0utlaws of Surtshellir Cave: the Underground Economy of Viking Age lceland

Gumundur ?lafssonl, Thomas H. McGovernz and Kevin

P.

Smith3

lrurRooucnolrt
ln 2001 investigations by the National Museum of lceland and Brown University documented a suite of significant archa eologic al featu res and d eposits within the Surtshellir-Stefnshellir cave system, lceland's longest lava tube cornplex, located within the H allmundarh ra un lava field, in Hvt rsa, western lceland (see Fig. 1). This project was undertaken to establish the age and integrity of deposits present in the cave, following reports that tourists were removing bones from it as souvenirs (lafsson et at.20041. ln the 13th century text Landnmabk (Plsson and Edwards 1972), the 14th century Harar saga ok Hlmverja (Jnsson 1953), and the fictive 19th century Hellismanna saga (rnason 1889) Surtshellir is identified as the base of an outlaw band that fortified the cave in the late 1()th century preying on the surrounding countryside until routed by a

Fig. l. Location of Suttshellir in lceland.

coalition of local chieftains. The presence of bone piles and a stone-walled structure have been anecdotally recorded since the 17th century and a single radiocarbon date was run on a Bos bone fragment in 1969 by the lcelandic author Halldr Laxness. These fragmentary records have been used in the past to suggest archaeological suppott for the historical narratives. However, the calibrated age of Laxness'date spans the entire Settlement and Commonwealth periods (AD 870-1264) and could reference activities undeftaken at any point in the early Middle Ages. Furthermore, in the absence of any detailed archaeological record of the cave's cultui'al features, no framework existed

for protecting its archaeological resources' assessing the nature of the activities that once took

place in Surtshellir, or comparing its deposits with those from other lcelandic sites associated with outlaw activity by historic reference or archaeological inferences. Surtshellir is one of thirty-three lcelandic caves with evidence of human occupation or activities from the time of lceland's initial Norse settlement (ca. AD 874) to the recent past. Seven are known within the Hallmundarhraun; two of these had received some archaeological attention prior to these investigations (Gestsson 1960; lafsson 2000). Fieldwork in Surtshellir therefore provided opportunities to determine whether the cave's archaeological deposits could be dated to the Settlement period, to inventory and characterize the archaeological features and deposits within it, possibly to gain new nsights into outlaws'material culture and -- aL-,--:-^^l uurrorru tnelr lfnpacls oll tf le lcglullal sLUllullly, ^-l+^ fu ^^^ the study of tribute data from the North Atlantic to caves in the archaeologieal record'

1. National Museum of lceland.

2. City University of New York. 3. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University.

395

Three features were identified, mapped, and investigated at Surtshellr in 2001: an intact drystone dwelling (FiS. 2); a well-preserved, bone-rich midden beside it (Fig.3 and 5); and a massive fortification wall. All are located deep within the cave.
The fortification wall, 13 meters long and standing, in places, to a height of 2.5 meters, was located

'-1-\-/r ^. -^^r^1' 1

nearly 100 meters into the cave, on the edge of an opening produced by roof collapse. More than 70 meters farther into the cave, a secondary passage opens 5 meters above the floor of the main tunnel and crosses it at an acute angle. The northern spur of this passage, known as Beinahellir ("bone cave"), is said once to have contained extensive deposits of animal bone, although none exist there today. Howeve thirty meters into the southern branch ofths upper passage stands a unique drystone structure with an associated midden, nearly 200 meters from the cave's entrance. The presence of structural remains and associated midden deposits in this passage, called Vgishellir ("fortress cave"), has been known since at leastthe late lTth century (rarsson 1910; Laxness 1g49, t97t; laf-

^s*,nni

'f'x''4;i
-

anll:'

rr
\\

E viMoL,tur

Fig. 3. Plan of stone-built structure and midden de-

posits in Vgishellir.

