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A millennium of Icelandic archaeological fish data examined against marine climate records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2019

George Hambrecht Open the ORCID record for George Hambrecht [Opens in a new window] ,
Frank Feeley ,
Konrad Smiarowski ,
Megan Hicks ,
Ramona Harrison ,
Seth Brewington ,
Grace Cesario  and
Kevin Gibbons
George Hambrecht*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland20812, USA
Frank Feeley
Affiliation:
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, NY, NY, 10016, USA
Konrad Smiarowski
Affiliation:
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, NY, NY, 10016, USA
Megan Hicks
Affiliation:
Hunter College, NY, NY, 10065, USA
Ramona Harrison
Affiliation:
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Seth Brewington
Affiliation:
Lehman College, NY, NY, 10468, USA
Grace Cesario
Affiliation:
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, NY, NY, 10016, USA
Kevin Gibbons
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland20812, USA
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: ghambrecht@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article combines new marine fish faunal data from medieval and early modern Icelandic archaeological sites with previously published data that focused primarily on the Settlement and Commonwealth periods. This synthesis places these new data into the larger scale of Icelandic history and marine conditions (sea-surface temperature and sea ice) to identify patterns and trends across the last 1000 years of the relationship between humans and Icelandic cod populations. We find no direct correlation between zooarchaeological patterns and sea ice or storminess in the medieval period and a possible correlation in the early modern period. We argue that this suggests a nuanced relationship between changing climates and fishing patterns in Icelandic history. While changes in sea temperature and periods of increased storminess might have made fishing productivity more variable and at times more dangerous, it is only in the early modern period that we see change in the marine zooarchaeological record that might indicate a correlation. Instead, we contend that the impacts of the changing climate relative to marine resources were mediated by social, political, economic, and even technological variables.

Keywords

Marine Historical EcologyZooarchaeologyCod (Gadus morhua)Iceland
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 108: PESAS , July 2022 , pp. 64 - 80
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Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019

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