The Archeology of Deserted Medieval Settlement

Settlement abandonment remains a central issue in Icelandic archaeology. There is a growing recognition that, in order to fully capture the complexity of abandonment in regional studies, we need to look ‘beyond the site’ and examine the local stories of the people in the community. This work package builds upon that idea and works closely with both WP 1 and WP 3 to identify social aspects underpinning the establishment of farms under investigation and what shaped the overall trend of their abandonment.

A central aim of this work package is to gather chronological evidence to date these medieval settlements in our case study areas. This will be achieved through targeted fieldwork in the West, South, and East of Iceland. The focus will be on determining whether these settlements were temporarily abandoned before being fully deserted. In our study area in the South, Rangárvellir, the question of relocation vs abandonment will also be explored.