Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1988, Síða 182

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
a flattened ruin or ruin complex, approximately 23 X 6-7 m in extent (fig. 11). Trial
trcnchcs I and 11 wcre dug into the complex in 1967 revealing a 2 m wide structure with
walls made largcly of turf. Overlying the structure was a layer of volcanic ash produced
by an eruption of Öræfajökull in the year 1362 (Ö 1362) and deposited some time after
the building had been abandoned (fig. 12). Although some occupational debris is reported
to have been found in the structure during a previous investigation, none was found dur-
ing the 1967 one, and the author therefore interprets the structure as a sheep-house or per-
haps for störing peat. The place-name seems to have come into existence after 1879.
Neither írskuhólar nor Papatættur therefore seem to have anything to do with Irish
monks on the island.
Several other remains were investigated. These include two banks extending across the
island. The more recent one (41) servcd in particular to keep domestic animals away frorn
thc precious nests of the eider on the western half of the island. The older one (42), dated
by tephrochronology (a chronology based on volcanic ash layers) to before 1362 and
made entirely of turf, may have served as a boundary wall, dividing the island into two
holdings.
The place name Liljustaðir (1-6) implies that therc was once a farm there. The present
structures, enclosed by a bank (fig. 15), seem to have been used for a different purpose,
perhaps for tending sheep, but trial trenches into mound 6 indicated human activity at the
site well before 1362. The enclosurc wall was also constructed before that time. Occu-
pational debris was also detected underneath the 1362 volcanic ash in a section at the shore
southwest of the farm, but the nature of the activity was not established.
Peat is plentiful on Papey and was extensively used as fuel. Remains of this practice arc
found in the form of a number of ruins of peat-huts and peat-stacks, where the peat was
stored, in particular on the western and northern parts of the island. Peat-huts were
roofed structures, whereas peat-stacks were typically roofless, turf-built rectangular
structures.
At Krosshóll a circular sheep-fold (fig. 23) and what is thought to be the remains of
a small farm (32) (fig. 24) were found. Trial trenches in the latter revealed a floor-layer
and a stoneware fragment datable perhaps to the 17th century. This was probably a small
dependent fram belonging to thc main farm.
Chapter 6. Ruin at Hellisbjarg.
When a well was built in 1928 at the south-west corner of the east-west orientated
structure, several wooden fragments were found, some of which (fig. 26) have been
identified as fragments of wooden crosses, with close parallels to those found in the
medieval churchyard at Herjólfsnes in Greenland. Identification and C-14 dating of one
of the fragments (PIO) during this recent investigation, however, showed it to be drift-
wood of a late datc and thereforc unrelated to any possible early Christian activity at the
site. A possiblc explanation is that crosses were placed at the well for luck, a custom
practised in Norway until this century.
Excavation of the building revealed a rectangular structure measuring 4.5 X 3.5 m in-
ternally with a small porch-like addition at the eastcrn end in which the entrance was po-
sitioned (fig. 29). Walls were made of an inner and an outer stone-foundation, higher on
thc inside, with turf on top. The floor was covered with a thin layer of dark coloured ash.
This was particularly concentrated in the centre of the room where a number of flat
stones of varying sizes seem to have formed a fireplace. To the west of this the floor was
paved. Another fireplace was found in the south-eastern corner. A charcoal sample from