Ph.D student Magdalena M. E. Schmid research project deals with the archaeological dating evidence in Viking Age Iceland (c. 870-1050). “Archaeological dating evidence is based on typology, tephrochronology, and radiocarbon dating. I collect all those supplementary data from burials and farmsteads and summarise them in a comprehensive catalogue resulting in a list of all Viking Age farms in Iceland for the first time.”
“The volcano rich island of Iceland contains an impressive amount of newly available archaeological and geological data, which is ready for scrutiny and analysis,” says Schmid who came to Iceland to study because of her keen interest in the history of the Viking Age, Icelandic as an original Scandinavian language and the geology. “Iceland has a relatively clear amount of material which can be summarized in a catalogue. For instance, in Norway, it would not be possible.”
Schmid records archaeological remains in Iceland in a chronological order. Tephrochronology is the most reliable method used in Iceland to date human objects of the past. It is a method first identified and used by geologist Sigurður Þórarinsson. “I analyse available data and combine the dating evidence as much as possible, whereas tephra layers are the basis for dating in Iceland. The conclusions would be a periodization of Viking Age settlements and graves in Iceland.”
