Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The vegetation and land use histories of two farms in Iceland: settlement, monasticism, and tenancy

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 23 March 2023

This article has been updated

Abstract

Palaeoecological research in Iceland has rarely considered the environmental consequences of landlord-tenant relations and has only recently begun to investigate the impact of medieval monasticism on Icelandic environment and society. Through the medium of two tenant farm sites, this investigation seeks to discern whether or not monastic landlords were influencing resource exploitation and the land management practices of their tenants. In particular, sedimentary and phyto-social contexts were examined and set within a chronological and palaeoecological framework from the late 9th century down to the 16th century. How this relates to medieval European monasticism is also considered while the prevailing influences of climate and volcanism are acknowledged. Palaeoecological data shed light upon the process of occupation at the two farms during the settlement period, with resources and land use trajectories already well-established by the time they were acquired by monastic institutions. This suggests that the tenant farms investigated were largely unaffected ecologically by absorption into a manorial system overseen by monasticism. This could be a consequence of prevailing environmental contexts that inhibited the development of alternative agricultural strategies, or simply that a different emphasis with regard to resource exploitation was paramount.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

References

  • Aaby B, Berglund BE (1986) Characterization of peat and lake deposits. In: Berglund BE (ed) Handbook of holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology. Wiley, Chichester, pp 231–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen ST (1979) Identification of wild grass and cereal pollen. Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse Årbog 1978:69–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnalds Ó, Þorarinsdóttir EF, Metúsalemsson S, Jónsson Á, Grétarsson E, Árnason Á (2001) Soil erosion in Iceland. Soil Conservation Service and the Agricultural Research Institute, Iceland

  • Aston M (2000) Monasteries in the landscape. Tempus, Stroud

  • Berglund BE (1985) Early agriculture in scandinavia: research problems related to pollen-analytical studies. Nor Archaeol Rev 18:77–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birks HJB, Birks HH (1980) Quaternary palaeoecology. Edward Arnold, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Björck S, Persson T, Kristersson I (1978) Comparison of two concentration methods for pollen in minerogenic sediments. Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholm Förhandlingar 100:107–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quat Geochronol 5:512–518

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolender D, Johnson E, Bello G (2020) Tenancy, finance, and access to commercial goods: Interpreting impoverished assemblages in Skagafjörður, Iceland, CE 1300–1900. J Anthropol Archaeol 60:101,227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond J (2004) Monastic landscapes. Tempus, Stroud

  • Bonny AP (1972) A method for determing absolute pollen frequencies in lake sediments. New Phytol 71:393–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brady NC, Weil RR (1996) Elements of the nature and properties of soils. Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  • Breitenlechner E, Hilber M, Lutz J, Kathrein Y, Unterkircher A, Oeggl K (2010) The impact of mining activities on the environment reflected by pollen, charcoal and geochemical analyses. J Archaeol Sci 37:1,458–1,467

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckland PC, Edwards KJ, Blackford J, Dugmore AJ, Sadler JP, Sveinbjarnardóttir G (1995) A question of Landnám: pollen, charcoal and insect studies on Papey, eastern Iceland. In: Butlin R, Roberts N (eds) Ecological relations in historical times: human impact and adaption. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 245–264

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunting MJ, Grant MJ, Waller M (2016) Approaches to quantitative reconstruction of woody vegetation in managed woodlands from pollen records. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 225:53–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caseldine C (2001) Changes in Betula in the Holocene record from Iceland—a palaeoclimatic record or evidence for early Holocene hybridisation? Rev Palaeobot Palynol 117:139–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caseldine C, Hatton J (1994) Interpretation of Holocene climatic change for the Eyjaförður area of northern Iceland from pollen-analytical data: Comments and preliminary results. Environmental Change in Iceland. Münchener Geographische Abhandlungen, Reihe B 12:41–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Charman D (2002) Peatlands and environmental change. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Church MJ, Dugmore AJ, Mairs KA et al (2007) Charcoal production during the Norse and early medieval periods in Eyjafjallahreppur, southern Iceland. Radiocarbon 49:659–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cugny C, Mazier F, Galop D (2010) Modern and fossil non-pollen palynomorphs from the Basque mountains (western Pyrenees, France): the use of coprophilous fungi to reconstruct pastoral activity. Veget Hist Archaeobot 19:391–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies AL (2019) Dung fungi as an indicator of large herbivore dynamics in peatlands. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 271:104,108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dearing JA (1994) Environmental magnetic susceptibility. Using the Bartington MS2 system. Chi Publishing, Kenilworth