sson 1978; Hrarsson 1990; Jnsson and Hrarsson 1992), but had never been systematically documented until the 2001 investigations. The structure in Vgishellir is 7 m long and 3.b m wide (Fig. 2 and 3). lts 0.5-0.8 meter thick dry-stone walls stand 0.8-.l.0 meters high and appear to be undisturbed, suggesting that this structure, whch may have had a perishable superstructure, is substantially intact. Like many Viking Age halls it narrows towards the gables where it is 1.5 m wide. wo doorways, each 0.8-1.0 meters wide, located in the centers of the two long-walls, give access to. the structure and to the depths of the cave beyond. However, the structure itself is built across the passage, blocking access to the cave's darker
uos, ..,L^.^ ^^ ouutLtuilot t uttul dl uupu5ll,5 vvt tEt ttu ^,J-l+i^^^l ^..1+,.,-l l^^^^:^ have been observed. ln the eastern gable a niche in
I

Fig. 2. }verview of the building with curved walls and a gable-end fireplace. (K. Snith).

the wall forms a fireplace; a second niche n the southwestern wall may have been used for storage. No traces of benches or sleeping alcoves are visible. ln the central and eastern portions of the structure a thin (<1 cm), compact, unstratifed floor

396

r I
deposit of dark gray ash with small fragments of calcined bone lies directly on the unmodified basalt cave floor.

MRrenrnl

cULTURE

Four jasper fire-starter spalls were recovered within the structure and on the pathway leading to it (Fl-3,5 on Fig.3). Trace element signatures for

these objects were determined by Smith and Ronald V. Hancock through lnstrumental Neutron Activation Analyses undeftaken atthe Royal Canadian Military College's SL0WP0KE reactor facility in Kingston, 0ntario.
Concentrations of manganese, calcium, and vanadium in these specimens conform to values from known lcelandic geological sources, but are distributed widely among them. While the Vgishellir samples cannot yet be linked directly to any specific sources through trace element analyses, variability among them clearly differs from that found in jasper fire-staner assemblages from two other Viking Age sites in the same region. For example, fire-starters and spalls from Hls 5, a 1Oth century iron-production complex located 20 kms from Vgishellir, cluster tightly with local jasper geochemistries. Nine fire-starter spalls from a 10'h century outlaw shelter in the cave Vigelmir, less than 5 kms south of Vgishellir, match the chemical signature of jasper from Hestfjall, 50 kms to the southwest. Greater variability within the small suite of spalls from Vgishellir suggests that this cave's occupants traveled over greater distances or were drawn to the cave from a wider region.

Fig. 4. The surface of the Vgishellir midden (K. Smith).

1960s and Eggert lafsson's description from the

late 17th century both implythatthis bone bed was once much larger in extent and that its uppermost surface was once covered with highly decomposed and fragmentary bone bits, Three layers were identified and sampled in the field: a light dry upper layer (Fig. a), a somewhat darker but still dry middle layer and a darker brown ash-enriched and water-soaked deposit of fine bone fragments lying directly upon the basalt floor of the cave. Bulk matrix samples taken from the excavated unit recovered a 100% sample of all bones, artifacts, and associated sediments present in the three layers. The bulk samples were dry sieved in the laboratory and sub-divided by screening through 114" 14 mm)and 1/16" (1 mm) mesh sieves. All sediment passing through the 1 mm screen was saved for micro-artifact analyses;
all bones and bone fragments retained on the 4 mm and 1 mm mesh sieves were submitted to the NORSEC laboratories (City University of New York) for analysis.

Mtoorru
To

EXCAVATToNS

the east of the house is located the remains of a large, bone-rich midden. A 1.25 x 0.5 m test unit measuring was excavated near the center of this 3.7 x2 m deposit, sampling 10% of the midden. The excavated cieposit was 3-7 cm thick, yet according to the landowner was once 30-50 cm thick. Pockets of bone and ash adhering to the cave's eastern wall support this assertion and suggest that the deposit
sampled in 2001 represents the basal remnant of a once more substantial midden. lt is worth noting that Laxness' brief mention of the midden from the

DRrrrue
Tho rianncil nan ho riatori hnih inriirotir thrnrnh vvPvt!
"v

tephroc hronology a nd directly throu gh radio ca rbon dating. The lava field in which Surtshellir and Vgishellir formed, H allmundarhraun, rests a bove the Landnm tephra layer (Jhannesson 1989),

which has been independently dated to AD 871 +/- 2 (Grnvold etal. 1995). Two AMS radiocarbon dates

397

Table L Radiocarbon dates from Vgishellir cave, Hvtrsda, lceland.

