Journal of the North Atlantic (JONA)
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Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities
The new digital Ecocene journal has just launched and is a digital, open-access, peer-reviewed, international, and transdisciplinary journal of the Environmental Humanities. It is a biannual journal with Winter (December) and Summer (June) issues. More details.
NABO Publications
The NABO community is constantly producing material for publication and wider outreach. This ranges from material submitted to peer-reviewed academic journals, books chapters, monographs, excavation reports, laboratory reports, magazine articles and many others.
A growing list of links to these will be added to this page. The links to the left are to unpublished field and laboratory reports (mainly from NORSEC, based at Brooklyn College, CUNY) and IPY NABO Project reports.
Quaternary International: Circumpolar Human-Environment Special Issue (2020)
Archaeological sites as Distributed Long-term Observing Networks of the Past (DONOP)
Three new papers are out in Quaternay Internation, and one of these led by George Hambrecht leads a paper looking into how distributed long-term datasets from archaeological sites https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.04.016.
A sub-centennial, Little Ice Age climate reconstruction using beetle subfossil data from Nunalleq, southwestern Alaska
Véronique Forbes heads a paper looking at the lifeways of modern native (Yup'ik) communities living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) delta of southwestern Alaska. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.07.011.
Pre-contact adaptations to the Little Ice Age in Southwest Alaska: New evidence from the Nunalleq site
This paper led by Edouard Masson-MacLean explores human subsistence strategies, adaptation and resilience at Nunalleq, a recently excavated pre-contact Yup'ik coastal site in southwest Alaska. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.05.003.
Dimensions of inequality. Comparing the North Atlantic and the US Southwest
Orri Vésteinssona, Michelle Hegmon, Jette Arneborg, Glen Rice and Will G. Russell (2019) Dimensions of inequality. Comparing the North Atlantic and the US Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 54, 172-191. DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2019.04.004
Analysis of three different realms of inequality in two pairs of small-scale pre-industrial societies in two very different and culturally unconnected regions – Hohokam and Mimbres in the US Southwest and Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic – suggests that inequality can be successfully used as a yardstick to compare societies in the past. The study finds that there were significant inequalities in these small-scale farming societies – often described in previous studies as “egalitarian” – but that proxies for economic inequality like access to productive resources and to exotic goods do not fully reflect the range and nature of these inequalities. Access to ritual space is found to be a more sensitive measure of actual inequalities as experienced by members of these societies.
Zooarchaeology of the Scandinavian settlements in Iceland and Greenland: diverging pathways
Thomas H. McGovern, Konrad Smiarowski, George Hambrecht, Seth Brewington, Ramona Harrison, Megan Hicks, Frank J. Feeley, Céline Dupont-Hébert, Brenda Prehal, and James Woollett (2017) The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199686476.013.9
The Scandinavian Viking Age and Medieval settlements of Iceland and Greenland have been subject to zooarchaeological research for over a century, and have come to represent two classic cases of survival and collapse in the literature of long-term human ecodynamics. The work of the past two decades by multiple projects coordinated through the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) cooperative and by collaborating scholars has dramatically increased the available zooarchaeological evidence for economic organization of these two communities, their initial adaptation to different natural and social contexts, and their reaction to Late Medieval economic and climate change. This summary paper provides an overview of ongoing comparative research as well as references for data sets and more detailed discussion of archaeofauna from these two island communities.