    Google Scholar 

  • DI-I-XVI (1857–1986) Diplomatarium Íslandicum: Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn, Vol I-XVI. Íslenzka bókmenntafélagið, Kaupmannahöfn

  • Dugmore AJ, Gísladóttir G, Simpson IA, Newton A (2009) Conceptual models of 1200 years of Icelandic soil erosion reconstructed using tephrochronology. J North Atl 2:1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan BN, Bey I (2004) A modeling study of the export pathways of pollution from Europe: seasonal and interannual variations (1987–1997). J Geophys Res: Atmos 109:D08301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eddudóttir SD, Erlendsson E, Gísladóttir G (2015) Life on the periphery is tough: vegetation in Northwest Iceland and its responses to early-Holocene warmth and later climate fluctuations. Holocene 25:1,437–1,453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eddudóttir SD, Erlendsson E, Tinganelli L, Gísladóttir G (2016) Climate change and human impact in a sensitive ecosystem: the Holocene environment of the Northwest Icelandic highland margin. Boreas 45:715–728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eddudóttir SD, Erlendsson E, Gísladóttir G (2017) Effects of the Hekla 4 tephra on vegetation in Northwest Iceland. Veget Hist Archaeobot 26:389–402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eddudóttir SD, Erlendsson E, Gisladottir G (2020) Landscape change in the Icelandic highland: a long-term record of the impacts of land use, climate and volcanism. Quat Sci Rev 240:106,363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Dugmore AJ, Blackford JJ (2004) Vegetational response to tephra deposition and land-use change in Iceland: a modern analogue and multiple working hypothesis approach to tephropalynology. Polar Rec 40:113–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Erlendsson E, Schofield JE (2011) Is there a Norse 'footprint' in North Atlantic pollen records? In: Sigmundsson S (ed) Viking settlements and Viking society: papers from the proceedings of the sixteenth viking congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16th-23rd August 2009. Hið íslenzka fornleifafélag & University of Island Press, Reykjavík, pp 65–82

  • Edwards KJ, Bennett KD, Davies AL (2019) Palaeoecological perspectives on Holocene environmental change in Scotland. Earth Environ Sci Trans R Soc Edinb 110:199–217

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Erlendsson E, Schofield JE (2021) Landnám and the North Atlantic flora. In: Panagiotakopulu E, Sadler JP (eds) Biogeography in the sub-arctic: the past and future of North Atlantic biota. Wiley, Chichester, pp 185–214

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eiríksson J, Knudsen KL, Haflidason H, Heinemeier J (2000) Chronology of late Holocene climatic events in the northern North Atlantic based on AMS 14C dates and tephra markers from the volcano Hekla, Iceland. J Quat Sci 15:573–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erlendsson E (2007) Environmental change around the time of the Norse settlement of Iceland. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen

    Google Scholar 

  • Erlendsson E, Edwards KJ (2009) The timing and causes of the final pre-settlement expansion of Betula pubescens in Iceland. Holocene 19:1,083–1,091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erlendsson E, Edwards KJ, Lawson I, Vésteinsson O (2006) Can there be a correspondence between Icelandic palynological and settlement evidence. In: Arneborg J, Grønnov B (eds) The dynamics of northern societies. Proceedings of the SILA/NABO conference on Arctic and North Atlantic archaeology, Copenhagen, May 10th-14th, 2004. Studies in archaeology and history 10. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, pp 345–351

  • Erlendsson E, Edwards KJ, Gísladóttir G (2014) Landscape change, land use, and occupation patterns inferred from two palaeoenvironmental datasets from the Mosfell Valley, SW Iceland. In: Zori D, Byock J (eds) Viking archaeology in Iceland: Mosfell archaeological project. Brepols, Turnhout, pp 181–192

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eyþórsson B, Erlendsson E, Gísladóttir G, Sveinbjarnardóttir G (2018) Natural resources—access and exploitation. In: Sveinbjarnardóttir G, Þorláksson H (eds) Snorri Sturluson and Reykholt; the author and magnate, his life, works and environment at Reykholt in Iceland. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, pp 205–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Fjordheim K, Moen A, Hjelle KL, Bjune AE, Birks HH (2018) Modern pollen–vegetation relationships in traditionally mown and unmanaged boreal rich-fen communities in central Norway. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 251:14–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friðriksson A, Vésteinsson O (2003) Creating a past: a historiography of the settlement of Iceland. In: Bennett JH (ed) Contact, continuity, and collapse: the Norse colonization of the North Atlantic. Brepols, Belgium, pp 139–161

