Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1959, Page 82

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
SUMMARY
Gröf. An Icelandic farm from 1362 A. I).
The isolated but prosperous district called Öræfi south of Vatnajökull in
Southeast-Iceland was for the most part devastated by a volcanic eruption from
the mountain Öræfajökull in 1362, never again to become what it was. Although
many of the farms were rebuilt during the following years, a number of them
remained waste and were never rebuilt. To-day it is not even known where
exactly they stood.
In the autumn 1954 a man working with a bulldozer discovered the ruins
of one of these farms, buried under a thick layer of white pumice, originating
from the Öræfajökull. The ruins are located near the farm Hof, and a study
of written records has led to the conclusion that the name of the farm was Gröf.
The author of the present paper excavated these farm ruins for the National
Museum of Iceland in the years 1955—1957. The excavation yielded an un-
usuaily clear and perfect picture of a mediaeval farm, thanks to the excellent
preservation conditions under the ash layer. Some of the walls were even pre-
served in their full height. Small objects found in the ruins are not instructive
or decisive about the age of the ruins. Some of them, however, certainly point
to the 14th century and none of them contradicts such a dating. All things
considered it must be looked upon as an established fact that the farm was
laid waste in the catastrophic year of 1362.
The farm complex is divided into six houses besides the passage leading
from the outer door. The complex is about 38 m in length, a pavement of
flagstones running along the front wall. Counted from east the houses are as
follows: A fire house or kitchen (VI, eldhús) with a wooden front gable, not
connected by a door with the adjacent room, which is a hall (II, skáli)„ a
longhouse parallel with the pavement. Then comes the outer door with the
passage (I, göng) and west of it is a living room (III, stofa), a longhouse
like the hall and orientated in the same way. Farthest to west is a pantry
(VII, búr) corresponding to the kitchen and built in the same fashion with a
timber gable and no door leading to the adjacent room. Behind this row of
four houses is a lavatory (IV, salemi) and a bathroom (V, baðstofa). From
the outer door a passage leads across the west end of the hall directly to the
lavatoryj, and from this main passage a side passage to the left peads to the
living room and another one to the right to the bathroom. Under the paved
floor of the main passage a stone-littered sewer or channel runs from the
lavatory and opens a short distance in front of the outer door.
A wooden wall divides the passage from the hall which in turn is divided
into two parts by a wooden partition wall. Apparently in the west part there
were shut-off alcoves (lokreklcjur) along the south (front) wall, on a bench
at a somewhat higher level than the floor in the middle of the hall. This bench
is divided into five squares (sleeping bunks, alcoves) of somewhat different
size. Along the north wall some traces of a panelled bench were noticed. The