Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1979, Síða 68

GRELUTOTTIR
78
IÍI. Back-house. Through the back wall of the hall a door leads into a back-
liouse, which seems to have been built on to the main building- at a later stage.
The back-house probably had a wooden floor, but no traces allow us to state
with certainty what particularly it was used for.
III. Pit housn 1 (jarðhús). Close to the front wall of the hall there is a pit
house, in all respects similar to pit houses which in later years have come to
light in rnany places in the Scandinavian countries, including Iceland. It is 4.20
m long, 2.20—2.50 m wide, and 1.20 m deep frorn contemporary surface'. Post-
holes show that four posts supported the roof. In one corner of the house there is
a heap of stones from what once was an oven, and along three walls low earth
benches w'ere obseiwed. This pit house may have been a bath-house, but other
purposes are possible.
IV. Smithy I (smiðja). About 30 m south of the hall, slag and charcoal on
the untouched surface revealed the remains of what seems to have been a
snrithy for extracting iron from bog ore. Apparently this activity had taken
place iii a house rather than in the open, the dimensions of the house being
8 X 4.40 m approximately, but it must be admitted that these figures are more
based on the size of the charcoal layer than on clearly identifiable walls. Among
the diarcoal and slag there were many charred stones, which must be inter-
preted as the remnants of a demolished primitive fnrnace for smelting bog ore.
V. Pit house 11. Some 30 m southeast of the hall another pit house came to
light. It is 3.90 m long, 2.04 m wide, and 1.20 m deep from tlie original surfaice.
On the floor there is a sandy layer mixed with charcoal dust- and in one corner
a stone-built oven, almost unreasonably big for such a small house (see Pigs.
20—21). On the floor there were 13 loom-weights, a fact which strongly indi-
cates that this house served as a working-place for the women with their weav-
ing loom. Even so, the big oven seems to show that the house also, at least occa-
sionaily, was used as a bath-honse.
VI. Smithy II. Another smithy is located some 30 m southwest of the hall. As
shown in Fig. 25 the excavation brought to light a much clearer picture of this
house tlian of Smithy I. On the floor there were considerable quantities of
charcoal, as well as a big heap of slag. The house was umistakably used for
iron extracting like the other one, but it is not unlikely that both of them
a!so served as ordinary smithies.
Date and nature of the site. A number of everyday artifacts were found on
the site. Some of them decidedly point to the Viking Age, such as fragments of
soapstone (steatite). On the other hand none of them contradicts this. Tlie main-
building, the hall, has all the well known characteristics of a tenth century farm,
as we know them from excavations in other parts of the country. C-14 tests con-
firm this beautifully, since they give as a reasonable age the period 800—900 A.
D. Everything taken into ac.count the fann was probably established in the time
of settlement round 900, and may have survived in this place for some —
but not long — time, until it was moved to the site where Hrafnseyri farm and
church are now.