Elín Ósk Hreiðarsdóttir

• BA anthopology, MA archaeology
• Head of Department at Fornleifastofnun Íslands

in Iceland constructed before the mid-20th century. The project is supported by the Architectural Heritage Fund (Húsafriðunarsjóður). The initial phase (2020–2023) of the project involved a desktop survey that identified 93 such buildings across Iceland, more than half of which have likely already been demolished. Current estimates suggest that up...

This document offers the results of an archaeological field survey that took place in Fagurey in Breiðafjörður in the summer of 2022. The work was carried out as a part of the research project Staðarhóll in Dalir: Nature, culture and economy on an Icelandic church center (RÍM or LCMI – Literary Culture in Medieval Iceland) but the research in Fagur...

Í þessari skýrslu birtast niðurstöður fornleifaskráningar sem unnin var í Þjórsárdal haustin 2018 og 2019. Þjórsárdalur tilheyrir sveitarfélaginu Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppi. Skráðar voru fornleifar á fjórum lögbýlum og afréttarlandi Gnúpverja og Skeiða- og Flóamanna auk minja sem ná yfir fleiri en eina jörð. Skráningarsvæðið afmakaðist að mestu við...

Í þessari skýrslu birtast niðurstöður fornleifaskráningar vegna tvöföldunar Reykjanesbrautar frá Hvassahrauni að Krýsuvíkurvegi. Skráningin var unnin fyrir Vegagerðina. Skráðar voru minjar á jörðunum Lónakoti, Óttarstöðum, Straumi, Þorbjarnarstöðum, Stóra-Lambhaga, og Hvaleyri sem tilheyrðu áður Álftaneshreppi. Veglínan sem tekin var út er um 6 km...

In the summer of 2010 Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland (Minjastofnun Íslands) was contacted by Gísli Halldór Magnússon, who reported that erosion by the Hólmsá River had exposed a row of stones below the old home-field at the farm of Hrífunes in Skaftártunga. Five Pagan Viking burials (kuml) had been excavated or reported in this area between 19...

A recent archaeological field survey conducted by the authors in Rangárvellir near Mt Hekla in southern Iceland revealed a high number of abandoned farmsteads. This new set of data is valuable for the ongoing debate on farm abandonment in Iceland. In an area historically with fewer than 60 farm units, 149 abandoned farmsteads were recorded, with ab...

This paper presents research conducted on an abandoned village connected to the industrialization of fishing in the early twentieth century. The village lies on the eastern end of the island of Viðey off Reykjavík and was founded in 1907 as part of a private commercial enterprise. The project used documentary sources, interviews with former inhabit...

This paper examines the particular nature of Icelandic capitalism as it emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on a recent project investigating the material processes surrounding the rise and fall of an early capitalist venture in the fishing industry, the role of commodities and their intersection with issues of col...

In 2009, an international team cooperated in survey, coring, and small scale test excavation work on selected sites in the Eyjafjord region in North Iceland. This concluded the initial part of the Gásir Hinterlands Project which was predominantly funded by a NSF IPY Dissertation Improvement Grant. A thorough account on the field season and artifact...

Laugafell is an oasis in the mainly barren highlands close to the glacier Hofsjökull in north central Iceland. It has long been associated with folktales about a medieval occupation; and as early as 1819, an antiquarian expedition was sent there to investigate a pool then thought to be man-made with inscriptions on it. It was later realised that th...

This paper outlines the history behind the use of aerial sources (photographs and satellite imagery) in archaeology in Iceland. While aerial archaeology is an established and routinely used practice alongside other prospection techniques and non-intrusive surveys in many other European countries, in Iceland it is relatively under-utilised. Even so...