AAH-7412 (top layer)

1214x41 BP [AMS, Bos taurus bone fragment] One sigma (68.2% probability) calAD 770-B9O Two sigma (95.4% probability) calAD 680-950 680-900 (92.7%),920-950 (2.7%)l

AAR-7413 (basal layer) 1197i36 BP [AMS, Bos taurus bone fragment] One sigma (68.2% probability) calAD 770-890 Two sigma (95.4% probability) calAD 710-9601710-750 (5.8%),760-900 (82.6%),920-960 (7.0%)l
K-1435 (Laxness I969) 1010*100 BP [Standard, Bos taurus bone fragment] One sigma (68.2% probability) calAD 900-11601890-920 (5..4%),950-1160 (62.8%)J Two sigma (95.4% probability) calAD 7BO-12401780-792 (0.9%), 804-1223 (94.2%) 1233-1237 (0.3%)j

(AAR-7412 and AAR-7413) run on collagen from cattle ones collected in 2001 imply a maxirnum age

for the deposit of calAD 690-960 With the Landnm tephra providing a firm terminus post quem for the formation of the cave itself, the bone-bearing deposits tested in 2001 can be reasonably dated to the period AD 880-960 with a high degree of certainty, Although these ruo AMS dates cannot be statistically separated, suggesting a rapid accumulation of the sampled deposits. The cow bone dated by Halldr Laxness (1971) produced a somewhat later calibrated age (Table 1 [K14351). While it is unknown whether Laxness' sample was recovered from the deposits sampled in 2001 or from higher levels of the same midden, since removed, that date overlaps both of the new AMS age ranges attwo standard deviations. Together, the three dates suppod a late 9-1()th century age that is generally consistent with the period of outlaw activity noted in medieval accounts.

TapH

or.

orrrc 0

BSERVATT

oNS

As it appears that this bone deposit accumulated over a fairly short period of time, its stratigraphic divisions are unlikely to represent different phases
of occupation. Water percolation and fi'eeze/thaw cycling in the exposed bone bed most likely produced some of the size sorting evident in the collection - the wet basal layer is almost entirely conr-

posed of tiny bone flakes and chips. While the current archaeofauna derives from a small excavation unit, it easily exceeds the NAB0 minimum sample

size limits (300 mammal bones or 1000 fish bones) for basic comparability. Bones from Vgishellir are very fragmented and show signs of rather specialized weathering resulting from their exposure on the cave's floor. However, most fragments were quite robust and not excessively damaged bythe exfoliation and "mushiness" evident in bone exposed to weathering in open air or an acid soil matrix. The highly fragmented nature of the collection reflects extremely complete butchery and bone marrow and collagen extraction prior to deposition, with some flaking and spalling afterwards. Table 2 compares the fragment size distribution for the Vgishellir collection with an approximately contemporary collection from Hrsheimar in northern lceland near Lake M,ivatn (McGovern and Perdikaris 2002). The Hrsheimar context 003 collection, from a small excavation unit (2 x 2 m) that sampled midden filling a sunken-featured structure, was also sieved through 4 mm mesh. Three AMS dates on cattle bone collagen place this deposit in the late gth to 10'h century (calibrated 1 sigma ranges: GU 9729: calAD 860-980; GU 9730: calAD 880-990; GU 9731: calAD 880-990), Hrsheimar appears to represent a middle-to-upper status farm with an archaeofauna broadly similar in species diversity, elernent representaticn, and taphoncmy to other I cela ndic Settlement Pe riod a rc haeofa unas (McGovern et a\.2001). Since this collection is similar in terms of recovery strategy and age it provides a useful comparative baseline for the

Vgishellir assembla ge.

