"SAGAS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: THE MOSFELL ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (MAP)"

Medieval Seminar - Engir Strengleikar

Fimmtudaginn 27. janúar 11 í Árnagarðis, stofu 304, kl. 16:30

Speaker: Jesse Byock

"SAGAS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: THE MOSFELL ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (MAP)"

We are happy to present our second speaker this semester, Jesse Byock, who will give a report on the on-going and exciting archaeological survey at Mosfell. We look forward seeing most of you there.

As on previous occasions, the seminar concludes with drinks at modestprice (400 ISK).

Submissions to the seminar series are still most welcome - please contact Viðar Plsson ([e-mail]) or Jóhanna Katrn Fririksdttir ([e-mail]).

Jesse Byock is Professor of Old Norse and Medieval Icelandic Studies at UCLA, where he also serves as a member of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. He has written extensively on medieval Iceland, including _Feud in the Icelandic Saga_ (1982), _Medieval Iceland_ (1988) and _Viking Age Iceland_ (2001).

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"This talk considers the relationship of sagas and archaeology in light of the recent findings of the Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP). I willdiscuss the excavations in the Mosfell Valley (Mosfellsdalur) in Iceland, where we are unearthing a chieftain's establishment at Hrsbr, including a large and extremely well-preserved longhouse (_eldskli_) from the Landnm Period, a conversion-age church, a graveyard, and a cremation grave. So also I will talk about other sites of our excavations in the Mosfell Valley, including large ship-like stone settings and a Viking Age harbor.
According to several sagas, the Mosfell Valley was the home of the Mosfell chieftains a family of warriors, farmers, and legal specialists, thatincluded the Law Speaker, Grmur Svertingsson, 1002-1004. Although mentioned in several sagas, the Mosfellingar chieftains have been given almost no attention in modern Icelandic historical or archaeological research because
historians and most archaeologists avoid the sagas. Purposefully ignoring this long, and
perhaps wrong research tradition, we have excavated sites mentioned in the sagas. The result is that MAP's excavations have produced a significant new body of source material. We have unearthed a wealth of extensive material culture beginning in the very early landnm period up
into the twelfth century. The continuing task of our archaeology is to unearth in the valley's glaciated and once wooded landscape the prehistory and early history of the Mosfell region. We seek the data to provide an in-depth understanding of how this countryside or _sveit_ evolved from the earliest Viking Age habitation.

The Mosfell excavation is a large interdisciplinary research project employing the tools of archaeology, history, anthropology, forensics, environmental sciences, and saga studies. This highly interdisciplinary work is constructing a picture of human habitation and environmental change in Mosfellssveit. As part of our excavations, we are developing an archaeological concept, which we term "valley-system archaeology" and which we believe is especially suitable for Icelandic research. Mosfellsdalur, the surrounding highlands, and the lowland coastal areas form a "valley system," that is, an interlocking series of natural and man-made components that, beginning in the ninth-century settlement or _landnm_ period,
developed into a functioning Icelandic community of the Viking Age."