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gathorne-Hardy FJ, Erlendsson E, Langdon PG, Edwards KJ (2009) Lake sediment evidence for late Holocene climate change and landscape erosion in western Iceland. J Paleolimnol 42:413–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilchrist R (2014) Monastic and church archaeology. Annu Rev Anthropol 43:235–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gísladóttir G, Erlendsson E, Lal R, Bigham J (2010) Erosional effects on terrestrial resources over the last millennium in Reykjanes, southwest Iceland. Quat Res 73:20–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm EC (2011) Tilia 1.7.16. Illinois State Museum, Springfield

  • Hafliðason H, Larsen G, Ólafsson G (1992) The recent sedimentation history of Thingvallavatn, Iceland. Oikos 65:80–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haldon J, Mordechai L, Newfield TP, Chase AF, Izdebski A, Guzowski P, Labuhn I, Roberts N (2018) History meets palaeoscience: consilience and collaboration in studying past societal responses to environmental change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115:3,210–3,218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallsdóttir M (1987) Pollen analytical studies of human influence on vegetation in relation to the Landnám tephra layer in southwest Iceland. University of Lund, Lund

    Google Scholar 

  • Hallsdóttir M (1993) Frjórannsókn á mósniðum úr Viðey. Raunvísindastofnun Háskólans, Reykjavík

  • Harrison R (2014) Connecting the land to the sea at Gásir: international exchange and long-term Eyjafjörður ecodynamics in Medieval Iceland. In: Harrison R, Maher R (eds) Human ecodynamics in the North Atlantic: a collaborative model of humans and nature through space and time. Lexington Publishers, Lanham, pp 117–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Hättestrand M, Jensen C, Hallsdóttir M, Vorren K-D (2008) Modern pollen accumulation rates at the north-western fringe of the European boreal forest. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 151:90–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heiri O, Lotter AF, Lemcke G (2001) Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results. J Paleolimnol 25:101–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hejcman M, Hejcmanová P, Pavlů V, Thorhallsdottir AG (2016) Forage quality of leaf fodder from the main woody species in Iceland and its potential use for livestock in the past and present. Grass Forage Sci 71:649–658

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hjelle KL, Halvorsen LS, Overland A (2010) Heathland development and relationship between humans and environment along the coast of western Norway through time. Quat Int 220:133–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Icelandic Meteorological Office (Veðurstofa Íslands) (2007) Monthly averages (Mánaðameðaltöl) Reykjavik. https://www.vedur.is/vedur/vedurfar/medaltalstoflur/. Accessed 29 Sept 2021

  • Jakobsson S (2013) From reciprocity to manorialism: on the peasant mode of production in Medieval Iceland. Scand J Hist 38:273–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jóhannesson H, Einarsson S (1988) Krísuvíkureldar I. Aldur Ögmundarhrauns Og Miðaldalagsins Jökull 38:71–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Jóhannesson H, Sæmundsson K (1998) Geological map of Iceland, 1:500,000. Natturufraedistofnun Islands, Reykjavik

  • Jónsson SA (2009) Vegetation history of Fljótsdalshérað during the last 2000 years: a palynological study. University of Iceland, Reykjavik

    Google Scholar 

  • Júlíusson ÁD (1997) Bønder i prestens tid: landbrugg, godsdrift og social konflikt i semiddelalderens Islandske bondesamfund. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • Júlíusson ÁD (2007) Peasants, aristocracy and state power in Iceland 1400–1650. The CAHD Papers 2. Center for Agrarian Historical Dynamics. Reykjavík

  • Júlíusson ÁD (2010) Signs of power: manorial demesnes in Medieval Iceland. Viking Mediev Scand 6:1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Júlíusson ÁD (2014) Jarðeignir kirkjunnar og tekjur af þeim 1000–1550. Center for Agrarian Historical Dynamics, Reykjavík

  • Júlíusson ÁD (2020) Agricultural growth in a cold climate: the case of Iceland in 1800–1850. Scand Econ Hist Rev. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2020.1788985