As Table 2 illustrates, Vgishellir not only has

398

il
T

i
:

Table 2.

l
l

Table 2

Vqishellir
count 4683 2143 589
6 3
o/ /o

Hrsheimar 01, context 003

63.08 28,87 7.93 0.08 0.04

sze ranoe up to 1 cm max.

1-2 cm 2-5 cm 5-10 cm >10 cm

count 233
1

o/ /

881

1501
3BB

433

5.25 42.40 33.84 8.75 9.76

many more very small fragments (<1 cm maximum length), but also has proportionally fewer fragments in the 2-5 cm range and almost no larger fragments. ln fact, the Vgishellir collection contains almost no whole bones -the only complete elements are carpals, tarsals, teeth, and sheep or goat toes. This seems to be the result of extremely thorough processing of the bones to elitract the smallest bits of edible marrow and collagen ("bone grease") extraction. This pattern s characteristic of many bone collections from Norse Greenland but has not been previously observed in Viking-Early Medieval

but deviates somewhat in the relative proportons of element categories that comprise the LTM and MTM categories. Table 3, comparing, the propor-

ton of long bone shaft fragments (LBF)to total LTM and MTM category counts and percentages in the Vgishellir and Hrsheimar collections, suggests that the Vgishellir archaeofauna contains a higher percentage of limb bone fragments from meat-bearing elements relative to axial skeleton elements such as vertebrae and skull fragments.

lceland (0utram

1999).

0vrnvew oF SPECTES lorrrrrro

Vgishellir's archaeofauna is made up entrely of domestic mammal bones (Table 4). The MTM, LTM, and unidentified fragments were carefully searched for fish, bird, or molluscan remains but none were found. While depositional conditions in the cave were certainly atypical, they cannot account for the complete absence of these otherwise common taxa in Viking Age sites in lceland.

A substantial percentage of any highly frag. mented collection can only be identified as coming from "Medium Terrestrial Mammals" (MTM: sheepgoat-pg-dog size) or "Large Terrestrial Mammals" (LTM: cattle-horse size). These categories usually incorporate long bone shaftfragments (LBF), small vertebral fragments, rib fragments, small cranial fragments, and other fragments that can only be identified as mammalian and of the appropriate size class. "Unidentified mammal bones" (UNIM)are usually still more fragmented and can only be identified as mammalian rather than fish, bird, or molluscan. Higher degrees of fragmentation typically increase somewhatthe MTM and LTM proportion in a collection, while increasing the UNIM proportion even more. The Vgishellir archaeofauna follows this pattern,

Elrrrur DrstRrsurtoN
The Vgishellir archaeofauna contains elements from virtually all parts of cattle, caprine, pig, and horse skeletons. Durable elements like teeth, carpals, tarsals, and the denser parts of phalanges

Table 3.

Tahl
MTM LTM

LBF 612
159

llnichllir total
804
181

Hrsheimar
o/ /o

LBF
170
7B

76.12 87.85

total 985 263

o/ /o

17.26 29.66

399

Table 4.

Table 4

Count

% MSPI
94 27 14 3 2

Domestic Mammals
(Bos taurus dom. Linn) Piq (Sus scrofa dom. Linn) Horse (Equus caballus dom. Linn) Sheep (Ovis aries dom. Linn) Goat (Capra hircus dom. Linn) Caorine (either sheep or qoat) total Caprine

Cattle

25.27 7.26 3.76

0.81

232
237

0.54 62.37
63.71

Total NISP
Larqe Terrestrial Mammal Medium Terrestrial Mammal Unidentified

372

% TNF
181

804 6067

2.44 10.83 81.72

Total TNF

7424

and mandibles are the most common identifiable

elements. lt appears that entire or nearly entire carcasses of these domestic mammals were brought to the cave, although the proporlions of long bone shaftfragments in the broader LTM and MTM categories suggest that differential transport of meatrich upper limb bones to the cave may have also taken place. lt is very clear that this is not a specialized deposit holding only low meat-value bone elements, as was the case in the slightly younger outlaw shelter, Vgelmi also located within the Hallmundarhraun (lafsson 2000), The impression given s that the Vgishellir deposit is, if anything, skewed in favor of high meat-value elements.

