Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse
This thesis reviews archaeological material, medieval literature, place-names and palaeoenvironmental data cited in explorations of the early Viking Age North Atlantic area, and proposes a reassessment of chronology for the earliest settlement of Iceland. After analysing previous scholarship and dis...
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Language: | English |
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The University of Edinburgh
2006
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ftunivedinburgh:oai:era.ed.ac.uk:1842/15812 2023-07-30T04:04:21+02:00 Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse Ahronson, Kristján Gillies, William Dugmore, Andy Hunter, Fraser 2006 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15812 en eng The University of Edinburgh http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15812 Scottish studies Viking Age North Atlantic Thesis or Dissertation Doctoral PhD Doctor of Philosophy 2006 ftunivedinburgh 2023-07-09T20:31:49Z This thesis reviews archaeological material, medieval literature, place-names and palaeoenvironmental data cited in explorations of the early Viking Age North Atlantic area, and proposes a reassessment of chronology for the earliest settlement of Iceland. After analysing previous scholarship and discussing the problems inherent in study of early North Atlantic settlement, it is suggested that a multi-disciplinary approach is needed and can be articulated (by drawing upon Karl Popper’s ideas) to foster a fruitful conversation between disciplines. This methodology for engaging with multi-disciplinary materials is then presented. Three sections follow, tackling in turn three areas of Viking Age scholarship that have caused difficulty and frustration in the past: the toponymy of Hebridean Pap-islands (Chapter Three); the chronology of carve construction, occupation and human-environmental interactions at Seljaland in southern Iceland (Chapters Four, Five, Six, and Seven); and the İrland et mikla tradition of medieval literature, including discussion of the views of the largely forgotten nineteenth-century scholar Eugène Beauvois (Chapter Eight). Couched in a Popperian methodology, the new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research that forms the bulk of the thesis is integrated with small-scale studies of place-names and medieval literature. Tephronchronology plays a large part in the Seljaland section. Chapter Six, for instance, introduces the tephra contours technique for study of past environments. The thesis concludes with a new proposal for the first settlement of Iceland and its connections to Atlantic Scotland, arrived at by considering the archaeological and tephra deposits at Seljaland, in conjunction with art-historical, toponymic and literary material. The thesis proposes that southern Iceland’s Seljaland caves were built c. AD 800 – earlier than the traditional Norse foundation of settlement on the island – and that cross sculpture in these caves suggests a connection with Gaelic monasticism found ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Iceland North Atlantic Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA - University of Edinburgh) Mikla ENVELOPE(-6.300,-6.300,62.350,62.350) Seljaland ENVELOPE(-22.556,-22.556,65.656,65.656) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA - University of Edinburgh) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivedinburgh |
language |
English |
topic |
Scottish studies Viking Age North Atlantic |
spellingShingle |
Scottish studies Viking Age North Atlantic Ahronson, Kristján Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
topic_facet |
Scottish studies Viking Age North Atlantic |
description |
This thesis reviews archaeological material, medieval literature, place-names and palaeoenvironmental data cited in explorations of the early Viking Age North Atlantic area, and proposes a reassessment of chronology for the earliest settlement of Iceland. After analysing previous scholarship and discussing the problems inherent in study of early North Atlantic settlement, it is suggested that a multi-disciplinary approach is needed and can be articulated (by drawing upon Karl Popper’s ideas) to foster a fruitful conversation between disciplines. This methodology for engaging with multi-disciplinary materials is then presented. Three sections follow, tackling in turn three areas of Viking Age scholarship that have caused difficulty and frustration in the past: the toponymy of Hebridean Pap-islands (Chapter Three); the chronology of carve construction, occupation and human-environmental interactions at Seljaland in southern Iceland (Chapters Four, Five, Six, and Seven); and the İrland et mikla tradition of medieval literature, including discussion of the views of the largely forgotten nineteenth-century scholar Eugène Beauvois (Chapter Eight). Couched in a Popperian methodology, the new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research that forms the bulk of the thesis is integrated with small-scale studies of place-names and medieval literature. Tephronchronology plays a large part in the Seljaland section. Chapter Six, for instance, introduces the tephra contours technique for study of past environments. The thesis concludes with a new proposal for the first settlement of Iceland and its connections to Atlantic Scotland, arrived at by considering the archaeological and tephra deposits at Seljaland, in conjunction with art-historical, toponymic and literary material. The thesis proposes that southern Iceland’s Seljaland caves were built c. AD 800 – earlier than the traditional Norse foundation of settlement on the island – and that cross sculpture in these caves suggests a connection with Gaelic monasticism found ... |
author2 |
Gillies, William Dugmore, Andy Hunter, Fraser |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Ahronson, Kristján |
author_facet |
Ahronson, Kristján |
author_sort |
Ahronson, Kristján |
title |
Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
title_short |
Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
title_full |
Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
title_fullStr |
Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
title_full_unstemmed |
Claiming a wilderness : Atlantic Gaels and the island Norse |
title_sort |
claiming a wilderness : atlantic gaels and the island norse |
publisher |
The University of Edinburgh |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15812 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-6.300,-6.300,62.350,62.350) ENVELOPE(-22.556,-22.556,65.656,65.656) |
geographic |
Mikla Seljaland |
geographic_facet |
Mikla Seljaland |
genre |
Iceland North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Iceland North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15812 |
_version_ |
1772815730491785216 |