Reassessing the Abandonment of Pig Husbandry in Post-Viking Iceland: An Isotopic Approach

This study outlines a method for exploring pig husbandry in coastal fishing communities in Iceland after the eleventh century when pig keeping is commonly thought to have disappeared from the island. Analyses focus on determining relative origin (i.e., locally raised versus imported) of pork products consumed at the nineteenth-century Icelandic fishing farm of Eyri in Ísafjörður (Skutulsfjörður, Northwest Iceland) based on pig diet and the notion that pig husbandry usually draws on inexpensive and locally abundant food sources such as byproducts and offal. We analyze the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of bone or tooth collagen from 33 animals, including 17 pigs. Results show evidence for local pig husbandry and are interpreted within a broader North Atlantic dataset.