Until the excavation of Skútustaðir, the majority of research in the Mývatn region has focused on settlement history, paleoecology and paleoeconomy of the first settlement circa AD 871 through the middle ages. In 2007, additional NSF International Polar Year funding enabled North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) collaborators to survey the Mývatn area for a farm settlement with a long-term material record (McGovern 2007, Vésteinsson 2008). One of many farms tested during the 2007 survey was Skútustaðir; named as an early Mývatn farm in Reykdæla Saga (Clark 1997).

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