thin floor-like deposits within the dry stone structure and extending outward from it contained many small calcined bone fragments. lt is possible that the occupation of the structure within the cave was brief enough (or specialized enoughlthatthe sort of hearth-clearing activities regularly carried out on a normal farm did not occur here. Gnawing by carnivores (almost ceftainly dogs in lcelandl and rodents (usually mice) is regularly recorded in most North Atlantic archaeofauna. Dog gnawing has often been observed in lceland (Perdikaris et a\.20021, although it is more common in Greenlandic collections. However, the current sample from Vgishellir shows no evidence of

animalgnawing. A full study of butchery practices requires

BuRt'rtrue

GruRwlrue, AND BUTcHERY MARKS

The Vgishellir archaeofauna is also unusual in that

burnt bone is virtually absent. Most lcelandic archaeofauna have a regular percentage of burnt bone that had either been deliberately used as fuel or simply thrown into the fire after meals. While the Vgishellir midden sample lacks any burnt bone, the

larger sample size (Lyman 1996), but qualitative observations sug gest th at the Vgishellir collection shors unusually extreme ie'eis of marrow extraction and bone fragmentation. All possible sources of bone marrow were exploited - mandibles were broken open, phalanges split, even tooth roots were smashed in somc cases. Both heavy and finebladed metal tools (probably axes and knives) were
used for butchery, and the many impact fractures

400

I
I
I
I

indicate the use of some sort of blunt instrument to smash open bones. The basic techniques included chopping and longitudinally splitting long bones without evidence for the distinctive dual pedoration of caprine metapodials most commonly encountered on lcelandic sites after ca AD 1100 (Bigelow 1985). ThiS level of bone fragmentation and bone processing is familiar from later medieval Greenlandic collections but is unusual in earlier lcelandic archaeofa una. Horse butchery clea rly ndic ates that this species was consumed for food at Vgishellir, supportng a pre-Conversion (e.g. gth-1Oth century) age for the collection.

pigs, cattle, and caprines, in particular, indicates

that multiple individuals of different ages were consumed.

One caprine tooth (dp4), assigned to Grant's (19821wear class "h", would conventionally be placed in the 9-12 month range (but see discussion in Enghoff 2003:54-56). lf born in May, as are most

Ae

r nr DrRru

lcelandic sheep (Aalsteinsson 1991), this animal most likely died in the late winter or early spring of its first year. 0ne late fetal or very newly born piglet phalanx was present, but may have been transported within a pregnant sow. Missing entrelyfrom the Vgishellir collection are the remains of newborn (neonatal) cattle bones. These are common on most lcelandic farm sites, reaching 40% of all identified cattle bones at Hrsheimar'

The Vgishellir collection is too small and too frag-

mented to allow reliable reconstruction of age profiles for any taxon. However, it is clear from the teeth preserved that fully mature cattle, pigs, horse, sheep, and goat were consumed and that some juveniles were also eaten. The tooth wear on the

CoupRRRrvE

PATTERNS

Fig. 5 compares the Vgishellir domestic mammal

collection with the other currently available lcelandic archaeofauna of the gthto early 12th centuries

lceland

12tr c

L z
6 E E

t.

