Viking Archaeology in Iceland: Mosfell Archaeological Project

282 Pages·2014·113.55 MB·English

by  Davide Zori

Viking Archaeology
in Iceland
CURSOR MUNDI
Cursor Mundi is produced under the auspices of the Center for
Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
Executive Editor
Blair Sullivan, University of California, Los Angeles
Editorial Board
Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University
Christopher Baswell, Columbia University and Barnard College
Florin Curta, University of Florida
Elizabeth Freeman, University of Tasmania
Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Lauren Kassell, Pembroke College, Cambridge
David Lines, University of Warwick
Cary Nederman, Texas A&M University
Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles
VOLUME 20
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of this book.
Viking Archaeology
in Iceland
Mosfell Archaeological Project
Edited by
Davide Zori and Jesse Byock
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The Mosfell Archaeological Project is conducted in Iceland by Víkingaminjar directed by Jesse
Byock with field director Davide Zori. The work is done in collaboration with the Zentrum für
Baltische und Skandinavische Archäo logie (ZBSA), directed by Claus von Carnap-Bornheim.
The following institutions have sponsored our research and the completion of this book:
© 2014, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2014/0095/101
ISBN: 978-2-503-54400-7
e-ISBN: 978-2-503-54421-2
Printed on acid-free paper
Dedication
We dedicate this book of our research to our colleague Professor Phillip Walker
who passed away. We miss Phil. He was a great scholar, a fine archaeologist,
a world-renowned physical anthropologist, and a wonderful friend with
an extraordinary sense of humor. The collaboration with the people of the
Mosfell Valley and the town of Mosfellsbær has been one of the great joys of
this project, and we also dedicate to them this collection of scientific studies
about their valley.

