Report of Animal Bones from Tjarnargata 3C, Reykjavík, Iceland

• Main Authors: Perdikaris, Sophia, Amundsen, Colin, McGovern, Thomas H.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2002
• Subjects: Animal Studies; Anthropology; Geography; International and Area Studies; Reykjavík; Brooklyn; Iceland
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/global/15; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/global/article/1014/viewcontent/Norsec1Tjarnargata3c__1_.pdf

Executive Summary During rescue excavations in downtown Reykjavík in 1999 nearly 100 kg of well-preserved animal bone was recovered in investigations at Tjarnargata 3 C by Fornleifastofnun Islands (FSÍ) directed by Mjöll Snaesdóttir. This bone collection (or archaeofauna) was largely sieved (4 mm and 1 mm mesh wet screen) and represents one of the largest archaeofauna recovered from Iceland to date. Analysis was carried out at City University of New York’s Northern Science & Education Center’s two zooarchaeology laboratories at Brooklyn College and Hunter College in 2000-01. The analyzed bone materials were returned for long term curation at the National Museum of Iceland in January 2002. The Tjarnargata 3C collections derive from a widespread sheet midden deposit that post-dates an AD 1500 tephra, and probably represents refuse discarded by multiple households and local shops and factories. While the collection cannot be closely dated, the great majority of the bone collection probably derives from the 18th and early 19th centuries- a period of rapid urbanization of central Reykjavik. This collection thus differs from virtually all other previously studied Icelandic bone materials that derive from single farms and from the activities of one or two household units, and some of these differences are apparent in the condition of the recovered bone. The collection shows some distinctive urban characteristics, with clear indication of local butchery being significantly supplemented by meatrich joints presumably imported from nearby farms provisioning the growing city. The remains of some preserved hams almost certainly indicate trans-Atlantic shipment, and serve to illustrate the expanded dietary range of the urbanizing population. Other bone remains illustrate another side of early modern city life: rodent gnawed bones, remains of stray dogs, scavenging gulls and fulmars, and other elements of an unwanted commensual “urban fauna”. The collections also reflect the source of early Reykjavik’s prosperity, and are ...