Tephra isochrons and chronologies of colonisation
Magdalena Schmid, Andrew J. Dugmore, Orri Vésteinsson and Anthony J. Newton (2016) Tephra isochrons and chronologies of colonisation, Quaternary Geochronology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2016.08.002
This paper demonstrates the use of tephrochronology in dating the earliest archaeological evidence for the settlement of Iceland. This island was one of the last places on Earth settled by people and there are conflicting ideas about the pace and scale of initial colonisation. Three tephra layers, the Landnam (‘landtaking’)tephra layer (A.D. 877 ± 1), the Eldgja tephra (A.D. 939) and the recently dated V-Sv tephra (A.D.938 ± 6) can be found at 58% of 253 securely-dated early settlement sites across the country. The presence of the tephras permits both a countrywide comparison, and a classification of these settlement sites into pre-Landnam, Landnam and post-Landnam. The data summarised here for the first time indicate that it will be possible to reconstruct the tempo and development of the colonisation process in decadal resolution by more systematically utilising the dating potential of tephrochronology
Too Many Bones: Data Management and the NABONE Experience
Management of Zooarchaeological data became a growing problem during the career of Brian Hesse and his early engagement with attempts to digitize recording systems needs recognition. This paper presents an account of attempts to respond to problems identified by Brian in the 1970’s, extending through multiple levels of technology and responding to the increasing volume and importance of zooarchaeological data in the past four decades. Brian’s influence on the NABONE data management system developed for the North Atlantic region is gratefully acknowledged
Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland
Karin M. Frei, Ashley N. Coutu, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Christian K. Madsen, Jette Arneborg, Robert Frei, Gardar Guðmundsson, Søren M. Sindbæk, James Woollett, Steven Hartman, Megan Hicks & Thomas H. McGovern (2015): Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland. World Archaeology DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2015.1025912
Walrus-tusk ivory and walrus-hide rope were highly desired goods in Viking Age north-west Europe. New finds of walrus bone and ivory in early Viking Age contexts in Iceland are concentrated in the south-west, and suggest extensive exploitation of nearby walrus for meat, hide and ivory during the first century of settlement. In Greenland, archaeofauna suggest a very different specialized long-distance hunting of the much larger walrus populations in the Disko Bay area that brought mainly ivory to the settlement areas and eventually to European markets. New lead isotopic analysis of archaeological walrus ivory and bone from Greenland and Iceland offers a tool for identifying possible source regions of walrus ivory during the early Middle Ages. This opens possibilities for assessing the development and relative importance of hunting grounds from the point of view of exported products.
Regular Journal of the North Atlantic Publications
To view these recent articles, simply go to JONA's website.
Erika Guttmann-Bond, Jennifer Dungait, Alex Brown, Ian Bull, and Richard Evershed (2016) Early Neolithic Agriculture in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland: Geoarchaeology of the Céide Fields, Belderrig, and Rathlackan. Journal of the North Atlantic 30, 1-32.
Juha Marttila (2016) Resources, Production, and Trade in the Norse Shetland. Journal of the North Atlantic 29, 1-20.
Shane McLeod (2015) Legitimation through Association? Scandinavian Accompanied Burials and Pre-historic Monuments in Orkney. Journal of the North Atlantic 28, 1-15.
Árni Einarsson (2015) Viking Age Fences and Early Settlement Dynamics in Iceland, Journal of the North Atlantic 27, 1-21
Véonique Forbes, Frédéric Dussault, and Allison Bain (2014) Archaeoentomological Research in the North Atlantic: Past, Present, and Future Journal of the North Atlantic 26, 1-24
Shane McLeod (2014) The Rediscovery of U 170: Runestones, Churchyards, and Burial Grounds in Sweden. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 1-8.
Matthew W. Betts, Stéphane Noél, Eric Tourigny, Mélissa Burns, Peter E. Pope, and Stephen L. Cumbaa (2014) Zooarchaeology of the Historic Cod Fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Journal of the North Atlantic 24, 1-21.
Gary A. King, Harry Kenward, Edith Schmidt, and David Smith (2014) Six-legged Hitchhikers: An Archaeobiogeographical Account of the Early Dispersal of Grain Beetles. Journal of the North Atlantic 23, 1-18.
2010 Hebridean Archaeological Forum
To view the articles in this special issue (Issue-in-Progress), go to JONA's website.
Niall Sharples (2015) A Short History of Archaeology in the Uists, Outer Hebrides. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 1-15.
