Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:59:18.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The first settlers of Iceland: an isotopic approach to colonisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

T. Douglas Price  and
Hildur Gestsdóttir
T. Douglas Price
Affiliation:
1Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI 53706, USA (Email: [email protected])
Hildur Gestsdóttir
Affiliation:
2Institute of Archaeology, Bárugata 3, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The colonisation of the North Atlantic from the eighth century AD was the earliest expansion of European populations to the west. Norse and Celtic voyagers are recorded as reaching and settling in Iceland, Greenland and easternmost North America between c. AD 750 and 1000, but the date of these events and the homeland of the colonists are subjects of some debate. In this project, the birthplaces of 90 early burials from Iceland were sought using strontium isotope analysis. At least nine, and probably thirteen, of these individuals can be distinguished as migrants to Iceland from other places. In addition, there are clear differences to be seen in the diets of the local Icelandic peoples, ranging from largely terrestrial to largely marine consumption.

Keywords

Icelandcolonisationsettlementisotopesstrontiumhuman migrationenamel
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 307 , 1 March 2006 , pp. 130 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Åberg, G., Fosse, G. & Stray, H.. 1998. Man, nutrition and mobility: a comparison of teeth and bone from the Medieval era and the present from Pb and Sr isotopes. The Science of The Total Environment 224: 109–19.Google Scholar
Arneborg, J., Heinemeier, J., Lynnerup, N., Nielsen, H.L., Raud, N. & Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Á.E.. 1999. Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and 14C dating of their bones. Radiocarbon 41: 157–68.Google Scholar
Benediktsson, J. 1968. Íslensk fornritI. Íslendingabók, Landnámabók. Reykjavik: Hid íslenska fornritafelag.Google Scholar
Bentley, A., Price, T.D., Lüning, J., Gronenborn, D., Wahl, J. & Fullager, P.. 2002. Prehistoric migration in Europe: strontium isotope in early Neolithic skeletons. Current Anthropology 43: 799–804.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Montgomery, J., Evans, J., Chenery, C. & Powlesland, D.. 2000. Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon residential mobility from O-, Sr- and Pb-isotope analysis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 66 (S1),A109.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Reeh, N., Gundestrup, N., Clausen, H.B. & Hammer, C.U.. 1975. Climatic changes, Norsemen and modern man. Nature 255: 24–8.Google Scholar
Dickin, A.P. 1997. Radiogenic isotope geology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dunwell, A.J., Cowie, T.G., Bruce, M.F., Neighbour, T. & Rees, A.R.. 1996. A Viking age cemetery at Cnip, Uig, Isle of Lewis. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 125: 719–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldjárn, K. 2000. Kuml og haugfé. 2nd ed. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.Google Scholar
Ezzo, J., Johnson, C. & Price, T.D.. 1997. Analytical perspectives on prehistoric migration: a case study from east-central Arizona. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 447–66.Google Scholar
Faure, G. 1986. Principles of isotrope geology. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Faure, G. & Powell, J.L.. 1972. Strontium isotope geology. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridriksson, A. 2004. Haugar og heiðni. Minjar um íslenskt járnaldarsamfélag, in Björnsson, Á. & Róbertsdóttir, H. (ed.) Hlutavelta tímans. Menningararfur á Pjóðminjasafii. Reykjavík: National Museum of Iceland.Google Scholar
Gestsdóttir, H. 1998a. The palaeopathological diagnosis of nutritional disease: a study of the skeletal material from Skeljastadir, Iceland. MSc Dissertation: University of Bradford.Google Scholar
Gestsdóttir, H. 1998b. Kyn- og lífaldursgreiningar á beinum úr íslenskum kumlum.(Unpublished report of The Institute of Archaeology, Iceland: FS055-98181).Google Scholar
Gestsdóttir, H. 2004. The palaeopathology of Iceland: preliminary report 2003. Hafjardarey, Nedranes & Videy. (Unpublished report of The Institute of Archaeology, Iceland: FS225-99192).Google Scholar
Hermanns-Audardóttir, M. 1991. The early settlement of Iceland, with comments. Norwegian A rchaeological Review 34: 1–33.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 1996. Dental anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoppe, K.A., Koch, P.L. & Furutani, T.T.. 2003. Assessing the preservation of biogenic strontium in fossil bones and tooth enamel. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13: 20–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jónsson, B. 1885. Um Thjórsárdal. Árbok Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags. 1884-1885: 38–60.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1986. The Norse Atlantic saga: being the Norse voyages ofdiscoveryand settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kalsbeek, F. & Taylor, P.N.. 1999. Review of isotope data for precambrian rocks from the Disko Bugt region, West Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin 181: 41–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, M.J., Schoninger, M.J. & Valley, J.W.. 1996. Herbivore tooth oxygen isotope compositions: effects of diet and physiology. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60: 3889–96.Google Scholar
Larsen, L.M., Waagstein, R., Pedersen, A.K. & Storey, M.S.. 1999. Trans-Atlantic correlation of the Palaeogene volcanic successions in the Faeroe Islands and East Greenland. Journal ofthe Geological Society, London 156: 1081–95.Google Scholar
Loyn, H. 1977. The Vikings in Britain. New York,NY: St Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Magnússon, Á. & Vídalín, P.. 1933. Jardabók V. Hnappadals- og Snafellssýsla. Copenhagen: S.L.Möller.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Budd, P., Cox, A. , Krause, P. & Thomas, R.G.. 1999. LA-ICP-MS evidence for the distribution of Pb and Sr in Romano-British medieval and modern human teeth: implications for life history and exposure reconstruction, in Young, S.M.M., Pollard, A.M., Budd, P. & Ixer, R.A. (ed.) Metals in antiquity: proceedings of the international symposium. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Budd, P. & Evans, J.. 2000. Reconstructing lifetime movements of ancient people: a Neolithic case study from southern England. European Journal of Archaeology 3: 407–22.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Evans, J.A. & Neighbour, T.. 2003. Sr isotope evidence for population movement within the Hebridean Norse community NW Scotland. Journal ofthe Geological Society 160: 649–53.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Ezzo, J., Johnson, C.A., Ericson, J. & Burton, J.. 1994a. Residential mobility in the prehistoric southwest United States: a preliminary study using strontium isotope analysis. Journal of ArchaeologicalScience 21: 315–30.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Grupe, G. & Schrorter, P.. 1994b. Reconstruction of migration patterns in the Bell Beaker period by stable strontium isotope analysis. Applied Geochemistry 9:413–7.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Bentley, R.A., Gronenborn, D., Lüning, J. & Wahl, J.. 2001. Human migration in the Linearbandkeramik of Central Europe. Antiquity 75: 593–603.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Burton, J. & Bentley, R.A.. 2002. The characterization of biologically available strontium isotope ratios for the study of prehistoric migration. Archaeometry 44: 117–35.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, J. & Noe-Nygaard, A.. 1970. Geology of the Faeroe islands. Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse, Series I, 25.Google Scholar
Roberts, H.M., Snæsdóttir, M., Mehler, N. & Vésteinsson, . 2003. Skáli frá víkingaöld í Reykjavík. Arbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags 2000-2001: 219–34.Google Scholar
Rogers, G. & Hawkesworth, C.J.. 1989. A geochemical traverse across the North Chilean Andes: evidence for crust generation from the mantle wedge. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 91: 271–85.Google Scholar
Schilling, G. 1973. The Icelandic mantle plume: geochemical study of the Reykjanes ridge. Nature 242: 565–71.Google Scholar
Sealy, J.C., Van DER MERWE, N.J., Sillen, A., Kruger, F.J. & Krueger, H.W.. 1991. 87Sr/86Sr as a dietary indicator in modern and archaeological bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 399–416.Google Scholar
Sealy, J., Armstrong, R. & Schrire, C.. 1995. Beyond lifetime averages: tracing life histories through isotopic analysis of different calcified tissues from archaeological human skeletons. Antiquity 69: 290–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffensen, J. 1945. Rannsóknir á kirkjugardinum í Haffjardarey sumarid 1945. Skírnir CXX: 144–62.Google Scholar
Sun, S.-S. & Jahn, B.. 1975. Lead and strontium isotopes in post-glacial basalts from Iceland. Nature 255: 527–30.Google Scholar
Sun, S.-S. & Jahn, B.. 1979. Trace element distribution and isotopic composition of Archean greenstones, in Origin and Distribution of the Elements, Second Symposium. Physical Chemistry of the Earth: 597–618.Google Scholar
Taylor, R.N., Thirlwall, M.F., Murton, B.J., Hilton, D.R. & Gee, M.A.M.. 1998. Isotopic constraints on the influence of the Icelandic plume. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 148: E1-E8.Google Scholar
Thorarinsson, S. 1968. Beinagrindur og bókarspennsli. Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags. 1967: 50–8.Google Scholar
Thordarson, M. 1943. Skeljastadir, THjórsárdalur, in Stenberger, M. (ed.) Forntida Gårdar i Island. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Vilhjálmsson, V.Ö. 1988. Dateringsproblemer i islansk arkeologi. Hikuin 14: 313–26.Google Scholar
Wallace, B.L. 1991. L’Anse aux Meadows: gateway to Vinland. Acta Archaeologica 61: 166–98.Google Scholar
Wilson, J.R., Pedersen, S., Berthelsen, C.R. & Jacobsen, B.M.. 1977: New light on the Precambrian Holum granite, South Norway. Norsk geol.Tidsskr 57: 347–60.Google Scholar
Wood, D.A., Joron, J.L., Treuil, M., Norry, M.J. & Tarney, J.. 1979. Elemental and Sr isotope variations in basic lavas from Iceland and the surrounding ocean floor. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 70: 319–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar