The Pollen team is one of several groups working on the UMass Boston Archaeological Project in Northern Iceland.
To find pollen from the Viking Age we dig small holes and sample to soil. We can date the soil because of the Volcanic Ash layers. This is an expirmental project to see how well pollen is preserved in fields. We are also digging in bogs, where preservation is usually perfect
Dr. John Steinberg has been a Research Scientist at the Fiske Center since 2006. He received his PhD in Anthropology from UCLA in 1997. Before coming to UMass Boston, John taught at UCLA and California State University Northridge. He is interested in the economic problems of colonization, both in New England and across the North Atlantic. He uses GIS and shallow geophysics to study settlement patterns to understand broad trends over the landscape. In addition to John's New England work, he has been studying the settlement patterns of Viking Age Iceland. John is the director of the Digital Archaeology Laboratory at the Fiske Center.