Contents
Illustrations. .................................................................... ix
Colour Plates. ................................................................ xvii
Acknowledgements ........................................................... xxv
Chapter 1 Introduction to Viking Age Archaeology
in Iceland’s Mosfell Valley
JESSE BYOCK and DAVIDE ZORI ............................................. 1
Chapter 2 Governmental Partnership with the Mosfell Archaeological Project:
Past, Present, and Future
BJöRN THRáINN THóRðARSON .......................................... 19
Chapter 3 The Mosfell Archaeological Project:
Archaeology, Sagas, and History
JESSE BYOCK .............................................................. 27
Chapter 4 Egill’s Grave? Archaeology and Egils Saga at Kirkjuhóll, Hrísbrú
JON M. ERLANDSON, JESSE BYOCK, and DAVIDE ZORI ...................... 45
Chapter 5 Interdisciplinary Modelling of Viking Age and Medieval Settlement
in the Mosfell Valley
DAVIDE ZORI .............................................................. 55
Chapter 6 Infectious Disease in Viking Age Iceland
PER HOLCK ............................................................... 81
Chapter 7 Bioarchaeological Evidence of Stress and Activity in the
Medieval Hrísbrú Cemetery in the Mosfell Valley, Iceland
JACqUELINE T. ENG ....................................................... 87
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 8 Reconstructing Diets and Origins of Vikings at Hrísbrú, Mosfell Valley, Iceland:
The Carbon, Nitrogen, and Strontium Isotope Evidence
VAUGHAN GRIMES, BENJAMIN T. FULLER, and ERIC J. GUIRY ..............105
Chapter 9 Artefacts from the Viking Age Longhouse at Hrísbrú
SIGRID CECILIE JUEL HANSEN, DAVIDE ZORI, and JESSE BYOCK ...........117
Chapter 10 Beads from Hrísbrú and their Wider Icelandic Context
ELíN HREIðARSDóTTIR ..................................................135
Chapter 11 Interpreting Social Space and Social Status in the Viking Age House
at Hrísbrú Using Integrated Geoarchaeological and Microrefuse Analyses
KAREN MILEK, DAVIDE ZORI, COLIN CONNORS,
WALTRAUD BAIER, KATE BAKER, and JESSE BYOCK ........................143
Chapter 12 Viking Age Foodways at the Hrísbrú Farmstead
DAVIDE ZORI, THOMAS WAKE, JON ERLANDSON,
and RúNAR LEIFSSON .....................................................163
Chapter 13 Landscape Change, Land Use, and Occupation Patterns Inferred from
Two Palaeoenvironmental Datasets from the Mosfell Valley, SW Iceland
EGILL ERLENDSSON, KEVIN J. EDWARDS,
and GUðRúN GíSLADóTTIR ..............................................181
Chapter 14 The Recovery and Analysis of Macrobotanical Remains from Hrísbrú
STEVE L. MARTIN .........................................................193
Chapter 15 Viking Age Routes, Landscape, and Power in the Mosfell Region
COLIN GIOIA CONNORS .................................................207
Chapter 16 Viking Age Hedeby and Its Relations with Iceland and the North Atlantic:
Communication, Long-distance Trade, and Production
VOLKER HILBERG and SVEN KALMRING ..................................221
Index. ........................................................................ 247
Illustrations
Colour Plates
Plate 1. The Hrísbrú longhouse and church excavations. ...................................................... xvii
Plate 2. Longhouse excavation begins in the hayfield at Hrísbrú north of Kirkjuhóll. .......................... xvii
Plate 3. Aerial view of the Hrísbrú longhouse looking west. ...................................................xviii
Plate 4. The two-phased Hrísbrú church in its final form. .....................................................xviii
Plate 5. Spindle whorls recovered in the Hrísbrú house. .......................................................xix
Plate 6. Examples of Viking Age beads found in Iceland. ........................................................xx
Plate 7. A sample of Viking Age beads found in the Hrísbrú longhouse. .......................................xxi
Plate 8. Micromorphological samples from the western doorway
and the antechamber of the Hrísbrú house. .......................................................... xxii
Plate 9. Micromorphological samples from the central hall of the Hrísbrú house. .............................xxiii
Plate 10. Micromorphological samples from the eastern gable room of the Hrísbrú house. .....................xxiv
Figures
Figure 1.1. Topography of the Hrísbrú farmstead.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Figure 1.2. Site map of the excavated Viking Age longhouse, church, and burial ground at Hrísbrú. ...............4
Figure 1.3. The Hrísbrú site c. ad 1000. .........................................................................5
Figure 1.4. Four ‘eye beads’ made east of the Caspian Sea. .......................................................6
Figure 1.5. Aerial view of the Viking Age longhouse. ............................................................9
Figure 1.6. Looking west through the central hall of the Hrísbrú longhouse. .....................................9
x Illustrations
Figure 1.7. Profile drawing showing a cross-section of the central hall of the Hrísbrú longhouse. ............... 11
Figure 1.8. Map of the church and graveyard at Hrísbrú. ...................................................... 12
Figure 1.9. The excavated church at Hrísbrú. .................................................................. 13
Figure 1.10. The two building phases of the Hrísbrú stave church. ............................................... 13
Figure 1.11. The Mosfell Archaeological Project 2008 team at the longhouse excavation. ........................ 14
Figure 1.12. The farmers at Hrísbrú, ólafur Ingimundarson and Andrés ólafsson,
with Jesse Byock and Phillip Walker. ............................................................... 16
Figure 3.1. The longhouse at Hrísbrú in Mosfell Valley built c. 900, under excavation. .......................... 32
Figure 3.2. MAP’s excavation sites at the modern farm Hrísbrú. ............................................... 33
Figure 3.3. Man-made stone settings shaped like ships. ........................................................ 33
Figure 3.4. Site plan of the Kirkjuhóll and tún excavations at Hrísbrú. ......................................... 34
Figure 3.5. Re-construction of Hrísbrú from MAP’s site plans. ................................................ 34
Figure 3.6. Structural view of the Hrísbrú longhouse detailing the building’s internal wooden frame. ........... 38
Figure 3.7. The conversion-age stave church at Hrísbrú. ....................................................... 40
Figure 3.8. Disarticulated skeleton of a young man in his early twenties. ....................................... 40
Figure 3.9. Carved whale bone found among the disarticulated human bones in Reburial 4. .................... 41
Figure 3.10. The Axed-Man of Mosfell in the Hrísbrú graveyard. ................................................ 42
Figure 4.1. The excavated remnants of the conversion era church at Kirkjuholl, Hrísbrú. ........................ 46
Figure 4.2. A 1983 mudflow at Hrísbrú which swept off the south-facing slopes of Mosfell mountain. .......... 47
Figure 4.3. Jesse Byock and Shawna Rider beginning the excavation of the grave shaft
under the floor of the chancel. ..................................................................... 48
Figure 4.4. Jon Erlandson excavating the grave shaft beneath the chancel floor. ................................. 49
Figure 4.5. The grave shaft under the chancel, looking west. ................................................... 50
Figure 5.1. Aerial photograph from 2006 of the Hrísbrú farmstead. ........................................... 62
Figure 5.2. Map of the Hrísbrú farmstead drawn in 1916 showing the location and layout of the farm. ......... 62