Rebecca Rennell (2015) Re-engaging with the Iron Age Landscapes of the Outer Hebrides. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 16-34.
Ian Armit and Fiona Shapland (2015) Death and Display in the North Atlantic: The Bronze and Iron Age Human Remains from Cnip, Lewis, Outer Hebrides. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 35-44.
Mark Thacker (2015) Cille Donnain Revisited: Negotiating with Lime Across Atlantic Scotland from the 12th Century. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 45-66.
Sarah Thomas (2015) Beyond the Parish Church: A Study of Chapels in the Parishes of Kirkapoll on Tiree and Snizort on Skye. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 67-82.
Tom Dawson (2015) Eroding Archaeology at the Coast: How a Global Problem is Being Managed in Scotland, with Examples from the Western Isles. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 83-98.
Trevor Cowie and Mary MacLeod Rivett (2015) Machair Bharabhais: A Landscape Through Time. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 99-107.
Kevin Colls and John Hunter (2015) Archaeological Signatures of Landscape and Settlement Change on the Isle of Harris. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 108-124.
Matt Law and Nigel Thew (2015) Land Snails, Sand Dunes, and Archaeology in the Outer Hebrides. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 125-133.
Lucy J.E. Cramp, Helen Whelton, Niall Sharples, Jacqui Mulville, and Richard P. Evershed (2015) Contrasting Patterns of Resource Exploitation on the Outer Hebrides and Northern Isles of Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Norse Period Revealed through Organic Residues in Pottery. Journal of the North Atlantic 25, 134-151.
Debating the Thing in the North II: Selected Papers from Workshops Organized by The Assembly Project
To view the articles in this special issue (Issue-in-Progress), go to JONA's website.
Frode Iversen (2015) Community and Society: The Thing at the Edge of Europe, 1-17
Manuel Fernández-Götz and Nico Roymans(2015) The Politics of Identity: Late Iron Age Sanctuaries in the Rhineland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 8, 18-32
Patrick Gleeson (2015) Kingdoms, Communities, and Óenaig: Irish Assembly Practices in their Northwest European Context. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 8, 33-51
Elizabeth FitzPatrick(2015) Assembly Places and Elite Collective Identities in Medieval Ireland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 8, 52-48
Natascha Mehler (2015) Þingvellir: A Place of Assembly and a Market? Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 8, 69-81
Ola Svensson (2015) Place Names, Landscape, and Assembly Sites in Skåne, Sweden. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 8, 82-92
Viking Settlers of the North Atlantic: An Isotopic Approach
To view the articles in this special issue (Issue-in-Progress), go to JONA's website.
Símun V. Arge (2014) Viking Faroes: Settlement, Paleoeconomy, and Chronology. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 1-17.
Niels Lynnerup (2014)) Endperiod demographics of the Greenland Norse. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 18-24.
Philippa L. Ascough, Mike J. Church, Gordon T. Cook, Árni Einarsson, Thomas H. McGovern, Andrew J. Dugmore, and Kevin J. Edwards (2014) Stable Isotopic (d13C and d15N) Characterization of Key Faunal Resources from Norse Period Settlements in North Iceland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 25-42.
Carolyn A. Chenery, Jane A. Evans, David Score, Angela Boyle, and Simon R. Chenery (2014) A Boat Load of Vikings? Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 43-53.
Janet Montgomery, Vaughan Grimes, Jo Buckberry, Jane A. Evans, Michael P. Richards, and James H. Barrett (2014) Finding Vikings with Isotope Analysis: The View from Wet and Windy Islands. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 54-70.
T. Douglas Price (2015) An Introduction to the Isotopic Studies of Ancient Human Remains. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 71-87.
T. Douglas Price and Elise Naumann (2015) The Peopling of the North Atlantic: Isotopic Results from Norway. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 88-102.
T. Douglas Price, Karin Margarita Frei, and Elise Naumann (2015) Isotopic Baselines in the North Atlantic Region. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 7, 103-136.
