The Mosfell Archaeological Project

Project Goals

Project Participants

Historical Cultural Ecology of the Mosfellsdalur

Map of the Mosfell Valley (Mosfellsdalur)

Archaeological Excavations

International Collaboration

Historical References to Mosfell

Archaeological Data and Historical Sources

Mosfell and the Viking World

Questions We Are Exploring

Results of the 1995 Test Excavations

The 1998 Fieldwork

The 1999 Field Season

The 2001 Field Season

Hrísbrú Burials

Evidence of Viking Age Violence

2002 Excavations

The Huldahóll Cremation Burial

Evidence of a Wooden Church at Kirkjuhóll

Future Research

 
 
 
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  • From our initial excavations, we now have a far better picture of the Medieval settlement pattern of the region, and have begun to relate this to the local socio-economic and ecological systems.
  • A basic fact is that Mosfell and the surrounding farms were not isolated habitations or farms that had to be abandoned a few centuries after the initial Viking Age settlement. Instead, they were part of a frequently prosperous and long-lived valley system of human habitation.
  • Given the complimentary skills of our interdisciplinary team in social history, physical anthropology, geology, and paleoecology, our future research on how the Mosfell valley and its inhabitants evolved over the centuries promises to be extremely fruitful. We look forward to continuing this exciting work.
 

Analysis of charcoal from the Hulduhóll cremation grave