Iceland History, Culture and Tourism: Travel Information, Tourism, Environment, People, Government, Politics, Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland by Adams Evan

Author:Adams, Evan [Adams, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, azw
Tags: Iceland, Iceland history, history and culture of Iceland, Iceland travel guide, Iceland eBook, Iceland tourism, Iceland lonely planet
Publisher: Sonit Education Academy
Published: 2016-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

Iron Production and Charcoal Making

Air photos have revealed patterns of circular depressions along ridgelines in several parts ofM´yvatnssveit and the surrounding valleys. Excavation indicates that these are charcoal production pits similar to those documented in southern Iceland (Dugmore et al. 2006) and their density and extent suggests a fairly intensive production that could not be sustained by the few modern stands of surviving birch woods. Detailed archaeobotanical, radiocarbon, and tephra analysis is ongoing from the excavated pits but preliminary results indicate that the charcoal largely consisted of locally grown birch-branch wood cut in late spring to early summer, which may indicate some form of deliberate management of the resource. All of the pits investigated were used prior to the fall of the V1477 tephra that filled the pits.

Recent excavations at Hr´ısheimar have uncovered evidence of very large-scale iron smelting in the form of a group of smelters and smithy structures clustered on a ridgeline just above the farm ruin, and quantities of production slag and bloomery debris have been recovered from the eroded ridgeline (Edvardsson 2001). The charcoal produced in the pits was very similar in form to the material recovered from the middens at Hr´ısheimar, suggesting the smelting at the site used locally produced charcoal. It would appear that this now-abandoned Kr´ak´a valley farm was heavily involved in iron production and was a major consumer of wood charcoal. Excavations continue at Hr´ısheimar, but it would appear that one product of Landn´am-era M´yvatnssveit may have been smelted iron. Although the impact of charcoal making on the birch woods would have been significant, a local iron production industry might also provide incentive to efforts at woodland management, which, perhaps, was in turn reflected in the pollen profile of persisting birch woods on now-barren hillsides at Helluva stj¨orn. In any case, early Iceland was clearly far less dependent on imported iron than it was to become in early modern times, when virtually all metal tools were imported.

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