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Human impact on freshwater environments in Norse and early medieval Iceland

Lawson, IT; Gathorne-Hardy, FJ; Church, MJ; Einarsson, A; Edwards, KJ; Perdikaris, S; McGovern, TH; Amundsen, C; Sveinbjarnardóttir, G

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Authors

IT Lawson

FJ Gathorne-Hardy

A Einarsson

KJ Edwards

S Perdikaris

TH McGovern

C Amundsen

G Sveinbjarnardóttir



Contributors

J Arneborg
Editor

B Grønnow
Editor

Abstract

Preliminary data from fish bone assemblages preserved in middens at Norse and early medieval farm sites in Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland, suggest that the pattern of fish exploitation changed during the first few centuries following the settlement. Freshwater taxa become less common in deposits at some sites between the 9th and 12th centuries AD, replaced by saltwater species such as cod or by domestic mammals. Within the freshwater fish taxa, the proportion of lake (e.g. arctic charr) to river fish (e.g. brown trout) tends to increase over the same period. One possible interpretation of these patterns is that fish stocks in rivers and, perhaps to a lesser extent, lakes declined in response to degradation of freshwater environments following the settlement. Here we examine palaeolimnological data which suggest that increased sedimentation rates, increased nutrient status, and increased algal and chironomid production in some lakes occurred in concert with clearance of woodland and destabilisation of soils following landnám. These changes are unlikely to have had a negative impact on the food supply for freshwater fish, so an alternative explanation must be sought for the patterns in the archaeofaunal data.

Citation

Lawson, I., Gathorne-Hardy, F., Church, M., Einarsson, A., Edwards, K., Perdikaris, S., …Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. (2006). Human impact on freshwater environments in Norse and early medieval Iceland. In J. Arneborg, & B. Grønnow (Eds.), Dynamics of northern societies : proceedings of the SILA/NABO Conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology, Copenhagen, May 10th-14th, 2004 (375-382)

Conference Name Dynamics of Northern Societies - Proceedings of the SILA/NABO-conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology.
Publication Date Jun 1, 2006
Deposit Date Dec 5, 2008
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Pages 375-382
Series Title PNM studies in archaeology & history
Series Number 10
Edition 1st
Book Title Dynamics of northern societies : proceedings of the SILA/NABO Conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology, Copenhagen, May 10th-14th, 2004.
Keywords Norse, Landnam, Human impact, Freshwater.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1162497
Publisher URL http://www.unipress.dk/en-gb/List.aspx?l=c&id=10097

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