Behind the collection
The collection is the result of the hard work of zooarchaeologist Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir who started the collection in 2006. Albína has collected, processed and registered a large part of the samples and bones in the collection.
Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir works at the Agricultural University of Iceland at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Science, and is also a PhD student at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo.
Dr Jón Hallsteinn Hallsson is associate professor of genetics at the Agricultural University of Iceland. His research interests are in the genetics of Icelandic livestock breeds, horse, cattle, sheep, goat and chicken as well as barley.
In the past Dr Charlotta Oddsdóttir a veterinarian with a Phd in equine reproduction also contributed to the collection. Her research covers animal diseases, reproduction and physiology of domestic animals.
Collection Assistants
Various people have assisted on the collection since it has been housed at the Agricultural University of Iceland.
2018
In 2018 Christina Joensen worked on creating this webpage and was responsible for the website design, content, and pictures. She also worked on an independent research project which you can read more about here. Christina was a student at Leiden University with a background in biology and science communication, and did an internship at the Agricultural University of Iceland for one semester.
2017
Elísa Skúladóttir worked on the collection again during the summer of 2017 and coordinated the moving of the collection to a new space in November 2017.
2016
Elísa Skúladóttir, masters student in Biology at the University of Iceland, worked on the reference collection for three months during the summer of 2016. She helped to prepare numerous speciemens, reorganied the collection and its database and participated in writing the first annual report.
Jakob Jakobsson also worked on the collection for part of the summer.
In autumn 2016, Hazel M. Cashman worked on an independent research project at the reference collection. Hazel was a student at Bates College in the United States and studied at the School of International Training, Iceland and Greenland, Climate Change and the Arctic Fall 2016. Hazel prepared samples for the reference collection and also wrote an independent study project "Investigation into the implications of zooarchaeological studies for climate reconstruction in the North Atlantic; zooarchaeological research at the Agricultural University of Iceland, Reykjavík".
2015
Sylvía Oddný Arnardóttir, BA student in archeology at the University of Iceland, cleaned and prepared samples for the collection as part of a 5 ECTS works-study in autumn 2015.