= o

o
d c

E,

i-

o:

E O
'i

s
o
:
(D

E O E

o p
E (n

c
V
v)

c
!-

:o
?

u)

cr

I
I

D Cattle ffi Horse E Pig CaPrine

Fig.5. Domestic mammal proportions in quantifiable th-lVh century lcelandic archaeofaunas

401

(the collections are arranged from left to rght in rough chronological order). Tjarnargata 4 is from Reykjavk, Herjolfsdalur is from the Westman

Ournrrs AND

tNTRPRETATIoNS

lslands, Sveigakot (SVK) is a stratified collection from M'ivatnssveit, VGH (arrow) is Vgishellir. Selhagi (SLH) is a stratified collection from Mfvatnssveit, Hofstair (HST) is a stratified collection from Mrivatnssveit, Hrsheimar (HRH) is from M'ivatnssveit, Granastadir (GST)s from Eyjafjrd, and Svalbar is from istlfjt'd n northeastern lceland (McGovern et a1.2001). The Vgishellir collection is not out of place in this series. lts mix of cattle, pigs, horses, and caprines resembles that of several middle- to upper-ranked late 9'h and 1Oth century lcelandic farms. lf we had only these data, we might conclude that this collection was from a fairly prosperous Settlement Age farm. However, as Fig. 6 shows, the Vgishellir collection is exceptonal when all of the major identified taxa are considered - no other lcelandic collection from any period consists entirely of domestic mammals and many Settlement Age collections are dominated, instead, by wild species.

Surtshellir is an unusual Viking Age lcelandic site. Place names within the cave, coupled with the documented archaeological features and deposits, suggest a relatively extensive and complex suite of archaeological remains including fortifications, a subterranean house, middens, and extremely thin and fragile occupation deposits. The main habitation zone is located c. 200 meters from the cave's entrance, well beyond the penetration of any natural light. Separated from the entrance passages by a massive fortification wallin a hidden side passage, it was obviously not meant to be an accessible place. The thickness of the midden layer shows that it accumulated over some time. AMS dates confirm a late Ith or 1Oth century age for the bone-bearing deposits, while the form of the adjacent structure bears many similarities to known Viking Age halls. The massive wall spanning the main tunnel, the presence of fire-starter fragments with potentally distant and diverse origins, and the unusual archaeofauna recovered from Vgishellir all

g,

oqt

c f ( o
d) (

.c (,
e

P6c>t EJ; ES;-+! r*r'EE tsrt)ll'tVi=

.:Co:>EE

OF

po CV
>>-tnrr
La-

NN !E
u)

II

'o

:f U)

r1
U)

E Total Domestic El Birds E Cetacea E Seals N Caribou El Other Mammal D Fish E Mollusca

Fig.6. Proportions of domestic and wild taxa in quantifiable th-lZh century lcelandic archaeofaunas.

402

r
T

match reasonably well with correlates one might reasonably derive from medieval accounts of outlaw bands' lairs. The 2001 archaeofauna from Vgishellir, while small and fragmented, shows both similarities and differences from other currently known lcelandic Settlement Age and Early Commonwealth samples. It would'be anomalous (except in relative proportions of domestic mammals) even if it did not come from a cave with such a colorful legend. lt lacks any of the fish, birds, and shellfish common on Settlement Age sites in lceland, suggesting that the cave's occupants were not reduced to scavenging wild resources despite the site's marginal location - 10-15 meters underground in a lava field on the fringes of lceland's uninhabitable interior highland. Recent work indicates that farms 60 km or more

they lacked otherfood sources (dairy produce, fish, birds, cereals), or possibly they attempted to limit their exposure to community retaliation by spacing their raids as widely as possible. Given the density of this midden and its composition, it would appear that the occupants of the cave must have had a heavy impact on the economies of the farms around
them.
Yet, while Vgishellir's occupants built significant structures and dined on the meatiest portions of

from the coast were regularly provisioned with preserved marine fish, sea birds, sea mammals, raw materials, and other critical resources from the Settlement Period onwards (Smith 2004; Amundsen ef a/. in press). lf the cave's occupants were indeed outlaws, they may have been cut off from regular access to some resources because they no longer had access to the social networks that allowed such provisioning. The mix of domestic mammals present suggests that the cave's occupants had the ability to acquire a wide range of domestic stock from surrounding farms, due perhaps to their success as raiders or to support, willing or coerced, from nearby farms. The absence of newborn calf bones (so common in farm middens) may pointto seasonality in their raiding activity, problems in capturing young animals normally kept withi farmyards, or a simple focus on adult animals that could provide more meat when slaughtered' The apparent surplus of meat-rich long bones could reflect the butchery of some captured animals away from the cave, or raids on farm smokehouses or meat stores. And yet the pattern of bone f ragmentation also suggests that while the cave's occupants may have

