Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Karen B. Milek; Howell M.  Roberts

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Karen B. Milek, Howell M. Roberts

Institute of Archaeology, Iceland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

74 Citations (Scopus)

77 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

For over a decade, geoarchaeological methods such as multi-element analysis and soil micromorphology have been used to identify and interpret activity areas on archaeological sites. However, these techniques, and others such as loss on ignition, magnetic susceptibility, microrefuse analysis and artefact distributions, are rarely integrated into the same study, even though they provide very different and potentially complementary data. This paper presents a comparative study of a wide range of geoarchaeological methods that were applied to the floors sediments of a 10th-century house at the site of Aðalstræti 14-18, in central Reykjavík, Iceland, along with more traditional artefact and bone distribution analyses, and a spatial study of floor layer boundaries and features in the building. In this study, the spatial distributions of artefacts and bones could only be understood in the light of the pH distributions, and on their own they provided only limited insight into the use of space in the building. Each of the sediment analyses provided unique and valuable information about possible activity areas, with soil micromorphology proving to have the greatest interpretive power on its own. However, the interpretation potential of the geochemical methods was dramatically enhanced if they were integrated into a multi-method dataset.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1845-1865
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume	40
Issue number	4
Early online date	28 Oct 2012
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031
Publication status	Published - Apr 2013

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.

Keywords

activity areas
soil micromorphology
loss on ignition
electrical conductivity
magnetic susceptibility
ICP-AES
Viking Age houses

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031Licence: Unspecified

Milek_and_Roberts_2013_submitted_paper_Integrated_geoarchaeologySubmitted manuscript, 234 KBLicence: Other

Cite this

@article{0e6c0d87ff904ab9a2f754351ada93fa,

title = "Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland",

abstract = "For over a decade, geoarchaeological methods such as multi-element analysis and soil micromorphology have been used to identify and interpret activity areas on archaeological sites. However, these techniques, and others such as loss on ignition, magnetic susceptibility, microrefuse analysis and artefact distributions, are rarely integrated into the same study, even though they provide very different and potentially complementary data. This paper presents a comparative study of a wide range of geoarchaeological methods that were applied to the floors sediments of a 10th-century house at the site of A{\dh}alstr{\ae}ti 14-18, in central Reykjav{\'i}k, Iceland, along with more traditional artefact and bone distribution analyses, and a spatial study of floor layer boundaries and features in the building. In this study, the spatial distributions of artefacts and bones could only be understood in the light of the pH distributions, and on their own they provided only limited insight into the use of space in the building. Each of the sediment analyses provided unique and valuable information about possible activity areas, with soil micromorphology proving to have the greatest interpretive power on its own. However, the interpretation potential of the geochemical methods was dramatically enhanced if they were integrated into a multi-method dataset. ",

keywords = "activity areas, soil micromorphology, loss on ignition, electrical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, ICP-AES, Viking Age houses",

author = "Milek, {Karen B.} and Roberts, {Howell M.}",

note = "Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjav{\'i}k, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Gar{\dh}ar Gu{\dh}mundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to {\'O}skar G{\'i}sli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.",

year = "2013",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031",

language = "English",

volume = "40",

pages = "1845--1865",

journal = "Journal of Archaeological Science",

issn = "0305-4403",

publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas

T2 - A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

AU - Milek, Karen B.

AU - Roberts, Howell M.

N1 - Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.

PY - 2013/4

Y1 - 2013/4

N2 - For over a decade, geoarchaeological methods such as multi-element analysis and soil micromorphology have been used to identify and interpret activity areas on archaeological sites. However, these techniques, and others such as loss on ignition, magnetic susceptibility, microrefuse analysis and artefact distributions, are rarely integrated into the same study, even though they provide very different and potentially complementary data. This paper presents a comparative study of a wide range of geoarchaeological methods that were applied to the floors sediments of a 10th-century house at the site of Aðalstræti 14-18, in central Reykjavík, Iceland, along with more traditional artefact and bone distribution analyses, and a spatial study of floor layer boundaries and features in the building. In this study, the spatial distributions of artefacts and bones could only be understood in the light of the pH distributions, and on their own they provided only limited insight into the use of space in the building. Each of the sediment analyses provided unique and valuable information about possible activity areas, with soil micromorphology proving to have the greatest interpretive power on its own. However, the interpretation potential of the geochemical methods was dramatically enhanced if they were integrated into a multi-method dataset.

AB - For over a decade, geoarchaeological methods such as multi-element analysis and soil micromorphology have been used to identify and interpret activity areas on archaeological sites. However, these techniques, and others such as loss on ignition, magnetic susceptibility, microrefuse analysis and artefact distributions, are rarely integrated into the same study, even though they provide very different and potentially complementary data. This paper presents a comparative study of a wide range of geoarchaeological methods that were applied to the floors sediments of a 10th-century house at the site of Aðalstræti 14-18, in central Reykjavík, Iceland, along with more traditional artefact and bone distribution analyses, and a spatial study of floor layer boundaries and features in the building. In this study, the spatial distributions of artefacts and bones could only be understood in the light of the pH distributions, and on their own they provided only limited insight into the use of space in the building. Each of the sediment analyses provided unique and valuable information about possible activity areas, with soil micromorphology proving to have the greatest interpretive power on its own. However, the interpretation potential of the geochemical methods was dramatically enhanced if they were integrated into a multi-method dataset.

KW - activity areas

KW - soil micromorphology

KW - loss on ignition

KW - electrical conductivity

KW - magnetic susceptibility

KW - ICP-AES

KW - Viking Age houses

U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031

DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.031

M3 - Article

SN - 0305-4403

VL - 40

SP - 1845

EP - 1865

JO - Journal of Archaeological Science

JF - Journal of Archaeological Science

IS - 4

ER -

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this