SASS – UMass Boston – Fiske Center – Archaeology

Blog of the Skagafjordur Archaeological Settlement Survey

Pollen sampling

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With the arrival of Heather and Sue, the coring team has morphed into the pollen team!  For the last week we’ve been coring at Meðalheimur, finding locations with good tephra sequences.  So far we’ve finished taking samples from four 1×1 units at different locations around the farm – we have one more to finish up tomorrow before we move on to Reynistaður.   Despite the cold, strong wind, and rain, we’re making excellent progress!  When we get back to Boston, we’ll take the samples to the lab and count the pollen grains preserved at each level.

For the last few days we’ve been working close to the midden team, who are opening a large section in the side of the farm mound.  It’s been fun to hang out with them!  They’ve found lots of bones, plus some wool and a copper pot dating to sometime after 1300.

I’ll have some pictures to post later this week of the pollen team’s exploits!

This morning the whole SASS team visited some other exavations around the valley – the harbor at Kolkuós and an early cemetery on the other side of the fjord.  It was great to see what other groups are excavating, and helpful to get some perspective on our own sites.  We’re looking forward to seeing the Kolkuós folks at Seyla soon!

Author: Kathryn Catlin

Kathryn Catlin is an alumna of UMass Boston's Historical Archaeology MA program and a current PhD student in Anthropology at Northwestern University. Kathryn's research interests include the social and economic dimensions of settlement and colonization in Iceland, medieval England, and the colonial US. She is interested in developing survey techniques, including geophysical survey as well as more traditional archaeological methods, to describe relationships between the development of social inequality and the causes and consequences of environmental change. She has participated in numerous Fiske Center projects, including seasons in Iceland, Greenland, the Caribbean, and across New England.

One Comment

  1. How about a photo of that pot? Please keep the blog entries coming.

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