Review by Bernadette McCooey
Animals as animals is the main premise of this work, as all too often animals are reduced to their economic or social significance, both in the literary and archaeological record. Thankfully, this refreshing approach to early medieval Iceland, from the 9th century to about the 13th century, places domestic animals in the multisensory, multispecies communities that made up farm households. This book is not an overview of all animal–human interactions, but a focused study that permits the close examination of animals as living creatures.
The first chapter introduces Evans Tang’s multidisciplinary approach, and provides a good understanding of the interplay of archaeological and literary evidence in the study of the settlement of Iceland. The need for examining animal–human relations is made clear by illustrating how animals were ‘intelligent actors’ in farm households.
The next chapter focuses on two farm sites, Vatnsfjörður and Sveigakot. Evans Tang offers an insightful interpretation of the sites with a keen understanding of animal–human processes, such as movement for milking and feeding, with spatial and visual analysis of the interconnectedness of the sites. The reader is also guided through the sometimes-confusing evidence of Sveigakot and its rapid reorganisation.
