Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.1998, Page 136

I. A. Simpson, k.b. Milek & Garðar Guðmundsson
Figure 1. Area D microstratigraphy, section AB
samples is still in progress. At the
south end of this profile was a break in
the turf wall, which appeared to have
been a doorway that was later blocked
with a fill of mixed soil and pieces of
turf. In the threshold of this presumed
door, there was a very sharp boundary
between the floor of the structure,
which was composed of Hekla-3 teph-
ra (frorn c.2,900 BP) undulating in a
dark brown silt loam (7.5YR 3/3 ),
and the soil/turf fill, with no evidence
for either an accumulation above the
floor or a layer that could represent a
period of abandonment prior to the in-
filling of the door. A micromor-
phology sample was taken at this
boundary (Pr. 1/1; fig.l) in order to
investigate the microstratigraphy. Un-
less they had been shoveled out prior
to the infilling of the door, thin sec-
tion analysis will detect any fine layers
between the threshold and the fill.
Trampling, which should be marked if
this is indeed a threshold where traffic
was probably heavy, will be visible in
the microstructure and compaction of
the soil/Hekla-3 floor. It will be inter-
esting to compare trampling features
in this sample with those from other
parts of the house, where areas of
heavy traffic cannot be directly infer-
red.
The turves within the fill were of
various sizes and shapes. They were
randomly distributed, and were either
horizontally oriented, or nearly so.
They contained up to ten discrete
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