1. Hard Times at
Hofstaðir
NE Iceland
ca. 1250-1300
0 5
kilometres
BrennaBrennaBrennaBrennaBrennaBrennaBrennaBrennaBrenna
SteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogiSteinbogi
HrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimarHrisheimar
SveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakotSveigakot
OddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðirOddastaðir
SvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkotSvartárkot
SelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagiSelhagi
HofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðirHofstaðir
StöngStöngStöngStöngStöngStöngStöngStöngStöng
HófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerðiHófðagerði
SaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvíkSaltvík
Settlement site
Pagan burial
Pagan burial
(Location inferred)

2. The Hofstaðir Problem
A Failed Faith Based
Initiative ?
• The site of Hofstaðir has a huge
long hall (>300 sq m vs. ca 60 sq m
average).
• Clearly a working farm- BUT:
• It had at least 24 cattle skulls
(including several bulls) set around
the exterior walls.
• Cattle and sheep harvest profiles
suggest some concentrations of
animals killed in spring (prob.
June), a pattern unlike other Mývatn
archaeofauna.
• Abandoned (hall demolished).
Small Christian chapel built ca AD
1000 just across field.
• Probably only 2-3 generations of
use?
• In later medieval and early modern
periods, Hofstaðir is a middle
ranking farm, nothing special, but
continuously occupied.

3. Christian Chapel Area
Hildur Gestsdóttir FSI

4. Unreadable table 1-
AMS C14 indicate
late 13th-early 14th c
cattle deaths,
Midden deposit is just on top of H 1300 tephra
AMS Radiocarbon Chronology, Hofstaðir group (5114)
(data courtesy Scottish Univ. Environmental Research Center SUERC)
Lab Ref. # Material Context delta C-13 delta N-15 Radiocarbon age Calibrated 1 Sigma Calibrated 2 Sigma
SUERC-45390 (GU 30005) Cattle bone collagen [5155] -21.8% 4.5% 735 +/- 45 BP 1227 -1292 (66.2%) 1211-1310 (88.3%)
1360-1387 (7.1%)
SUERC-45391 (GU 30006) Cattle bone collagen [5123] -21.4% 3.0% 809 +/-45 BP 1188-1199 (7.1%) 1058-1074 (1.7%)
1206-1269 (61.1 %) 1154-1282 (93.7%)

5. Unreadable
table 2

10. Lost dogs and
cat…
Icelandic Annals for 1287 state
that: “At this time, many
severe winters came at
once, and following them
people died of hunger.”

11. Time & TEK
Iceland 875-1250 AD
375 years
~ 25 human generations
Greenland 985-
1250 AD
265 years
~18 generations

12. 13th Century
environmental
managers: slightly
distracted
Civil War !
•Age of the Sturlungs:
•Five Great Families struggle to
control all Iceland.
•Icelandic warlords seek kingship.
•Everyone loses.
•Iceland submits to Norway 1264.

13. From Miller et al (2012) “(a) Total solar
irradiance (VSK [Schmidt et al.,2011]). (b)
Global stratospheric sulfate aerosol
loadings [Gao et al., 2008]. (c) Ice cap
expansion dates based on a composite of
94 Arctic Canada calibrated 14C PDFs. (d)
30-year running mean varve thickness in
Hvítárvatn sediment core HVT03-2 [Larsen
et al., 2011]. (e) Arctic Ocean sea ice
recorded in a sediment core on the north
Iceland shelf [Massé et al., 2008]; heavy
sea ice years correlate with anomalously
cold summers across Iceland. (f)
Temperature anomalies over southern
Greenland (wrt 1881–1980 AD mean) from
the borehole temperature inversion at DYE-
3 [Dahl-Jensen et al., 1998]”. Superposed
box is one sigma range of HST 5114
C14 , red dotted line is Icelandic
Annals report of famine in N Iceland.
,

14. Conjunctures
• Proto-world system of ca. 1250-1300
• Gásir (and other) trading centers
• Competition to conflict 1200-1264
• Volcanic eruption c. 1257
• Sea ice formation, rapid cooling, onset of drift
ice in summer.
• Harp seal biogeography
• Hunger in Iceland & Adaptive Response