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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 751: Medieval Icelandic Farming, I: Milking the Landscape?

Tuesday 3 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:University of Iceland / National Museum of Iceland
Organiser:Bernadette McCooey, Independent Scholar, Birmingham
Moderator/Chair:Bernadette McCooey, Independent Scholar, Birmingham
Paper 751-aManor Formation in Early Iceland
(Language: English)
Axel Kristinsson, Reykjavík Academy, Iceland
Index terms: Economics - Rural, Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History
Paper 751-bThe Cultural Landscape of Milk
(Language: English)
Árni Daníel Júlíusson, National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Daily Life, Economics - Rural, Social History
Paper 751-cInfrastructure Re-Use and Persistence of Place in the Icelandic Agricultural Landscape
(Language: English)
Kathryn Catlin, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Illinois
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Daily Life, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Abstract

Medieval Icelandic agriculture relied almost exclusively on pastoralism, and while landscape studies have bloomed in recent years, there is still a need to examine the relationship between dairy activities and the landscape. This session, one of two complementary sessions on Icelandic agriculture at this year's Congress, focuses on the (re-)use and organisation of the landscape, and takes a long-term, inter-disciplinary perspective, from settlement to the 15th century. The formation of höfuðból (manors), alongside the infrastructure of two different regions demonstrate how the agrarian landscape developed, shaping not only identity but also society's interpretation of its past and present.