Special Reports for "Area Studies > European" Through Dirt to the Past: Archaeology in Rural Iceland * Archaeology in Rural Iceland: Through Dirt to the Past The first settlers came to Iceland little more than a thousand years ago. Eventually, more than thirty chieftains from Norway, with their followers and slaves, occupied the island. During the twelfth century, their descendants started to write down everything known about the settlement and the events of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. During the thirteenth century, the competition among the chieftains became fierce, and soon only five remained. By 1262 there was only one. He then became a subject of the king of Norway. This effectively ended Icelandic self-government until 1944, when the modern country gained independence. ...