In the Footsteps of Vebæk: Vatnahverfi Studies 2005-2011
To view the articles in this special issue, go to JONA's website.
Antoon Kuijpers, Naja Mikkelsen, Sofia Ribeiro, and Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz Impact of Medieval Fjord Hydrography and Climate on the Western and Eastern Settlements in Norse Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 6, 1-13.
Frédéric Dussault, Véronique Forbes, and Allison Bain (2014) Archaeoentomology at Tatsip Ataa: Evidence for the Use of Local Resources and Daily Life in the Norse Eastern Settlement, Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 6, 14-28.
Paul M. Ledger, Kevin J. Edwards, and J. Edward Schofield (2014) Vatnahverfi: A Green and Pleasant land? Palaeoecological Reconstructions of Environmental and Land-use Change. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 6, 29-46.
Vincent Bichet, Emilie Gauthier, Charly Massa, and Bianca B. Perre (2014) Lake Sediments as an Archive of Land Use and Environmental Change in the Eastern Settlement, Southwestern Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 6, 47-63.
Michèle Hayeur Smith (2014) Dress, Cloth, and the Farmer's Wife: Textiles from Ø 172 Tatsipataa, Greenland, with Comparative Data from Iceland. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vol. 6, 64-81.
Farming in the Norse Fjords
in the Comparative Island Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic (CIE)
Interim Field report on surveys and sampling in the southern Eastern Settlement Summer 2013
The Comparative Island Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic Project (CIE) seeks to improve scientific understanding of complex interactions between human governance, climate change, human environmental impact, and world system effects on the diverging fates of two closely related Scandinavian communities in Greenland and Iceland. What are the lessons from these two thousand year cases of long-term human ecodynamics with radically different outcomes? And how can these cases of the past be mobilized to serve modern efforts to secure a genuinely sustainable future? What lessons of survival and extinction can be learned and taught for both local northern community heritage and for global education for sustainability?
This project tackles the research question: Why didn’t Norse Greenland survive multiple stresses in the later Middle Ages when Iceland did?
Madsen, C.K., Nielsen, M., Simpson, I., Smiarowski, K. and Arneborg, J. (2014) Farming in the Norse Fjords in the Comparative Island Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic (CIE): Interim Field report on surveys and sampling in the southern Eastern Settlement Summer 2013. The National Museum of Denmark, Department of Danish Middle Age and Renaissance, Copenhagen. pp 65.
Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic
A Collaborative Model of Humans and Nature through Space and Time
Ramona Harrison and Ruth A. Maher have compiled a series of separate research projects conducted across the North Atlantic region that each contribute greatly to anthropological archaeology. This book assembles a regional model through which the reader is presented with a vivid and detailed image of the climatic events and cultures which have occupied these seas and lands for roughly a 5000-year period. It provides a model of adaptability, resilience, and sustainability that can be applied globally.
Further details on this book are available on the Lexington Books website.
Debating the Thing in the North. Selected Papers from Workshops Organized by The Assembly Project
The Journal of the North Atlantic has just published a special volume of 8 research papers on the assembly and the part it played in Norse society in the 9th-12th centuries. This is an output from the successful Assembly Project.
Contributions of ectoparasite studies in archaeology with two examples from the North Atlantic region
Véronique Forbesa, Frédéric Dussault and Allison Bain have just published a paper on ectoparasite studies in archaeology and presents two original case studies from Iceland and Greenland.
Human and animal ectoparasites are often recovered from archaeological contexts being examined forpreserved insect remains. Records of human lice, fleas and bedbugs are used to reconstruct past sanitaryconditions and practices, as well as their geographic distribution and that of the pathogens for which theymay be vectors. Ectoparasites of domesticated and wild animals may be considered proxy indicatorsfor the presence of those animals whilst also inferring activities such as wool processing. This papersummarizes the contribution of ectoparasite studies in archaeology and presents two original case studiesfrom Iceland and Greenland.