many animals, crushing their bones while burning few and carefully separating the burned from the unburned, these patterns differ significantly from those recorded at Vigelmir, another suspected 1Oth century outlaw shelter in the Hallmundarhraun (lafsson 2000). At Vigelmir, an untidy scatter of burned and unburned bones, tossed unsorted around a small unframed hearth on a hidden ledge testifies to a short stay, perhaps lasting no more than a few days, by one or two people eating the least desirable portions of a cow (lafsson 2000)'
That these two nearly contemporaneous sites, located no more than t0 kilometers from one another are so different, suggests, at the very least, that the archaeological records of outlaws and

cave sites in lceland may be more complex than we

currently realize.

AcTTowLTDGEMENTS Fieldwork in Vgishellir, radiocarbon dating and trace element analyses were undertaken with supportfrom the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, jminjasafn slands, the Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (Brown University). Archaeofaunal analyses undertaken at N0RSEC (CUNY-Hunter), reported here, are the product of sustained supportfrom the UK Leverhulme Trust "Landscapes Circum Landnm" proiect, the US National Science Foundation, the lcelandic Science Council, National Geographic Society, PSCf\r !Ntv Granrc Prnnrarn. and iminiasafn slands qrrq rrvvrr lvYrurrr ulsllr uulll (the lcelandic National Museum). The authors jointly wish to express their gratitude to all of the above spollsors Toi pasl anu pf cseili suplrut r'

enjoyed considerable success in carrying off ^-i-^t domestic stocit, titey ilad t proess anmal carcasses completely for meat, marrow, and bone grease. Perhaps they were attempting to get the rnost out of the meat animals they car-rgi'rt hecause

403

H
R

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A.
a

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.

guidetothe age of domestic

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Dynamics of Northern Societies

Proceedings of the SILA/NAB0 Conference on Arctic and Nofth Atlantic Archaeology, Copenha gen, May 1 0th-1 4th, 2004

Edited by

Jette Arneborg & Bjarne Grnnow

SILA

-The Greenland Research Centre

at the National Museum of Denmark

s-*ffi

PNM
Publications from the National Museum Studies in Archaeology & History Vol. 10 Copenhagen 206

Publications from the National Museum Dynamics of Northern Societies Proceedings of the SlLA,/NAB0 Conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology, Copenhagen, May
1

Oth-14, 2004

Editors ofthe PNM series: Poul Grinder-Hansen & Lars Jrgensen Copyright The National Museum of Denmark and all individual authors All rights ieserved Edited by Jette Arneborg and Bjarne Grnnow Technical edition: Niels Alqreen Mller

Linguistic revision: Aoife Daly Cover design by Marianne Blank Produced by Special-Trykkeriet. Byens Tryk a-s Published by The National Museum of Denmark 12, Frederiksholms Kanal. DK-1220 Copenhagen
ISBN: 87-7602-052-5

Edito.rial advisor::.lrlqll" Appelt colleen Barey, H.c. Gullv, Einar Lund Jensen, Ditlev Mahler, Jom Mc{jovern, Ulla odgaard, Anne Pedersen, Mikkel Srensen. 0rri Vesteinsson

ISSN:0909 EAN code: 97

8877 6020521

This book is available direct from: The National Museum The Museum Shop 12, Frederiksholms Kanal DK-1220 Copenhagen K
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The Proceedings are funded by: SILA - The Greenland Research Centre t the National Museum of Denmark The Department of Research and Exhibition, National Museum of Denmark
Cover: Hatherton Bugt, lnglefield Land, 1997.Original photo by Bjarne Grnnow