Fróðskaparrit

						/ UPPISTOVUBEITINUM. SITE AND SETTLEMENT

31

ondary floor-layers indicate a secondary

occupation of the building.

House B could be registered for an extent

of some 7 m and was probably some 3 m

wide. The walls were slightly curved and

were of the usual type with a stone built

double wall fdled with earth and gravel.

The building's floor layers are as yet unex-

cavated.

House C had the same type of walls as

House B. To the west there was an entrance

marked by a large threshold stone. Massive

timber constructions were used in the floor

structure.

The building's size and shape is still

somewhat uncertain; however we are prob-

ably dealing with a small east-west built

building with an entrance through the west-

ern gable.

The investigated part of House D mea-

sures 4x3 m and it is uncertain whether we

here have a building or just a room within a

larger building, the remains of which lie be-

yond the excavated area. Cultural layers

registered in the southern and westem sec-

tions, support the latter theory. The area to

the west is unfortunately somewhat dis-

turbed by machinework.

Contrary to the other buildings on the

site, the walls indicate that here we have a

wooden building resting on sills. An en-

trance faces west. The plan only shows the

bottom wall courses, however we have reg-

istered several layers of stone within the

walls, which indicate either an attempt to

relieve water problems or several phases

within the building. We also found covered

drains within the floor structure.

The youngest building, not marked on

the plan, lay just below the turf and some

75 cms. above House B. The groundplan

was almost square. The 4x4 m large build-

ing was in all probability built of wood rest-

ing on a stonesill. The floor was of stone

and along the inner side of the walls lay a

drain, the stone covers forming part of the

floor paving.

Drains are a characteristic feature within

the buildings, but were also found outside

between the various houses. During the ex-

cavation we became more and more aware

of what problems the stream, running west

of the settlement, had caused the erst-while

inhabitants. The settlement lies on a lower

level than the bottom of the stream, and wa-

ter must have continously seeped across the

Medieval settlement.

The Artefactual Assemblage

At present some 1810 finds are registered -

an extensive number in a Faroese context.

These cover a wide range of artefacts, how-

ever, here I will concentrate oniy on a few

categories.

Locally produced artefacts are mainly of

tuff and basalt, both local stone.

In fíg. 4 are shown examples of both line-

and netsinkers of basalt, A, B and C, and of

steatite, D, each representing a certain type.

C is the most common type to be found in

the Faroes and is in use both in the Viking-

Age and the Middle Ages. C varies in size

but has a characteristic encircling groove

along the broad side. Type A with an encir-

cling groove along the narrow side has, as

far as I know, only a single Faroese parallel

found on a Viking-Age settlement at Fugla-

fjørður (Dahl, 1958, fig 9). Type B is some-