International Journal of Paleopathology
Across the Sólundarhaf: Connections between Scotland and the Nordic World
Selected Papers from the Inaugural St. Magnus Conference 2011
This collection of diverse papers constitutes the legacy of the Inaugural St. Magnus Conference, held at the Centre for Nordic Studies, UHI, in Kirkwall, Orkney's Royal Burgh, on the 14th and 15th April 2011. This 2-day international conference was structured around the theme of the cultural and historical links between Scotland and Scandinavia. Papers were delivered by speakers from fourteen countries including Scotland, the UK more generally, Canada, and the Nordic World. The date was chosen to coincide with the Feast of St. Magnus, the native saint of the Orkney and a popular figure throughout the Norse Atlantic settlements. The conference proved to be a major event, with more than one hundred participants.
Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4 (2013) http://www.bioone.org/toc/noat/4/sp4Vegetation Burning in Greendland during Landnám
Bishop, R.R., Church, M.J., Dugmore, A.J., Koch Madsen, C. and Møller, Neils (2013) A charcoal-rich horizon at Ø69, Greenland: evidence for vegetation burning during the Norse landnám? Journal of Archaeological Science 40, 3890-3902.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.04.012
It is often assumed that the colonisation of Greenland by Norse settlers in c. A.D. 985 had a sudden and dramatic effect on the environment, involving substantial vegetation clearance and environmental degradation. Consequently, it has been argued that charcoal-rich horizons, visible in many sections in Greenland, represent the initial burning of the vegetation by Norse farmers to create land suitable for agriculture. In this study a charcoal-rich layer, visible in a modern drainage ditch beside the Norse farm of Ø69, was analysed using archaeobotany, sedimentary analysis and radiocarbon dating to test the date and formation processes of the horizon. It is demonstrated that the charcoal-rich layer at Ø69 was not derived from in situ vegetation burning in the 10th century and concluded that the layer was probably formed by the addition of midden material to the infields around Ø69 in the 13th and 14th centuries cal AD, perhaps as part of a soil amendment strategy. It is argued that caution must be exercised when interpreting charcoal-rich horizons as time-specific chronological markers in palaeoenvironmental sequences in Greenland.
Journal of the North Atlantic: Publication Format Change
The Journal of the North Atlantic has shifted the publication format of regular content. Papers which are not part of special volumes are being individually issued with their own covers in order to better highlight these important contributions. The latest journal content can be viewed here.
Dating of the Viking Age Landnám Tephra Sequence in Lake Mývatn Sediment, North Iceland
Soil profiles and archaeological sites in Northeast Iceland contain a sequence of basaltic tephra layers coinciding in time with the first human settlement of the area during the Viking Age, known as the Landnám tephra sequence. The chronology of these layers is useful when reconstructing the history of human settlement in Iceland and its environmental impact. The only properly dated tephra layer from this tephra sequence is the Landnám tephra layer (LTL), formed in the A.D. 870s. Sedimentation rates calculated from the interval between tephra layers of known age (A.D. 871±2, 1158, and 1300) in high-resolution sediment cores from Lake Mývatn were used to establish the approximate age of six tephra layers in the medieval period. One of the main objectives of the study was to improve dating of a younger tephra layer, formed in the mid-10th century according to previous studies. This tephra layer, originating from the Veiðivötn volcanic system, has proven to be a very important marker bed for archaeological research in the Mývatn area. The results indicate that the 10th century Veiðivötn tephra formed in the period A.D. 930-940. The paper proposes the name V-Sv for this tephra layer. Tephrochronology established from lacustrine sediment cores with high sedimentation rates can provide valuable additional information for constructing chronologies at archaeological sites in the North Atlantic. Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson, Ulf Hauptfleisch, Anthony Newton and Ãrni Einarsson.
