1. Early Globalization and Human Ecodynamics in
Eyjafjord, Iceland
Ramona Harrison
City University Of New York
ramona.harrison@gmail.com

2. The research area

3. Gasir site Church/
Churchyard
Late medieval trading station – later
13th – late 14th c. AD (C14)
Written sources indicate earlier use
Seasonal occupation
Sunken feature buildings with turfwalls
for height and roofs
Main ruin area c.180m x 70m
Church c.15m x5m
Churchyard c.25m in diameter - no burials!
As many as 120 “rooms” in 6 clusters.
Central trackways
Trading Site
Circa.10.000m² (1ha) of visible archaeology

4. Picture: Hörður Geirsson. 2006.
http://www.gasir.is

5. Gasir subsistence

6. Fish
Consumer monger Gasir Fish
Ratio of Cleithrum vs. Premaxilla (%)
100%
• Fish Consumption profile
90%
across site = many more
80% Consumer Producer post cranial elements vs.
70% cranial.
60% • One specialized activity
50%
area: preparation of fresh
fish – on-site fish monger
40%
– there, many more cranial
30%
elements vs. post-cranial.
20% • Story about fisherman
10% from Siglunes
0%
(northwestern end of
Gás
total
Gás
2076
SVK 2 SVK 3 HST 3 HST 4
gadid gadid gadid gadid
HRH AKV AKV
gadid 24 cod 22 cod
GJO
AU 2
GJO
AU 1
FBS
cod
fjord), bringing a boat full
gadid,
w /o
gadid cod cod
of fish to trade at Gasir
2076
market (Sturlunga Saga,
Cleithrum % Premaxilla %
Vigfusson 1878) .

7. Nature of Exchange
and Site Activity
Odobenus rosmarus – Walrus tusk
Photo: Roberts et al 2004
Sulphur processing
Lap dogs...
keys.lucidcentral.org
Falco rusticolus –
Grain pests ... Gyrfalcon

8. Pottery drinking vessels, metal cooking vessels (?)
and stone baking plates
Gisladóttir & Snæsdóttir in Roberts et al 2010
Baking plate - Norway Brorson in Roberts et al 2009
Siegburg Stoneware - Germany
http://futuremuseum.rorywilson.net/
Brorson in Roberts et al 2009 Bronze cooking pot ...
Majolica - Spain not Icelandic

9. The textiles
Sheep ked puparia at Gasir
wool or textiles rather than live animals present
http://coloradodisasterhelp.colostate.edu/prefair/disease
/dz/Lice.html
Modruvellir medieval textiles
re-used vaðmál/cloth money
uniform assemblage
Gasir textiles
Vaðmál in Churchyard & Trading site Hayeur Smith in Vesteinsson et al
2011
Range of qualities and threads counts
Roving in Trading site
Long twists of combed raw wool
Hayeur Smith in Vesteinsson et al 2011

10. Possible Gásir supply streams
Siglunes
Fishing station –
supply of
standardized cod
fish product for
commercial export? Gásir later 13th
& 14th c. (AD)
Trading Site,
seasonal
Hörgárdalur
Immediate
Hinterland Supply
Region – beef and
mutton, wool –
standardized
product for export

11. Gasir later 13th
Modruvellir – Monastic & 14th c. AD.
Farm Estate, largest Trading Site,
landholder in valley seasonal
system. Midden dates:
13th – 20th c. AD.
Akureyri – Capital of NE
Oddstadir – Medium to
Iceland, regional trading
Larger scale farm site.
port from 15th c. AD on.
Dates to late 9th – late 14th
c. AD.
Skuggi – Small scale
Klausturhus – tenant farm. On farmland
Specialized owned by the Monastic
seasonal herding Estate. Dates to 10th –
station, likely 12th c. AD.
replaces Skuggi
farm in 12th c. AD.

12. Gasir and Hinterlands
calibrated Radiocarbon dates
(SUERC)

13. Long-term regional Chronology of the valley system:
Transition from Settlement Time to Later Middle Ages
H 1104 Tephra H 1300 Tephra
V 871 Tephra
Phase II Phase IV
Later Viking Age; End of Commonwealth/
ca. AD 1000 Sturlunga Age; ca. 13th c
Settlement (Oddstaðir and (Gásir, Möðruvellir, Oddstaðir;
of Iceland Skuggi) possibly Klausturhús)
AD 871 AD 1000 AD 1100 AD 1200 AD 1300 AD 1400
Phase I Phase III Phase V
Settlement & Early Post-Christianization, Iceland under Norwegian
Viking Age (basal Commonwealth Period; (1264-1380) /
Oddstaðir) ca. mid11th- mid12th c Danish (1380+) control;
(Oddstaðir and Skuggi) late 13th-early 15th c
(Gásir, Möðruvellir,
Oddstaðir)

14. Increased storminess and temperature
fluctuations in the 13th and 14th c.

15. Long-term regional and single site Chronologies
through faunal collections from local farm middens

16. 13th / 14th c. Cattle Bone Element Distributions –
Gásir – Prime cuts from prime age cattle (and caprines)

17. Gasir, Iceland, North Atlantic/Norway, NW
Europe – Medieval World System
1500km
= ca. 2-3 days of
sailing in favorable
winds
Howell M. Roberts http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Archaic_globalization.svg

18. Siglunes ...
Mound B – Section. Chess figure
from Haddock bone in context (150)

19. THANKS!
US National Science Foundation (Grants OPP ARC 0732327 and OPP
ARC 0809033),
• Thomas H. McGovern
• Sophia Perdikaris
• Howell M. Roberts
• Andy Dugmore
• Orri Vesteinsson
• NABO – North Atlantic Biocultural Organization
• FSI – Archaeological Institute of Iceland
• HERC, NORSEC (CUNY)
• Fornleifasjóður, Iceland (2011, 2008 excavations)
• And many others!