Household material culture in 19th-century Iceland: contextualising change in the archaeological record

Abstract

SUMMARY The paper looks at changes in the composition of archaeological assemblages from 19th-century Iceland. It contextualises an increase in ceramics with other domestic materials by combining archaeological data with evidence from probate inventories. The study confirms that there was a marked change in domestic materiality in Iceland in the middle of the 19th century and suggests that further research into the origins and effects of this change needs to focus on how things depend on each other and their relationship with altered routines of household members.