Jökull - 01.12.1986, Page 45

stadir, showing location of sampling localities. —
Mynd 3. Einfölduð teikning af framrœsluskurðum við
Ketilstaði, sýnatökustaðir merktir.
The present surface of the bog lies at 40m a.s.l. and
slopes gently towards the sea, 2km to the south. The
surface is cut by an extensive system of drainage
ditches dug during the last two decades. In an area of
easy access, sheltered from the winds by low moun-
tains on all sides, the farms around Ketilsstadir con-
tmue to be occupied and the land is intensively culti-
vated. As a result, the bog surface now has a largely
anthropogenic vegetation.
historical background
The farm Ketilsstadir in Dyrhólahreppur lies near
to the boundary between that parish and Hvamms-
hreppur eystri, the two most westerly communes in
the district of Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla, making up Mýr-
dalur. Unfortunately, few written records have sur-
vived of settlement in the region. In Landnámabók,
the Book of Settlements1, only four settlers and their
farms are referred to in Mýrdalur and these do not in-
clude Ketilsstadir. The site seems, however, to have
been settled early. It is mentioned in a terrier (mál-
dagi) for the monastery of Thykkvibær from the year
1340 (Z)./.2,738) and in a similar contemporary docu-
ment for the church at Dyrhólar in Mýrdalur, tithes
are detailed from Ketilsstadir (op.cit., 742). The
tephrochronological and archaeological evidence of
peat cuttings filled with tephra from the -1357 erup-
tion of Katla imply the proximity of settlement to the
bog (fig. 4) and there are indications in the fossil biota
of earlier human influence. In a land register of 1639,
the farm was of considerable tax value, being listed at
55h2, land rent at 2h and 30 ells and having 7 hired
cattle3 (Thjsk. 167 Rtk.), large compared to the value
of other farms in Iceland at that time (cf. Lárusson,
1967). In 1686, the tax value had risen to 60h and the
land rent to 30h but by 1695/97 tax had slumped to
24h, although the land rent remained the same and
the number of hired cattle had only been reduced by
one (ibid, 399). Where the decrease in tax is explained
in the land register of Árni Magnússon and Páll Vída-
lín (of 1702 — 14), the cause is always deterioration as
a result of landslide, flooding or other geomorphologi-
cal change (see e.g. Jardabók 1, 74—75). The land
rent was not connected to value and its amount was
subject to agreement between owner and occupier.
The majority of farms in Dyrhólahreppur were sub-
ject to decrease in tax during the same period as
Ketilsstadir. Unfortunately in the absence of the land
register for the area, it can only be assumed that the
decrease in tax of Ketilsstadir related to the deterior-
ation in the quality of its land. This could have been
partly a result of climatically severe years and vol-
canic eruptions, of which there are several accounts
from the last quarter of the seventeenth century (Óla-
son, 1942, 403—4). One insect from Ketilsstadir,
Hydraena britteni, might also be a victim of the
colder years of the early post medieval period.
Since the Settlement, Mýrdalur has always relied
principally upon pastoral farming with sheep as the
main domestic animal. That some cereal cultivation
was practised is suggested by place name evidence —
Akurtorfa at the farm Giljar — and cultivation strips
can apparently still be seen by the farm at Fagridalur
(Einarsson, 1975, 19). Lyme grass (Elymus arenarius,
Icel. melgresi) grows particularly well among the
dunes of Mýrdalssandur and the seeds were widely
collected and used as a substitute for grain until
earlier this century (Ólafsson, 1943, 154—6). Fishing
resources were also exploited and the same tephra
horizon, which filled the peat cutting at Ketilsstadir
43