Cultural Identity & Archaeology | Thingvellir National Park in Iceland

In this interview with Margret, you will hear her personal stories and insights from her life in studying archaeology in Iceland, including:

• An overview of Thingvellir National Park’s significance as the site of the world’s oldest surviving parliament and as the location where Iceland chose Christianity over paganism in the year 1000
• A description of Margret’s archaeological work uncovering Viking Age artifacts like silver coins, gold rings, beads, and longhouses, plus her projects teaching ancient Viking skills to help preserve Icelandic culture
• The importance of Iceland’s storytelling tradition and the epic family tales, and why keeping storytelling alive is crucial for maintaining cultural identity in the digital age
• Personal reflections on how Iceland’s harsh volcanic landscape, isolation, and difficult environment shaped the Icelandic character into fiercely independent, hardworking people with one of the world’s highest literacy rates

Expected Learning Outcome:

This lesson includes clear expected learning outcomes that support students in understanding cultural identity through first-person perspectives, while building intercultural awareness and connections between individual experience and global traditions.

• Students will identify and describe key cultural practices and beliefs from the lesson’s focus community (i.e., Icelandic culture).
• Students will articulate insights into their own cultural identities and how those identities relate to what they learned.
• Students will analyze how cultural expressions (like archaeology) reflect values, history, and social traditions.
• Students will compare perspectives across cultures while finding similarities and differences through human themes.
• Students will make connections between cultural traditions and broader global contexts (geology, history, cultural preservation), showing critical thinking about identity and intercultural understanding.