The people
Egill Erlendsson is an Icelandic geographer and professor of Geography at the University of Iceland (UI). He completed a BS degree in Geography at the University of Iceland in 2002 and a PhD degree in Geography (physical) at the University of Aberdeen in 2007. Egill’s field of expertise is palynology and related paleoenvironmental techniques and geochronology. Since completion of PhD, he has been employed at the UI in various positions, from post-doc to professor (since 2015). Egill has participated in various research relating to Holocene environmental change and human impacts upon terrestrial ecosystems. Many of those projects have been interdisciplinary in nature, such as the ”Reykholt Project” and the “Mosfell Archaeological Project”.
More information about the research can be found here:
Oscar Aldred is a Member of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and works for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, both sitting within the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK. Previously Oscar has worked for Forneifastofnun Íslands on a variety of different projects (since 1999 to the present-day, but as a core staff member between 2002 to 2012). He completed his PhD in archaeology at the University of Iceland in 2014. His main research interests are in landscape archaeology, excavation and archaeological method and theory, and the archaeology of the North Atlantic and the UK. He has a specific interest in past movement (human and non-human), seasonal settlements and landscapes, and multispecies approaches to the past.
Gylfi Björn Helgason (MA, PgC University of Leicester) is an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology in Iceland. Gylfi has taken part in a raft of survey projects at the Institute since 2016 and produced and edited a number of reports. His research interests lie within landscape archaeology, and he has recently explored why some places gathers stories but not others. The findings of this work were published in a book chapter in Minjaþing (2020). More generally, Gylfi is interested in advancing our understanding of the Icelandic landscape through investigating natural or seasonal places, drawing on recent technological and theoretical growth in Icelandic archaeology, and landscape archaeology in general.
Árni Daníel Júlíusson is an Icelandic historian. He was educated at the University of Iceland and started his career as a historian writing and editing the Icelandic Historical Atlas (3 vols., 1989–1993). He received his PhD at the University of Copenhagen in 1997. He has been active in organising and taking part in the activities of the Reykjavík Academy from 1997 to this day. From 2005 to 2013 he was occupied with writing and editing the Agricultural History of Iceland (with Jónas Jónsson, 4 vols., 2013). From 2014 Árni Daníel has taken part in several research projects, among them MYCHANGE (2014–2018), ICECHANGE (2017–2020), CAMHEP (2020–2022) and the Two Valley project (2021–2023), funded by the Icelandic Research Fund with a Grant of Excellence. He is a specialist at the University of Iceland and a scientist at The Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri.
Elín Ósk Hreiðarsdóttir (BA in anthropology, MA in Archaeology from University of Iceland). Elín is the managing director of The Institute of Archaeology in Iceland (Fornleifastofnun Íslands). Elín’s research focus has centred around archaeological survey and studies of cultural landscape in Iceland. She has surveyed over 7000 sites all across the country, among others the cultural landscape of both Svarfaðardalur and Hörgárdalur. Along with field survey she has worked on excavations and conducted research into Viking Age beads. She has published various articles and book chapters about her research as well as authored numerous reports. Elín has also been a sessional teacher at the University of Iceland since 2006.
Snædís Sunna Thorlacius (BA in Archaeology from the University of Iceland, MSc in Archaeological Science from Leiden University). Snædís is a PhD student in physical geography at the University of Iceland. She has participated in both research and commercial excavations in both urban and rural settings in Iceland, most recently in Fjörður, Seyðisfjörður since 2021. She has contributed to report writing for both excavations and surveys. She focuses her research presently on the relationship between humans and nature and how they affect each other. Snædís’s MSc was specialised in archaeobotany earning a basis in both macro- and micro-botanical remains. She is applying this basis and expanding it in her PhD project focusing on the palaeoenvironments of shielings.
Þóra Kristín Briem
