Icelandic medieval monastic sites

• Main Authors: Larsson, Inger, Lundquist, Kjell
• Format: Text
• Language: Swedish; English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Archaeology ResearchSubjectCategories; Horticulture; Skriðuklaustur; Iceland
• Online Access: https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/5110/; https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/5110/1/larsson_e_al_100823.pdf

Were there monasteries in Iceland in the Middle Ages? How many were there? Where were they located, how were they built and, above all, were there any adjacent monastic gardens? The Nordic project “Icelandic medieval monastic sites – vegetation and flora, cultural plants and relict plants, contemporary plant-names” will try to contribute to answering these questions that can be summarized as follows: What cultivated plants and garden plants were known and used in the medieval Icelandic monastic context? Will new research into the relatively uninvestigated and largely untouched medieval Icelandic monastic sites modify our knowledge of the form and plant life of the Nordic monastic garden? The project has its starting point in the archaeobotanic findings of some medicinal plants, such as a species in the onion genus (Allium sp.), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and greater plantain (Plantago major), made during the excavation of an Augustinian monastery, Skriðuklaustur in Fljótsdalur, eastern Iceland (occupied 1493–1550) led by archaeologist Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir at the University of Iceland