Aaron Kendall

My primary research interests are in the North Atlantic region during the Viking Age (AD 750 - 1050). This period was characterized by a significant Norse expansion beginning in Scandinavia. One component of this expansion was a migration west that has stimulated much research as the Norse people began to populate different islands across the North Atlantic. Some islands had already been settled by other Europeans, such as the British Isles, other islands such as Greenland and Newfoundland were inhabited only by indigenous populations, and still others were completely untouched by humans, ie Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The resulting relationships between the Norse and British, Celtic, Gaelic, Inuit, and the various landscapes encountered have been the center of much interdisciplinary research, including archaeology.

My research centers on the comparative study of material culture in the North Atlantic and focuses upon the distribution of common artifact types found on settlement sites (rather than rare high status metalwork mainly recovered from hordes and graves as done in most prior studies). By analyzing the artifact collections from household settlement sites in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Shetland produced in the past decade I hope to be able to learn more about the scale and significance of trade between continental Europe and the North Atlantic islands and of trade and exchange among islands during the Viking Age.


			Office:	Powdermaker Hall 314G
			Phone:	(718) 997-2856
			Fax:	(718) 997-2885
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		Research Interests:
		My primary research interests are in the North Atlantic region during the Viking Age (AD 750 - 1050). This period was characterized by a significant Norse expansion beginning in Scandinavia. One component of this expansion was a migration west that has stimulated much research as the Norse people began to populate different islands across the North Atlantic. Some islands had already been settled by other Europeans, such as the British Isles, other islands such as Greenland and Newfoundland were inhabited only by indigenous populations, and still others were completely untouched by humans, ie Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The resulting relationships between the Norse and British, Celtic, Gaelic, Inuit, and the various landscapes encountered have been the center of much interdisciplinary research, including archaeology. My research centers on the comparative study of material culture in the North Atlantic and focuses upon the distribution of common artifact types found on settlement sites (rather than rare high status metalwork mainly recovered from hordes and graves as done in most prior studies). By analyzing the artifact collections from household settlement sites in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Shetland produced in the past decade I hope to be able to learn more about the scale and significance of trade between continental Europe and the North Atlantic islands and of trade and exchange among islands during the Viking Age.
Conference Papers/Posters:
Material Culture and Viking Age Trade: Comparison of Artifacts from Icelandic Farm Sites,” Society for American Archaeology Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, April 2008. Material Culture and Viking Age Trade: Comparison of Artifacts from two Viking Age Farm Sites. 2006 SAA Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Viking Age Trade in the North Atlantic (Poster). 2006 North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) Conference, Quebec City, Canada.