Since 1993 a registration of archaeological sites has been underway in Iceland directed by the Institute of Archaeology in Iceland. Parallel to the registration work a database has been under construction designed to meet the needs of archaeologists, cultural resource managers, teachers as well as the public. The database, called ÍSLEIF, is developed by Adolf Friðriksson and Orri Vésteinsson.

The Icelandic Law on antiquities has a very wide and all-encompassing definition of what consitutes an archaeological site. According to this legislation all man-made structures and traces of human activity older than 100 years are archaeological sites and have statutory protection as such. In addition the definition also includes any spatially definable areas which have some kind of cultural significance, usually sites which some particular piece of folklore is attached to, but also places where particular actions or events have habitually taken place, such as assembly sites or sites where turf was laid out for drying. The database, although primarily directed towards archaeological sites in the usual sense, also includes information on sites in this latter group.

The design of the database is based on three basic premises:

- The archaeology of Iceland belongs to a single cultural period with no fundamental changes in resource utilisation or technology occurring from the settlement in the late 9th century to the late 19th century.

- A significant feature of this culture is the stability of the settlements, with the majority of sites containing remains of continuous habitation for more than 1000 years and with no significant changes to the farming units from as far back as written records can be relied on.

- The vast majority of sites now visible on the surface date from the 19th century and are significant to the conditions of the 19th century economy.

On these grounds it becomes possible to include in the database information about the context of each site. This is done by arranging the sites into economic units. A division of the country into farming units in 1847 is used as the underlying structure of the database and this allows non site-specific information (i.e. on vegetation, livestock, demography, landownership, land valuation etc.) to be included in the database. Each site can therefore be viewed in isolation; in its context as a part of a farming unit and against a variety of environmental, economic and historical data.