Glaciology and volcanology on the centenary of Sigurður Þórarinsson's birth: a special issue
2012 marked the centenary of the birth the great Icelandic geographer Sigurður Þórarinsson (1912-1983), who was the pioneer of tephrochronology and glaciological studies in Iceland. To commerate this important anniversary, Jökull Icelandic Journal of Earth Sciences published a special edition. It contains some 16 articles on a wide range of subjects that have been heavily influenced by Sigurður Þórarinsson. These include articles on how to extend tephrochronology beyond its traditional uses, distal tephras in Sweden, marine tephrochronology on the Iceland Shelf, glaciological studies of Langjökull, Kotárjökul, Sólheimajökull and Brúarjökul amongst others.
Table of contents for volumes 1 - 62.
A new paper on tephrochronology by Andy Dugmore and Anthony Newton forms part this special volume of Jökull. This paper reflects on the application of tephrochronology in geomorphology. A common use oftephra layers is to define isochrons and use them to date environmental records. Applications of tephrochronology with the greatest practical utility, however, involve both classic isochrons (layers with an extensive distribution, distinctive well-characterised properties and good independent dating) and all other tephras present, including poorly-identified, unprovenanced and re-mobilised units that define time transgressive horizons. The effective use of this "total tephrochronology" requires replication across multiple sites, the clear identification of primary tephra deposits and re-mobilised deposits, combined with a good understanding of when tephra deposits truly define isochrons. Large scale replication of tephra stratigraphy is possible (and desirable) with terrestrial sequences, and can offer a detailed understanding of both geomorphological processes and human interactions with the environment. It is possible to use sequences of unprovenanced tephras as a "barcode" to undertake local correlations and refine the application of well-known marker horizons to environmental records. High frequency and high resolution measurement of both the units between tephra layers and the tephra layers themselves can identify subtle shifts in landscape stability and land use.
Urbanization in Reykjavík: Post-Medieval Archaeofauna from the Downtown Area
Reykjavík, capital of Iceland, developed from a dispersed rural settlement to nucleated urban community during the last 250 years. Prior to the mid-18th century, Iceland was a rural society that lacked towns or even substantial villages, with seasonal market centers and elite manor farms managing economic activities for widely dispersed farms and seasonal fishing stations. This paper focuses on two downtown Reykjavík faunal collections as part of the urban development from the mid-17th century. The collections from Aðalstræti 10 and Tjarnargata 3c reflect some of the changes associated with increasing population density and specialized production in a more densely populated area. Some of the finds data and history of the town are incorporated into this text as well as a brief comparison of all the post-medieval downtown Reykjavik collections with the archaeofauna from the 18th-century layers from the former southern bishop's estate at Skálholt and also with that of the fishing farm Finnbogastaðir in the Westfjords. The substantial archaeofauna from Tjarnargata 3c and Aðalstræti 10 help identify the nature of these two sites and their role in the emerging town. Ramona Harrison and Mjöll Snæsdóttir. Link to article.
Greenland Isotope Project: Diet in Norse Greenland AD 1000 - AD 1450
Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume No. 3 presents one of the most comprehensive studies to date of the food consumption and dietary economy of a historical population based on stable isotope analysis. The Norse Greenlanders are in this respect particularly of interest because their settlements in Greenland were constrained chronologically (ca. 500 years) and physically (the pasture lands of Southwestern Greenland). Archaeological efforts in Greenland have very likely uncovered all the settlement areas, including churches and cemeteries; thus, we can be reasonably assured that while new finds of, e.g., farmsteads may appear in future, the overall picture of the Norse settlements is pretty much fixed.
Norse Greenland: selected papers from the Hvalsey Conference 2008
The Journal of the North Atlantic has recently published the book Norse Greenland - selected papers from the Hvalsey Conference 2008. Editors are Jette Arneborg, Georg Nyegaard and Orri Vésteinsson. The book is about 200 pages and includes 16 papers on various aspects of the Norse settlement in Greenland. For those interested in purchasing a copy of the book, contact kristborg@instarch.is.
