Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1970, Qupperneq 44

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
RITASKRÁ
Óprentað:
Landsbókasafn — J. Sig. 143, 4to.
Þjóðskjalasafn — Biskupsskjalasafn, Bps. AII, 1.
— afskrift dr. Jóns Þorkelssonar af AM 459, fol.
Prentað:
Björn Lárusson (1967) The Old Icelandic Land Registers. Lund.
Dipl. Isl. III, IV, XII. Diplomatarium Islandicum. íslenzkt fornbréfasafn, sem
hefir inni að halda bréf, gjörninga, dóma og máldaga og aðrar skrár, er
snerta Island og islenzka menn. (1857 o. áfr.). Kaupmannahöfn og Reykjavík.
Louis Ehlers (1967) Dansk Lert0j. Kobenhavn.
Elisabet Fex (1954) Flaskor. (Kulturen 1953). Luhd.
Sigurd Grieg (1933) Middelalderske byfund fra Bergen og Oslo. Oslo.
Safn til sögu Islands. I, IV Safn til sögu íslands og íslenzkra bókmennta að
fornu og nýju. (1856 o. áfr.) Kaupmannahöfn og Reykjavík.
Sigilla Islandica II (1967). Reykjavík.
Sigurður Thorarinsson (1944) Tefrokronologiska studier pá Island (Medde-
lande frán Geografiska Institutet vid Stockholms Högskola. N:o 66.).
Stockholm.
Sigurður Þórarinsson (1967) The Eruptions of Hekla in Historical Times. A
Tephrochronological Study. (The Eruption of Hekla 1947—1948. I.). Reykja-
vík.
S U M M A R Y
Report on the excavation of a late medieval church at Varmá.
1. Excavation of the house-remains and their description.
The excavation was mainly carried out in the summer 1968 at Varmá, Mos-
fellssveit (about 15 km from Reykjavík), where there was known from literary
sources to have been a small church in the middle ages. A small mound neai' the
ruins of the now deserted farm Varmá was the object of excavation. This mound,
which consisted of turf and stones, building materials accumulated through
the ages, proved to contain the remains of three houses, built one after another,
all with the same orientation. The criteria for distinguishing the house-remains
from one another rest mainly upon observation of the stonerows, which are
the foundations of tui'f-walls (the two upper houses lacked turf-walls, probably
because of the mound later being brought under cultivation), as well as of the
floor-layers in their context of turf and stones. The uppermost and youngest
house was a small shed, the floor only about 1,5x3 meters and paved with
stones. The middle house, the remains of which are in many ways difficult to
interpret, has most likely been a smithy. In its northwest corner there was a
small pit filled with ash and small stones. Iron slag was found in the doorway
and the western part of the floor. The material of the floor was earth. A
volcanic ash-layer was found under the stone-foundations on both sides of the
doorway and of the east gable. The deepest lying and oldest of the houses was
a late medieval church. Small as it was, the floor only about 3x5 meters,