Introduction: New Approaches to the Study of the Viking Age Settlement across the North Atlantic

Abstract

Abstract This volume presents the results of a symposium focused on a project of archaeological research concerned with the colonization of the North Atlantic using new methods of analysis. This introduction to the volume discusses the historical and archaeological background of the study and the major questions involved. The larger issues concern the settlement of a number of the islands of the North Atlantic by Vikings during the last quarter of the first millennium AD. Questions about the timing of this settlement and the place of origin of the settlers are still subject to debate and are important components in constructing the archaeology of the Vikings. More specifically, because these methods involve human remains, the study focuses primarily on Iceland and Greenland where Norse settlements contain substantial numbers of burials, in contrast to some other locations in the North Atlantic.