Archaeological Excavations, Survey, and Environmental Sampling at Kotið, Grænagerði, Þrælagerði, Keflavík, and Helluland, North Iceland, 2022-2024

This dataset describes the investigation of Kotið, one of the oldest and earliest small sites in North Iceland, through coring and archaeological excavation. The objective was to determine the nature of human activity at the site and whether site inhabitants lived independent of wealthy farmsteads and pursued alternative subsistence strategies. The discovery of small, permanent habitations during the early settlement period is transforming understanding of the process of initial landscape colonization, requiring archaeologists to rethink their assumptions about the nature of social organization, subsistence, and settlement patterns during the Settlement of Iceland, ca. AD 870-1000. Archaeological study of this early settlement-period site began with systematic coring to establish the preservation, extent, and character of the cultural deposits. Open-air excavation followed with test trenching to expose the buildings identified during initial testing and to determine their form, size, and age. Collection and comprehensive analysis of artifacts, plant and animal remains, and soil samples complement study of the structure and provide insight into daily activities, subsistence, and length of habitation. Survey and test excavations were also carried out at the nearby sites of Þrælagerði, Grænagerði, Helluland, and Keflavík in order to contextualize the results from Kotið.