The Settlement Exhibition, Reykjavik

The Settlement Exhibition is a relatively new addition to the cultural landscape in Reykjavik, having only been opened to the public for a couple of years. It is situated on Aðalstræti in the centre of the oldest district of the city, and the remains of the Viking settlement that form the focus of the display were uncovered during construction work for a new hotel in 2003. Public interest in the discovery was so great that the government decided ...
...wealth of information about how the earliest settlers lived, all of which has been carefully preserved and beautifully presented in this fascinating museum.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the site of a Viking longhouse that was inhabited from the early 10th century, and to the north of this dwelling, archaeologists also excavated the remains of a wall, which has been dated to two years either side of the year 871 and is thus ... more

The Settlement Exhibition is a relatively new addition to the cultural landscape in Reykjavik, having only been opened to the public for a couple of years. It is situated on Aðalstræti in the centre of the oldest district of the city, and the remains of the Viking settlement that form the focus of the display were uncovered during construction work for a new hotel in 2003. Public interest in the discovery was so great that the government decided to preserve the integrity of the site and the archaeological research conducted there has provided a wealth of information about how the earliest settlers lived, all of which has been carefully preserved and beautifully presented in this fascinating museum.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the site of a Viking longhouse that was inhabited from the early 10th century, and to the north of this dwelling, archaeologists also excavated the remains of a wall, which has been dated to two years either side of the year 871 and is thus regarded as the oldest evidence of human settlement to have been found on Iceland. That it is possible to date the remains this accurately is remarkable enough, and part of the exhibition details how it was possible - layers of sediment and volcanic material (known as tephra) produced by the regular eruptions on Iceland helped to preserve this site, and scientists were also able to count back through the layers of tephra preserved in Iceland's glaciers and match that layer to the material found on the site in Aðalstræti. This allowed them to establish that the wall was standing before the eruption of 871, hence the name of the museum: 'Reykjavik 871 +-2'. However, it is only possible to speculate on what it was actually used for (most probably it was part of an enclosure to stop domesticated animals from straying too far).

As the remains of the longhouse have been left in place at their original level, the main room of the museum is a couple of metres below the modern streets of Reykjavik and the shadowy darkness accentuates the feeling of stepping back in time as you walk around the outline of the building. There are a couple of skylights letting in some daylight to illuminate parts of the excavation, a virtual fire appears to burn constantly in the central hearth (thanks to some clever lighting technology), and there are a few panels around the edge of the house with buttons for visitors to press, which in turn light up selected parts of the remains to show where the main entrance was, where the inhabitants slept, and so on.

The room itself is oval in shape, and the screens hung along the walls display a reconstruction of the local environment as it must have looked in the 10th century, around the time of the arrival of the first settlers other Norse lands. As you walk around the room, movement sensors trigger the display of short videos in small sections of the panoramic views that show recreations of how these first settlers lived, what they hunted, and how the land looked. You are left with a very clear feeling that survival was far from easy for those hardy souls who chose to stay and make a life on this new island. The landscape was once covered with scrub and birch forest, and the coastal regions were teeming with the great auk, a flightless bird that proved such easy prey that it was wiped out in a relatively short space of time. Over the centuries, the tree cover disappeared too, hacked down for firewood and burned away to provide extra nutrients in the fields that a growing population required. It's amazing to think that the deforestation continued until there were very nearly no trees at all growing on the whole of Iceland, and that the government-sponsored programme to reintroduce various species of tree to the country has only been running for a short period of time.

These displays are complemented by podiums and boxes containing various artifacts that have been excavated at this site, and at other Viking-age settlements discovered in the Reykjavik area over recent years. These sometimes mundane household items help visitors to get an idea of how people lived, and just how resourceful they had to be to make the most out of their environment: virtually nothing went to waste, as the discovery of gaming tokens made from fish bones proves (that was just about the only part of the fish that was not eaten!).

The enclosure wall that gave the museum its name is also preserved at the northern end of the exhibition room, and then you can enter a separate chamber, which is where the Star Trek part starts, with a 3D, user-controlled view of how the museum team think the longhouse would have looked. You can rotate the virtual camera into and around the building in various stages of construction, accompanied by an audio guide (in Icelandic or English) who explains how the longhouse took shape, what materials were required and how the building was divided up between the settlers and their animals. It's impossible to be 100% certain of how the finished longhouse would have looked, but this computerised imagery gives you a very detailed insight into how it was built and expanded over time. Back in the main room, you can then take some time at the information table to find out more about the house, how people lived, and how today's archaeologists interpreted the clues buried at the site. This is another excellently devised and smoothly executed combination of history and technology: a top-down representation of the floor plan of the longhouse is beamed down onto the table top, including virtual buttons (with titles that switch between Icelandic, English, German and ancient Norse runes at regular intervals) that you can press to reveal more information and to illuminate the relevant part of the illustration.

There are also interactive touchscreens mounted on the wall, which provide a wealth of background information about a wide range of related topics: the exhibition itself, the history of settlement in Iceland, the Vikings, the development of the Icelandic language (and its relationship to old English and old German, which I found particularly interesting). There are only two such information screens in the main room but if these are not free, then you can also use the computer terminals in the entrance hall, which also allow you to browse through the same information store. The museum website also allows you to access all the information in the same format, as well as providing a short promotional video about the exhibition. Another room, accessible from the entrance hall, provides more information about archaeology in Iceland and about the excavation history of this museum site.

This is a fascinating museum and definitely worth a visit - it is open every day from 10am to 5pm and the admission prices are not at all expensive. Even if you're not normally a fan of museums, 'Reykjavik 871 +-2' uses modern, interactive exhibits to ensure that it is interesting and involving for young and old without feeling like the computerised parts have been added as an afterthought. The museum was clearly planned to make the most of today's technology and you learn a lot about Reykjavik and Iceland, and the settlers that moved there over a thousand years ago, without having the feeling that you are sitting in a history lesson. Highly recommended.

Admission prices:

Adults: 600 kr.
Senior Citizens (67+): 300 kr.
Children(13-18 yrs.): 300 kr.
Children 12 years and younger accompanied by adults: Free
Groups(10+): 450 kr. per person
The exchange rate is currently (October 2009) approximately 200 Icelandic kronur to 1GBP.

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