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Júlíusson ÁD, Lárusdottir B, Lucas G, Pálsson G (2020) Episcopal economics: property and power in post-reformation Iceland. Scand J Hist 45:95–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson G (1996) Plague without rats: the case of fifteenth-century Iceland. J Mediev Hist 22:263–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson G (2000) Iceland’s 1100 years: the history of a marginal society. Hurst & Company Publishers, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristinsson H (1986) A guide to flowering plants and ferns of Iceland. Mál og Menning, Reykjavík

  • Kristjánsdóttir S (2010) Icelandic evidence for a late-medieval hospital: excavations at Skriduklaustur. Mediev Archaeol 54:371–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristjánsdóttir S (2017) Leitin að klaustrunum – klausturhald á Íslandi í fimm aldir. Forlagið, Reykjavík

  • Kupiec P, Milek K, Gisladottir GA, Woollett J (2016) Elusive sel sites: the geoarchaeological quest for Icelandic shielings and the case for Þorvaldsstaðasel, in northeast Iceland. In: Collis J, Pearce M, Nicolis F (eds) Summer farms: seasonal exploitation of the uplands from prehistory to the present. JR Collis Publications, Sheffield, pp 221–2,365

    Google Scholar 

  • Laine A, Gauthier E, Garcia J-P, Petit C, Cruz F, Richard H (2010) A three-thousand-year history of vegetation and human impact in Burgundy (France) reconstructed from pollen and non-pollen palynomophs analysis. C R Biol 333:850–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen DJ, Miller GH, Geirsdóttir Á, Ólafsdóttir S (2012) Non-linear Holocene climate evolution in the North Atlantic: a high-resolution, multi-proxy record of glacier activity and environmental change from Hvítárvatn, central Iceland. Quat Sci Rev 39:14–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen G, Róbertsdóttir BG, Óladóttir BA, Eiríksson J (2020) A shift in eruption mode of Hekla volcano, Iceland, 3000 years ago: two-coloured Hekla tephra series, characteristics, dispersal and age. J Quat Sci 35:143–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawson IT, Gathorne-Hardy FJ, Church MJ, Newton AJ, Edwards KJ, Dugmore AJ, Einarsson A (2007) Environmental impacts of the Norse settlement: palaeoenvironmental data from Myvatnssveit, northern Iceland. Boreas 36:1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Lomas-Clarke SH, Barber KE (2004) Palaeoecology of human impact during the historic period: palynology and geochemistry of a peat deposit at Abbeyknockmoy, Co., Galway, Ireland. Holocene 14:721–731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas G (2008) Pálstóftir: a Viking age shieling in Iceland. Nor Archaeol Rev 41:85–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas G (2012) Later historical archaeology in Iceland: a review. Int J Hist Archaeol 16:437–454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magnússon Á, Vídalín P (1926) Jarðabók, Vol 8. Hin íslensk fræðafelagið í Kaupmannahöfn & Möller, S.L., Kaupmannahöfn

  • Mann ME (2002a) Medieval climatic optimum. In: MacCracken MC, Perry JS (eds) Encyclopedia of global environmental change, vol 1: the earth system: physical and chemical dimensions of global environmental change. Wiley, Chichester, pp 514–516

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann ME (2002b) Little ice age. In: MacCracken MC, Perry JS (eds) Encyclopedia of global environmental change, vol 1: the earth system: physical and chemical dimensions of global environmental change. Wiley, Chichester, pp 504–509

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern T, Smairowski K, Hambrecht G, Brewington S, Harrison R, Hicks M, Feeley FJ, Prehal B, Woollett J (2017) Zooarchaeology of the Scandinavian settlements in Iceland and Greenland: diverging pathways. City University of New York (CUNY) Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/638/

  • Möckel SC, Erlendsson E, Gísladóttir G (2017) Holocene environmental change and development of the nutrient budget of histosols in North Iceland. Plant Soil 418:437–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mooney DE (2018) Does the ‘Marine Signature’ of driftwood persist in the archaeological record? An experimental case study from Iceland. Environ Archaeol 23:217–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore PD, Webb JA, Collison ME (1991) Pollen analysis. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Moriwaki H (1990) Late-and postglacial shoreline displacement and glaciation in and around the Skagi peninsula, Northern Iceland. Geogr Rep Tokyo Metrop Univ 25:81–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Munsell Soil-Color Charts (2009) Xrite, Grand Rapids

