Chapter 1 Introduction to Viking Age Archaeology in Iceland's Mosfell Valley Jesse Byock and Davide Zori The Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP) is analysing the cultural and environmental land scapes of the Mosfell Valley (Mosfellsdalur) in south-western Iceland, and this volume presents the work of twenty-three of our researchers. MAP is a cross- disciplinary, micro-regional study employing the tools of archaeology, history, anthropology, forensics, environ mental sciences, and saga studies.1 This volume details MAP s excavations and researchon the Valley's extensive and well-preserved archaeological remains. Habitation in Mosfellsdalur began early in the Viking Age coloni zation of Iceland in the ninth century. When the first Viking Age settlers arrived, the Mosfell Valley was unin habited and forested with birch and willow. We focus on the medieval community that evolved in the Valley and itsconnections to the wider Icelandic and Viking worlds. During the Medieval Period, the Mosfell region had a high population density, and inhabitants practised livestock farming and coastal fishing. The Valley s heaths and highlands sustained considerable sheep and cattle- raising. Together the different parts ofthe Mosfell Valley andthe surrounding highlands and coastal areas form an 1 The Mosfell Archaeological Project is directed by Professor Jesse Byock ofthe University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The field director is Dr Davide Zori (Baylor University). The international group, including the 23 researchers whose work is represented in the chapters of thisvolume, work in cooperation with archaeologists from PjocJminjasafn (Iceland's National Museum), members of the local Mosfellsbser community, professors and students at the University of Iceland and Icelandic researchers at the Reykjavik Academy and elsewhere. interconnected Valley System. The Valley was the ances tral seat of the Mosfell chieftains, the Mosfellsdaelingar, a family of farmers, warriors, and legal specialists well known from the Icelandic sagas and other medieval texts. The Valley itself was in a strategic location that facilitated participation in greater Icelandic politics. Oriented east-west, the Mosfell Valley liesbetweenmod ern Reykjavik and Thingvellir (Pingvellir), the site of the Althing (Aiding), Iceland's Viking Age parliament (Map 1.1). Today, the main road between Reykjavik and Thingvellir runs through the Mosfell Valley, roughly fol lowing a medieval route to the Althing. The Mosfell Valley is a thermally active and soil-rich basin shaped duringthe last glacial maximum bya glacial melt-water lagoon. Mosfell Mountain (Mosfell means 'MossMountain), sits on the northern side of the Valley entrance. At 276 metres high, Moss Mountain domi nates the landscape. In comparison with other Icelandic valleys, Mosfellsdalur is intermediatein size. It is 2.5 km wide at the broadest point. From its coastal mouth in the west, the Valley or dale (dalur) stretches eastward approximately 12 kilometres before rising into the low highlands at the Valley's inland end. Two small rivers, Kaldakvisl (Cold Stream) and Sudura (South River) flow east-west through the Valley's centre. They come together below the Hrisbrii farm and continue west wards to the coastal mouth of the Valley. The two rivers join a third river, the Varma (Warm River) before drain ing into Leiruvogur Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The location where the rivers empty into Leiruvogur Bay is the site of a Viking Age port. Jesse Byock < byock@humnet.ucla.edu > is Professor in the Scandinavian Section at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Professor at the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and faculty member oftheUCLACenterfor Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is affiliate professor in the Department of History andtheViking and Medieval Norse Studies Program at the University of Iceland. Davide Zori < dmzori@gmail.com >is Assistant Professor at Baylor University inthe Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. Heis Field Director ofthe Mosfell Archaeological Project and has been Staff Researcher at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. Viking Archaeology in Iceland: Mosfell Archaeological Project, ed. by Davide Zori and Jesse Byock, CURSOR 20 (Turnhout: Brepois, 2014) pp. 1-18 10.1484/M.CURSOR-EB.l. 102208 BREPOLS §3 PUBLISHERS