Gufuskálar
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| Project Connections: | This project is not linked to any other projects |
Project Details | |
| Title: | Gufuskálar |
| Permalink: | https://www.nabohome.org/cgi-bin/explore.pl?seq=95 |
| Abstract: | The farm of Gufuskálar lies on the westernmost tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula under the glacier known as Snæfellsjökull. While the farm likely dates to the Viking Age the site was home to a mysterious and intensive commercial fishing venture during the 15th century. A mid-15th century legal document mentioned fourteen fishing booths (seasonally occupied structures intended to house fishers) at the site, although we have not identified this many as they may have succumbed to coastal erosion or other destructive processes. The dried fish product they produced was likely transported back to continental Europe in connection with continental European merchants and/or fishers. The site is significant for its proto-industrial level of dried fish production. It is constructed just after Iceland’s first brush with Bubonic Plague and may be a response to the effects of extreme depopulation. As chiefly/magnate/aristocratic power temporarily waned post-plague it may be that enterprising Icelandic fishers engaged in some sort of proto-capitalism in connection with the English merchants who wielded great influence in Iceland at the time.
The fishing station was excavated between 2008 and 2015 by Fornleifastofnun Íslands in partnership with the City University of New York and represents an important resource for understanding Icelandic fisheries history and for broader issues of North Atlantic Maritime Historical Ecology and trade connections. |
| Keywords: | medieval, commercial fishing, fishing, fishing station, cod |
| Sponsors/Funders: | Fornleifastofnun Íslands |
| The City University of New York | |
| Country: | Iceland |
| Region: | Snæfellsbær |
| Project Start Year: | 2008 |
Account Owner | |
| Contact: | Fornleifastofnun Íslands |
| Postal Address: | Bárugata 3, 101 Reykjavík, ICELAND |
| Post Code: | 101 |
| Telephone: | 00354-5511033 |
| Website: | http://www.instarch.is |
| Email: | fsi@instarch.is |
Project Content
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Preliminary Assessment of the faunal remains from the 2008 excavations at Gufuskálar, Snæfellsnes [0.31 MB] This report is regarding the zooarchaeological remains excavated from Gufuskálar, on the north coast of Snæfellsnes in the west of Iceland, during the summer of 2008. |
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Mammal Consumption at the Medieval Fishing Station at Gufuskálar [0.34 MB] This report details the analysis of mammal bones recovered from one of the four trenches excavated at the medieval fishing station of Gufuskálar during the summer of 2011. During excavation it was noted that there seemed to be a high proportion of mammal bones recovered which correspond with high quality cuts of meat. This was counter to assumptions regarding the economic status of fishermen during the medieval era as these cuts of meat would be rather expensive. The preliminary zooarchaeological analysis from Trench 8 suggests that the people fishing at Gufuskálar were eating rather well. |
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The Final Report on the Archaeofauna from Context 147 at the Medieval Fishing Station at Gufuskálar, Western Iceland. [0.73 MB] The 15th century commercial fishing station at Gufuskálar is anomalous among fishing stations in Iceland - at least those have been excavated thus far. Rich in imported artifacts and well-provisioned with expensive foods the fishers at Gufuskálar were clearly not only impoverished tenant farmer/fishers as was often the case in better documented early modern times. This report details the zooarchaeological analysis of one of the contexts excavated during the 2013 field season from a dense midden deposit dated to the early to mid-15th century CE. The large number of bones analyzed gives us a clear picture of the commercial processing of cod (Gadus morhua) as well as the provisioning of the fishers. Gufuskálar primarily produced the more desirable stockfish (large cod dried “in the round” or without being slit open and dried flat) and that the fishers were provisioned with choice cuts of sheep and probably dried haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus). Gufuskálar represents an important resource for understanding Icelandic fisheries history and for broader issues of North Atlantic Maritime Historical Ecology. |
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Fornleifakönnun á verbúðarleifum á Gufuskálum, Snæfellsnesi - Bráðabirgðaskýrsla [3.43 MB] In 2008 the focus of investigations at Gufuskálar, a well known fishing station, were three badly eroded mounds close to the shore line. The aim was to clean the profiles and cast light on the nature of the remains, preservation etc. Four profiles were cleaned and recorded. It is clear from the results that all three mounds contain substantial cultural remains. Many finds were retrieved although none were useful in the dating process - except a chess pice, retrieved from the bottom of one section, dated roughly to the 14th-15th centuries. Tephras were not of any help as can be expected for this part of the country. Faunal remains are in excellent condition. |
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2011 Archaeological investigations on the fishing station at Gufuskálar, Snæfellsnes [11.12 MB] Following assessment in 2008, when four erosion scars were cleaned back and sections drawn, an archaeological excavation took place in 2011. The focus within the site was on the two main mounds by the sea which are under threat by active marine and wind erosion. Based on work done in 2008, four trenches (Tr. Nr. 5,6,7 and 8) were placed in the most eroded areas of the two mounds. A new topographic survey was done on the two mounds but also on other visible structures such as the farm mounds and alleged þurrabúðs. In total, an area of about 7.2 hectares was covered and around 47 structures mapped in. |
Project Location
Latitude: 64.904°N
Longitude: 23.936°W