  • Nakagawa T, Brugiapaglia E, Digerfeldt G, Reille M, de Beaulieu J-L, Yasuda Y (1998) Dense-media separation as a more efficient pollen extraction method for use with organic sediment/deposit samples: comparison with the conventional method. Boreas 27:15–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noël H, Garbolino E, Brauer A, Lallier-Vergès E, de Beaulieu J-L, Disnar J-R (2001) Human impact and soil erosion during the last 5000 yrs as recorded in lacustrine sedimentary organic matter at Lac d’Annecy, the French Alps. J Paleolimnol 25:229–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie AEJ, Jónsson T (2001) “Little Ice Age” research: a perspective from Iceland. Clim Change 48:9–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Friendly M, Kindt R, Legendre P, McGlinn D, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P (2016) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.4-3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan

  • Ottósson JG, Sveinsdóttir A, Harðardóttir M (2016) Vistgerðir á Íslandi. Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar 54. Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands, Garðabær. Oddi ehf. http://vistgerdakort.ni.is/

  • Pálsson G (2018) Storied lines: network perspectives on land use in early modern Iceland. Nor Archaeol Rev 51:112–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pálsson H, Edwards P (1972) The Book of settlements: Landnámabók. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson WA III, Edwards KJ, Maguire DJ (1987) Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire. Quat Sci Rev 6:3–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pétursdóttir LB (2014) Post-settlement landscape change in the Mosfell Valley, SW Iceland: a multiple profile approach. University of Iceland, Reykjavik

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (1980) Ancient woodland, its history, vegetation and uses in England. Edward Arnold, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Reimer PJ, Austin WE, Bard E et al (2020) The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP) Radiocarbon 62:725–757

  • Riddell S, Erlendsson E, Gísladóttir G, Edwards KJ, Byock J, Zori D (2018a) Cereal cultivation as a correlate of high social status in medieval Iceland. Veget Hist Archaeobot 27:679–696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riddell SJ, Erlendsson E, Eddudóttir SD, Gísladóttir G, Kristjánsdóttir S (2018b) Pollen, plague & protestants: the Medieval Monastery of Þingeyrar (Þingeyraklaustur) in Northern Iceland. Environ Archaeol 1:1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2018.1531191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross LC, Austrheim G, Asheim L-J et al (2016) Sheep grazing in the North Atlantic region: a long-term perspective on environmental sustainability. Ambio 45:551–566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roy N, Woollett J, Bhiry N, Haemmerli G, Forbes V, Pienitz R (2018) Perspective of landscape change following early settlement (landnám) in Svalbarðstunga, northeastern Iceland. Boreas 47:671–686

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rymer L (1973) Modern pollen rain studies in Iceland. New Phytol 72:1,367–1,373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid MM, Zori D, Erlendsson E, Batt C, Damiata BN, Byock J (2017) A Bayesian approach to linking archaeological, paleoenvironmental and documentary datasets relating to the settlement of Iceland (Landnám). Holocene 28:19–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sigurmundsson FS, Gísladóttir G, Óskarsson H (2014) Decline of birch woodland cover in Þjórsárdalur Iceland from 1587 to 1938. Hum Ecol 42:577–590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith KP (1995) Landnám: the settlement of Iceland in archaeological and historical perspective. World Archaeol 26:319–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stockmarr J (1971) Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen Spores 13:614–621

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolz C, Grunert J (2010) Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape history of the central Palatinate forest (Pfälzerwald, south-western Germany). Quat Int 222:129–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeter R, Dugmore AJ, Vésteinsson O (2012) Plague and landscape resilience in premodern Iceland. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:3,664–3,669

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeter R, Dugmore AJ, Lawson IT, Erlendsson E, Edwards KJ (2015) The onset of the palaeoanthropocene in Iceland: changes in complex natural systems. Holocene 25:1,662–1,675

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sveinsson E (1934) Laxdœla Saga. Íslenzk Fornrit V. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, Reykjavík

  • Thorarinsson S (1967) The eruption of Hekla 1947–1948, vol 1: the eruptions of Hekla in historical times: a tephrochronological study. Societas Scientiarum Islandica, Reykjavík

  • Thordarson T, Hoskuldsson A (2002) Iceland. Classic Geology in Europe 3. Terra, Harpenden

  • Þorsteinsson H (1922–1932) Annales Islandici Posterioum Sæculorum (Annálar 1400–1800), vol I. Hinu Íslenzka Bókmenntafélag, Reykjavík

