Fornleifsfræði

Fornleifsfræði is the science that studies past human societies through their material remains. It seeks to reconstruct how people lived, produced and exchanged goods, organized their communities, and interacted with their environments, from earliest prehistory to recent history. The discipline relies on the careful collection, preservation, and interpretation of artifacts, features, sites, and landscapes found during fieldwork.

Field methods include surveys, test trenches, and full-scale excavations, together with recording of spatial relationships, topography, and stratigraphy. Artifacts such as tools, pottery, metal objects, and organic remains provide clues about technology, economy, and daily life. Laboratory analyses, including dating techniques, material composition, and microscopic examination, help establish chronology and usage. Context is central: the meaning of an object is derived from its location and associations within a site.

Fornleifsfræði comprises several subfields, such as lithic analysis, ceramic analysis, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, bioarchaeology, and underwater or landscape archaeology. It also interacts with related disciplines like history, anthropology, geology, and chemistry. The results inform cultural heritage management, education, and public understanding of the past, as well as scholarship on long-term human-environment interactions, migration, and cultural change.

Globally, archaeology has evolved from antiquarian collecting to a rigorous scientific practice that emphasizes methodological transparency, replication, and ethical stewardship of sites and finds. In Icelandic contexts, fornleifsfræði contributes to knowledge of settlement, the Viking Age, and medieval periods, and to the protection of archaeological heritage.