORTHERN ICELAND

A Thesis Presented
by
ERIC D. JOHNSON

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies,
University of Massachusetts Boston,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

June 2015

Historical Archaeology Program
© 2015 by Eric D. Johnson
All rights reserved
DEEP CORING, VIKING AGE ACCUMULATION RATES AND HOUSEHOLD
WEALTH IN SKAGAFJÖRÐUR, NORTHERN ICELAND

A Thesis Presented
by
ERIC D. JOHNSON

Approved as to style and content by:

________________________________________________
John M. Steinberg, Senior Scientist, Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
Co-Chairperson of Committee

________________________________________________
Douglas J. Bolender, Research Assistant Professor
Co-Chairperson of Committee

________________________________________________
Dennis Piechota, Conservator, Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
Member

_________________________________________
Stephen W. Silliman, Program Director
Historical Archaeology Program

_________________________________________
R. Timothy Sieber, Chairperson
Department of Anthropology
ABSTRACT

DEEP CORING, VIKING AGE ACCUMULATION RATES AND HOUSEHOLD
WEALTH IN SKAGAFJÖRÐUR, NORTHERN ICELAND

June 2015

Eric D. Johnson, B.A., Northwestern University
M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston

Directed by Dr. John M. Steinberg

Discerning and explaining social and economic differences is a fundamental task
of archaeology, but a fine-tuned measure of household wealth is often obfuscated by the
inability to account for time or demographics in the archaeological record. This project
tests the ways that Iceland, settled by Norse populations between A.D. 870 and 930,
provides a temporally-sensitive mode of measuring household income through average
rates of deposition of architectural material and fuel refuse while also providing a context
for studying the emergence of inequality in a previously uninhabited landscape. In 2014,
a deep-coring survey of 11 occupational sites was conducted in the region of Langholt in
Skagafjörður, Northern Iceland to supplement shallow-coring data previously collected
by the Skagafjörður Archaeologcial Settlement Survey. Volumetric estimates of sites
were generated in ArcGIS. Site occupation duration before A.D. 1104 was used to
calculate average accumulation rates. I argue that average accumulation rates can be used
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as a proxy for household income and thus wealth over time. There is a strong logarithmic
relationship between the average accumulation rates and occupation duration of sites,
suggesting that the settlement order impacted wealth advantages. I argue that the concept
of precedence, or the correlation of settlement order and wealth advantages over time,
can be used to help understand the long-term dynamics of inequality in Langholt as both
an economic and social process.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Fieldwork for this project was made possible in part through the Dr. Robert W.
Spayne Research Grant awarded to me by the Graduate Student Assembly at the
University of Massachusetts Boston. Everyone at the Fiske Center for Archaeological
Research, the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum and the entire Skagafjörður Archaeological
Settlement Survey team deserves a wholehearted “thank you.” I am indebted to both of
my families—my parents and siblings as well as my cohort at UMass—during my time in
Boston for their support at every stage in the process. Those who were in the field with
me in the summers of 2013 and 2014 were instrumental in the physical and intellectual
labor contributing to this project: James Carter, Julie Powers, Alicia Sawyer, John
Shoenfelder, Rita Shepard, Brian Damiata, Guðný Zoëga and Kat Catlin. Thanks to my
committee, Dennis Piota, John Steinberg and Doug Bolender, and finally my mentors,
John Steinberg and Doug Bolender, for their continuous criticism, encouragement and
inspiration.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................. vi

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... viii

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER Page

1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1
Size, Population, Time and Wealth........................................ 8
Farm Mounds ......................................................................... 13
The Settlement of Iceland ...................................................... 25
Langholt, Skagaförður ........................................................... 30

2. METHODS .................................................................................... 33
Previous SASS Work ............................................................. 36
Field Methods ........................................................................ 38
Viking Age Areal Extent and Thickness Calculation ............ 46
GIS Interpolation and Volumetric Calculation ...................... 48

3. RESULTS ...................................................................................... 54
Volume vs. Areal Extent Regression Analysis ...................... 54
Volume vs. Time Regression Analysis .................................. 56
Accumulation Rate vs. Occupation Duration ........................ 59

4. INTERPRETATION...................................................................... 62
Average Accumulation Rates, Consumption, Income and
Wealth .................................................................................... 62
The Impact of Precedence ...................................................... 68
Suggestions for Future Research ........................................... 71

APPENDIX

A. VOLUMETRIC DATASET CORES ........................................... 74

B. SITE MAPS................................................................................... 84

REFERENCES CITED .................................................................................. 95

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Map of Iceland with Skagafjörður outlined ................................... 5

2. Map of Skagafjörður with Langholt outlined ................................ 6

3. Langholt Survey Area; sites mentioned ......................................... 7

4. Sydra-Skörðugil farm mound ........................................................ 15

5. Viking Age farmstead excavations and houseplans....................... 23

6. Passageway farmhouse excavations and houseplans ..................... 24

7. JMC Backsaver Core ..................................................................... 42

8. Hammer-percussion Eijkelkamp bi-partite gauge auger ................ 42

9. Shallow coring form ...................................................................... 43

10. Deep coring form ............................................................................ 44

11. Area and volume regression graph ................................................. 57

12. Volume and occupation duration regression graph ........................ 58

13. Accumulation rate and occupation duration regression graph ........ 60

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Coring metadata ............................................................................. 35

2. Types of cultural deposits found in cores ...................................... 41

3. Linear meters of sampled cultural material per site ....................... 46

4. Volumetric metadata – Viking Age Thickness, DCD, H1 per site 52

5. Farm data – area, volume and accumulation rate per site .............. 53

6. Regression analyses ....................................................................... 61

7. Pearson correlations ....................................................................... 61
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