Heaps of cultural layering: Two Valleys Project Midden Archaeology in regional and international contexts

Heaps of cultural layering: Two Valleys Project Midden Archaeology in regional and international contexts

Ramona Harrison

In 2021, the Icelandic Research Council (RANNÍS) funded the multidisciplinary research project called Power, Wealth and Plague in Two Valleys: Svarfaðardalur, Hörgárdalur and their hinterlands ca. AD 870-1500. Organized into six sub-projects (work packages), Two Valleys Project identifies different scales of long-term human-environment interactions in NE Iceland to investigate the dynamics of the region´s settlement and socio-economic history.

This presentation focuses on the Midden Archaeology Work Package (WP2) which started in summer of 2021 with the goal to identify, document, sample, and analyse the contents of well-stratified midden layers to document traces of human-environment interactions in these valley systems.

Over three field seasons, extensive soil coring assessments were carried out at 9 farm ruins of both lower and middle-to-high social status. The team test-trenched 3 farm midden sites: Staðartunga in Hörgárdalur, Tjörn in Svarfaðardalur, and Kóngsstaðir in Skíðadalur. Here, a first overview of the Midden Archaeology project and the state of the research will be presented, including the challenges of synthesizing results from a large, inter-disciplinary research collaboration such as Two Valleys Project.

Fyrirlesturinn er hluti af Nýjar rannsóknir í fornleifafræði 2025, fyrirlestraröð Félags fornleifafræðinga og námsbrautar í fornleifafræði við Háskóla Íslands. Fyrirlesturinn fer fram í stofu 202 í Odda, Háskóla Íslands. Einnig verður hægt að fylgjast með í streymi hér: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85215880089?pwd=NF05NwGJPG23v1TOCJh6kK6r0aY8dv.1