Archaeologies of the Early Modern North Atlantic
This special issue of the Journal of the North Atlantic has its origin in the 2006 North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) conference held at the Université Laval in Québec. One of the central themes of this conference was the early modern period (ca.1500-1800 CE). This special volume has gathered a number of papers, some that were presented at the conference and others that were not, which represent some of the work being done in historical/post-medieval archaeology across the North Atlantic today. The regions and approaches of the authors published in this issue reflect the variety and diversity of methodologies and subjects open to archaeologists working on the early modern North Atlantic.
Workshop on the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions of 2010 and implications for tephrochronology, volcanology and Quaternary studies
The first meeting of Tephra in Quaternary Science (TIQS), the new QRA research group, was held at Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, 5th-6th May 2011 and involved 36 participants from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, from the UK, Iceland, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland and France. The aim of TIQS is to bring together individuals and groups with wide-ranging expertise in order to promote cross-group collaborations for optimizing and advancing tephrochronology. The meeting discussed the lessons that can be learned from the Eyjafjallajökull 2010 eruption. Common themes and community concerns discussed included: 1) the need for comparable data, 2) reworking and preservation of tephra in the proximal and distal records, 3) tephra grain size distributions, 4) protocols for tephra measurement, 5) Quaternary distal tephras, 6) contemporary distal tephras, 7) input parameters for models and, 8) the importance of preparedness in advance of future eruptions. A full report and community statement can be found on Tephrabase at http://www.tephrabase.org/tiqs2011/tiqs2011_report.pdf and also on vhub at https://vhub.org/resources/1027. This workshop was supported by North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation (NABO) and with funding from the Quaternary Research Association and from the INTREPID project "Enhancing tephrochronology as a global research tool" of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA)'s International focus group on tephrochronology and volcanism (INTAV) and the National Science Foundations of America through the Office of Polar Programmes 1042951 "RAPID: Environmental and Social Impacts of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption". This enabled us to support postgraduate student and early career researcher participation. The second meeting of TIQS will take place in Spring 2012, last two and a half to three days and will be held at Royal Holloway, London and discussion topics will include proximal and distal correlations (chemistry, stratigraphy, age), using tephra as a chronological tool and progress from TIQS 2011.
Andy Dugmore, Anthony Newton and Kate Smith
Orkney Gateway to The Atlantic: Archaeological Work in Rousay 2010
Interim Report No.1 (Data Structure Report) of the excavations at the Mound of Brough (South Howe), the ditch northeast of Midhowe and the Knowe of Swandro is now available to be downloaded. This project will be shortly be added to the NABO Project Management System.
FSÍ Archaeological Reports
During 2010 FSÍ have added details on over 70 archaeological sites and over 130 field reports into the NABO Project Management System. All of the reports are now available and can be viewed here.
GLTHEC Workshop Community Statement 2010
Tom McGovern has produced the Eagle Hill Global Long Term Human Ecodynamics Conference Report and Community Statement. This was circulated amongst the conference participants for comments and suggestions and is now available here.
Hofstaðir. Excavations of a Viking Age Feasting Hall in North-Eastern Iceland
New publication: Monograph on excavations at Hofstaðir in North-Eastern Iceland
The long awaited publication of the The Institute of Archaeology excavations of the Viking settlement of Hofstaðir in Mývatnssveit is now available. An international group of 45 archaeologists provide an in-depth and detailed analysis and interpretation of the 1992-2002 investigations of this classic site. At c. 500 pages with over 200 illustrations, the volume represents a landmark in Icelandic archaeology and will set a new standard for excavation monographs.
The monograph is in English with an extended Icelandic summary.
The price for the book is 5.990 ISK (£30 /$48 /€35 not incl. shipping costs). Orders can be placed by sending an e-mail to kristborg@instarch.is or by telephone +354-5511033.
NABO 2008 Bradford Community Statement
Problems, Potentials, and Progress in North Atlantic Human Ecodynamics