  • Tinganelli L, Erlendsson E, Eddudóttir SD, Gísladóttir G (2018) Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland. Geomorphology 322:117–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tipping R (1997) Medieval woodland history from the Scottish Southern Uplands: fine spatial-scale pollen data from a small woodland hollow. In: Smout TC (ed) Scottish woodland history. Scottish Cultural Press, Edinburgh, pp 52–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Tipping R (2010) Bowmont: an environmental history of the Bowmont Valley and the northern Cheviot Hills, 10 000 BC - AD 2000. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisdall E, Barclay R, Nichol A, McCulloch R, Simpson I, Smith H, Vésteinsson O (2018) Palaeoenvironmental evidence for woodland conservation in Northern Iceland from settlement to the twentieth century. Environ Archaeol 23:205–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troels-Smith J (1955) Karakterisering af løse jordarter (Characterization of unconsolidated sediments). Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse, 4 række, Bd 3, Nr. 10. Reitzels Forlag, Copenhagen

  • Van Geel B, Buurman J, Brinkkemper O, Schelvis J, Aptroot A, van Reenen G, Hakbijl T (2003) Environmental reconstruction of a Roman Period settlement site in Uitgeest (The Netherlands), with special reference to coprophilous fungi. J Archaeol Sci 30:873–883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Hoof TB, Bunnik FPM, Waucomont JGM, Kürschner WM, Visscher H (2006) Forest re-growth on medieval farmland after the Black Death pandemic—implications for atmospheric CO2 levels. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 237:396–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varga G, Dagsson-Walhauserová P, Gresina F, Helgadottir A (2021) Saharan dust and giant quartz particle transport towards Iceland. Sci Rep 11:11,891

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vésteinsson O (1998–2001) Patterns of settlement in Iceland: a study in prehistory. Saga-Book Viking Society for Northern Research 25:1–29

  • Vésteinsson O (2007) A divided society: Peasants and the aristocracy in medieval Iceland. Viking Mediev Scand 3:117–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vésteinsson O, Simpson IA (2001) Fuel utilisation in pre-industrial Iceland. A micro-morphological and historical analysis. In: Guðmundsson G (ed) Current Issues in Nordic Archaeology. Proceedings of the 21st conference of Nordic Archaeologists, 6–9 September 2001, Akureyri, Iceland. Society of Icelandic Archaeologists, Reykjavik, pp 181–187

  • Vickers K, Erlendsson E, Church MJ, Edwards KJ, Bending J (2011) 1000 years of environmental change and human impact at Stóra-Mörk, southern Iceland: a multiproxy study of a dynamic and vulnerable landscape. Holocene 21:979–995

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wimble G, Wells CE, Hodgkinson D (2000) Human impact on mid-and late Holocene vegetation in south Cumbria, UK. Veget Hist Archaeobot 9:17–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolf A (2007) From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yeloff D, van Geel B (2007) Abandonment of farmland and vegetation succession following the Eurasian plague pandemic of AD 1347–52. J Biogeogr 34:575–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zori D, Byock JL (2014) Viking archaeology in Iceland: Mosfell archaeological project. Brepols, Turnhout

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Susanne Möckel for advice and support with regard to the processing of statistical data, Benjamin D. Hennig for the production of maps, and Glóey Helgudóttir-Finnsdóttir for assistance with translating Icelandic historical texts.

Funding

The authors are grateful to the Icelandic Research Fund (RANNIS Grant No. 140983-053, 141842-051, 163290-051, 163290-052, 163290-053) and the Landsvirkjun Energy Fund (Grant No. NÝR-05-2019 and NÝR-07-2020).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, Sturlugata 7, 102, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Scott J. Riddell, Egill Erlendsson & Guðrún Gísladóttir

  2. Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Sturlugata 7, 102, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Guðrún Gísladóttir

  3. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Engelska Parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H, 752 38, Uppsala, Sweden

    Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir

  4. Department of Archaeology, University of Iceland, Sæmundargata 12, 102, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir

Authors
  1. Scott J. Riddell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Egill Erlendsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Guðrún Gísladóttir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott J. Riddell.

Additional information

Communicated by M.-J. Gaillard.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article was revised: Few paragraphs were missed under the section Results.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (XLSX 35 kb)

Supplementary file2 (DOCX 448 kb)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Riddell, S.J., Erlendsson, E., Eddudóttir, S.D. et al. The vegetation and land use histories of two farms in Iceland: settlement, monasticism, and tenancy. Veget Hist Archaeobot 31, 395–414 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-021-00861-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-021-00861-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation