University of Aberdeen

Graduate Student, Archaeology

PhD student

School of Geosciences

Thesis Title: Archaeoentomoogical Reconstructions of Daily Life on 19th and Early 20th Century Farms in Northern Iceland

About

My doctoral project aims at developing and testing an analytical model for the study of past daily life (ways and conditions of living), using archaeoentomology within a multidisciplinary framework. This model will be applied to the reconstruction the environmental conditions inside two 19th- early 20th century Icelandic farms: Vatnsfjördur and Hornbrekka. Along with the archaeoentomological data, historical documents, other archaeological data and possibly interviews will be used in order to provide a more detailed picture of what life was like in the 19th-20th century in Iceland.

Vatnsfjördur is located in the Westfjords and was known to have been occupied at least since the 10th century, and to have been a political center during the medieval period. Samples have been taken in various rooms and features of the last turf dwelling house of Vatnsfjördur, which was built in 1884 and lived in until 1906, after which it was partially demolished and used for storage and smithy activities. The excavations at this site began in summer 2005, under the direction of Dr. Karen Milek and archaeologists at the Institute of Archaeology, Iceland (Fornleifastofnun Islands), including Gardar Gudmundsson and Gudrun Alda Gísladóttir.

Hornbrekka is located in Skagafjördur and was the farm of a poor family which, due to various hardships caused by harsh environmental and economic conditions, decided to migrate to Canada in 1876. The excavation at Hornbrekka took place in August 2009 and was directed by Ágústa Edwald. Samples have been taken from different floor levels of two rooms (a kitchen and a cattle byre) and a corridor.

In order to test the validity of the archaeoentomological interpretations, and potentially to allow a more detailed reconstruction of the past daily life, Véronique plans to conduct an experimental study of modern analogues from standing farm buildings in Iceland, and an investigation of insects preserved in the floors of the various rooms of known functions at the site of Thverá in northeast Iceland. The different data relating to the ecological habitat of these species will also be recorded, in order to better understand the range of environmental conditions in which the identified species can live.

By developing a reference collection of modern insects taken from known contexts in Icelandic farm buildings, and applying these modern analogues to the interpretation of the insect assemblages from the archaeological sites of Vatnsfjordur and Hornbrekka, the project aims to gain a detailed understanding of everyday activities and living conditions in 19th- and early 20th-century Iceland.

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