| Recent international initiatives concerned with global environmental change have recognized the need for a long-term perspective on human interactions with natural resources. New integrative theory emerging in Anthropology, Cultural Geography and History again focus upon the complex interplay of human decision making and the dynamics of natural systems in the creation of landscapes through time. Zooarchaeology would thus appear to be well positioned to play an enhanced role in research both within archaeology and in cross-disciplinary settings in the coming decades. However, zooarchaeologists face apparently daunting challenges in effectively incorporating individual site collections into regional and temporal syntheses required for such integrative projects.;This work presents and synthesizes the current zooarchaeological evidence for the economy of Iceland from the first Scandinavian settlement in the 9th century to the mid-19th century. This investigation has focused upon the processes of Viking/Norse cultural expansion, stabilization and Early Modern contraction in Iceland with the interaction of climate change, maritime and terrestrial resources availability and human land use strategies. Using zooarchaeoloqical data, an integrated view of the interaction between human response and a changing climate, the development of cultural landscapes and the Icelandic commercial stock fish trade is addressed in relation to the wider North Atlantic region of the Circumpolar zone. |
