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This article deals with archaeology, Iceland's medieval Age of Settlement, and the mythologization of Icelandic cultural memory and identity. The author focuses upon the archaeological research undertaken in Sveigakot (northeastern Iceland) in 2001-2006 by teams from Poland and Iceland. This research focused upon pre-10th century so-called sunken homes, structures that showed traits common to early Slavic/Slavonic architecture. Such archaeological evidence, notes the author, confirms/reaffirms that Iceland's Age of Settlement was, indeed, multi-ethnic until the end of the 10th century. The commonly accepted assumption regarding colonization and the transference of early medieval Scandinavian culture from overseas--a thesis accepted by the vast majority of researchers--does not necessarily reflect the true reality concerning Iceland's past and its cultural inheritance.

This voluminous book presents well the results of scholarly studies of the famous centre of the Viking Age known from 9th-century written sources and from archaeological excavations. Interpretations offered of the available data, however, provoke serious doubts regarding: the claims that the settlement in Kaupang was permanent and that it lasted until the late 10th century; interpretation of the diversity of burial rites; identification of the 'king's' seat and the ting site; definition of a town, which is used to elevate the Kaupang settlement to the elite group of the earliest towns in Northern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]