English and Hanseatic trading and fishing sites in Medieval Iceland: report on initial fieldwork

• Main Authors: Gardiner, Mark, Mehler, Natascha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Verlag Philipp von Zabern 2007
• Subjects: V130 Medieval History; V290 History by Area not elsewhere classified; Bjarnarhöfn; Kumbaravogur; Stakkhamar; Iceland
• Online Access: https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/28513/

In 2006 an international research project began which over the next few years will investigate Iceland's trade with England and the Hanse during the late Middle Ages, namely the period from about 1412 to 1602. Historical sources, place-names and archaeology are used for identifying trading sites in the landscape. The paper provides both an introduction into the subject and a report on initial fieldwork undertaken in May 2006. In addition, it points out the problems of identifying trading sites in the field. Three rather different sites were surveyed. All of them are supposed to be trading sites, and their structural remains are different from each other: Búdasandur at Stakkhamar at the south side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, Búdasandur or Maríuhöfn in Hvalfjördur in south-west Iceland, and Kumbaravogur near Bjarnarhöfn at the north side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula.