Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1951, Blaðsíða 71

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habitation on the central part of the hillock. Three times in the history
of Bergþórshvoll the habitation had extended so far from the central
part, probably because there was more than one farmer at the same time,
but in between there had been long periods when no houses were located
there. At the bottom of the layers showing traces of human activity
immediately above untouched soil, there appeared a thick and distinct
charred layer, which during the excavation turned out to be the floor of
a large, oblong building. Measurements are shown on fig. 27 and details
on figs. 28-—29. The house to which this floor belonged had been destroyed
by fire. It was, however, not a dwelling-house, but a cowshed with all
the characteristic features known from several other Icelandic cowsheds
of the Middle Ages with the exception that neither is the passage between
the two rows of stalls tiled nor are there any stall-stones between the
stalls. The reason for this is presumably that stone is very hard to obtain
at Bergþórshvoll and all the houses must therefore be built of turf and
wood only. It is very likely that this cowshed is contemporary with the
ábove-mentioned charred layer, and that both houses wei’e destroyed by
fire at the same time.
To sum up in few words about the excavation and the burning of Njáll:
There were found clear and unmistakable charred layers of a building
for drying corn and a cowshed which, judging from their depth in the
ground, might very well be contemporary. These buildings must be very
old; it is possible that they date from the time of Njáll, the early eleventh
century. Indeed, it must be considered very likely. But no remains of burnt
dwelling-houses were found. If these two buildings wei'e actually burnt
when Njáll was burnt, it is quite possible that their remains were un-
disturbed because they were on the edge of the farm-site, while the remains
of the dwelling-houses, which burnt at the same time, have now completely
disappered owing to intensive habitation and building on the central part of
the farm-site. But the excavation failed to bring forth the final archaeo-
logical proof of the historical value of the tradition about the burning of
Njáll. And from the point of view of pure archaeology, hencefoi’th the
chances of finding mediaeval dwelling-houses at Bergþórshvoll, which can
be dated precisely with the aid of the saga, are very slight.