Skip to content

Project Details: Where should I put this shieling?

NABO>Text Menu>Research>NABO Projects>Project Details
 

Project Description

Title: Where should I put this shieling?
Description The project was part of the dissertation submitted for the completion of the course MSc GIS and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. The dissertation aimed to explore the theory of Norse pastoral subsistence system using GIS. The basic assumption was the North Atlantic setup of transhumance that a permanently occupied farmstead always had a seasonally occupied shieling. Further, the research explores the idea that the Norse subsistence system on Greenland manifested itself through the increased 'level of connection' and that the mutual exploit of resources was done through organised labour involving several farmsteads. These hypotheses formed the research question behind the dissertation: was the optimal path through the landscape between farmsteads the key factor in the positioning of the shielings in Vatnahverfi region or is their location purely governed by the distribution of the resource areas. These approaches were tested in GIS, using the least cost analysis and site catchment. After the application of the least cost analysis model in Central Vatnahverfi, where a substantial amount of shielings was known, and establishing that a fair amount of those shielings were indeed in the vicinity of the modelled communication routes, the same model was applied to Alluitsup region in Vatnahverfi where very few pastoral shielings were known. In this way, the model can be used as the basis for future surveys as it suggests the possible locations of new simple and complex pastoral shielings.
Keywords:organised pastoral labour
exploit of pastoral resources
modelling communication routes
Country Greenland
Region Vatnahverfi
Project Start Year 2015
Project End Year 2015

Project Contact

Contact: Nera Segvic
Address 12 Woodburn Terrace
Postcode EH10 4SJ
Email s1467443@ed.ac.uk

Search for downloads with the tags: organised pastoral labour, exploit of pastoral resources, modelling communication routes

  • Search Text

  • Download Categories

  • Download Tags



Search Projects:



 

Browse the NABO website: