Dr. Douglas J. Bolender Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology University at Buffalo Email: db58@buffalo.edu
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Research Interests Property and social inequality; households and agricultural production; geochemistry; landscape archaeology; and geographic information systems. North Atlantic Viking Age and Medieval archaeology, environment and land use, household production and inequality.
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Current Research Projects Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey The Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey (SASS) is a multidisciplinary survey projected based in the Langholt region of northern Iceland. It combines historical and archaeological perspectives with techniques from geophysics and the environmental sciences to systematically identify and document the history of farmstead occupation and land use. The survey has revealed the process of land claim, farm division and the institutionalization of landlord-tenant relations. The project has received three grants from the National Science Foundation. In our most recent research, begun this summer, we are expanding our previous survey work with household excavations designed to document changing production strategies at landlord and tenant farms. The work relies heavily on geophysical prospection and imaging (especially GPR-Slice technology) to identify areas of past occupation and to target comparative excavations at multiple sites. The research examines the impact that social transformations – the Christian conversion, the introduction of landlord-tenant systems, a civil war, and the submission of Iceland to colonial domination under the Norwegian king – had on farming communities and how these events transformed existing social institutions. More Information: http://www.fiskecenter.umb.edu/SASS/SASS.htm
Hólar Research Project Hólar in Hjaltadal was one of the most significant and power centers in the north of Iceland as the bishop’s seat and a place of learning. Research at Hólar includes major excavations of the medieval and early modern manorhouse, survey of the surrounding region and neighboring farmstead, and rescue excavations at the Viking Age and medieval harbor at Kolkuós that served the bishop. Directed by Ragnheiður Traustadóttir, from the National Museum of Iceland, the project includes an international team of scholars from Europe and North America. More Information: http://www.holar.is/holarannsoknin/
Dissertation Project My dissertation, The Creation of a Propertied Landscape: Land Tenure and Intensification in Medieval Iceland, examined the relationship between land tenure and agricultural intensification in emerging political economies. The project took advantage of unique aspects of the Icelandic landscape. In Iceland, many farmsteads have remained in the same location since they were first established 1000 years ago. In addition, ash layers from periodic volcanic eruptions have been preserved in stratigraphic sequences allowing relict field systems to be dated with great precision. This provided an opportunity to study not just how households, in general, invested in production under different political circumstances but to trace these changes at specific farmsteads. I used these features, along with excavation, extensive soil sampling, geochemical analysis, and a medieval documentary record on property status to reconstruct the history of changing intensification practices at landlord and tenant farmsteads in the Langholt region of northern Iceland. The research reveals the role tenancy played as an elite strategy to transcend the limitations of single household production. It also provides insights into opportunities for agro-pastoral production in marginal environments and the interaction between environmental degradation, property, and intensification.		(Above) Geochemical reconstruction of homefield intensification patterns at the farm of Glaumbær in Langholt. Phosphate levels indicate limited enrichment when the farm was established, sometime in the 10^th century. There is a clear increase in the amount of and the spatial regularity of organic enrichment in the period 1100-1300. After 1300 the pattern of enrichment becomes less even with high areas corresponding to the location of farm outbuildings and byres.
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IEMA Annual Archaeological Conference “Toward an Eventful Archaeology: Approaches to Structural Change in the Archaeological Record” 4-5 April 2008, Buffalo, NY Organizer: Douglas J. Bolender Drawing on the work of William Sewell the conference will explore the viability of an eventful analysis as a mode of archaeological inquiry. Sewell brings two important formulations to the notion of the event: first, a specific construction of social structure that gives material evidence an equal footing with ideas; and second, the identification of the event with episodes that result in a significant reordering of social structures. It is Sewell’s emphasis on the materiality of resources, and their recursive constitution of structure in conjunction with schemas, that opens his eventful history to archaeological interrogation. The disjunction and rearticulation of structures through the course of an event imply novel constellations of resources – the kind of patterned shifts that should be visible in the archaeological record as material resources take on new meanings or positions in structural rearticulation. Sewell’s eventful perspective provides an historical approach to social transformation that allows archaeologists to work independently or in complement to historical sources and sets the archaeological record on an equal footing with history. Participants will explore the theoretical construction of the event and offer case studies to explore its application and potential to understand particular events in the archaeological record. In bringing together a diverse group of scholars having a wide array of theoretical, geographical, and methodological viewpoints, the conference will offer a timely and comparative perspective on the potential for an eventful archaeology. More Information: http://www.iema.buffalo.edu/IEMAConf2008.html
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Selected Publications 2008 Douglas J. Bolender, John M. Steinberg, and E. Paul Durrenberger. “Unsettled Landscapes: Settlement patterns and the development of social inequality in Northern Iceland.” In Christopher Pool and Lisa Cliggett (eds.) Economies and the Transformation of the Landscape. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. (Forthcoming) 2007 Robin A. Beck Jr., Douglas J. Bolender, James A. Brown, and Timothy Earle. “Eventful Archaeology: the place of space in structural transformation.” Current Anthropology 48 (6):833-860. 2007 “House, Land, and Labor in a Frontier Landscape: The Norse Colonization of Iceland.” In Robin A. Beck, Jr. (ed.) The Durable House: Architecture, Ancestors, and Origins: 400-421. Carbondale: Institute for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University. 2005 John M. Steinberg and Douglas J. Bolender. “Rannsóknir á búsetuminjum í Skagafirði (Settlement pattern analysis in Skagafjörður).” Árbók hins íslenska fornleifafélags 2002-2003:107-130. 2004 Douglas J. Bolender and John Beierle. “Cultural Summary: Early Icelanders EQ02.” EHRAF Collection of Ethnography. New Haven: Human Area Relations Files.
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Contact Information Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology University at Buffalo, State University of New York 380 MFAC- Ellicott Complex Buffalo, NY 14261-0005 Phone: (716) 645-2414 ext. 139