Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 44

Bruno Berson
Fig. 7: Plan of the farm at Gröf After Gísli Gestsson, 1959.
cattle. An adjacent floor was excavated
to the south of the byre, masuring 4 x 3,3
m and this was interpreted as a bam
which seems to have had a separate
entrance (Kristján Eldjárn & Gísli
Gestsson 1952).
A few years after the Bergþórshvoll exca-
vation Gisli Gestsson started archaeolog-
ical investigations at Gröf in Öræfi (Gísli
Gestsson 1959). This region had been
densely settled in the Middle Ages but
was devastated by an eruption in Öræfa-
jökull in 1362, leaving only a handful of
farms. One of the farms which were
abandoned completely as a result of the
eruption was Gröf. The ruins were
buried under a thick layer of pumice and
were remarkably well preserved. Three
buildings were excavated, a dwelling
complex with 6 rooms, a kiln-house and
a byre with barn situated some 50 m east
of the dwelling (Figure 7).
The byre and the barn were built togeth-
er on a northeast-southwest axis (fígure
8). The entrance was on the south end
gable and lead to the byre. This was
divided into three aisles and along the
west wall 5 stalls were still visible, divid-
ed by 4 upright slabs. No stall divisions
could be seen along the eastern wall. The
byre measured 8 x 3,70 m on the inside.
The aisle in the centre part was fully
paved and lead from the entranceway to
the barn in the northern part of the struc-
ture. The barn was also divided into three
aisles by two parallel rows of postpads. It
measured 12,6 x 3,8 m on the inside. The
floor of the structure sloped some 2 m
from the northern end of the bam to the
entrance of the byre.
The site of Gjáskógar in Þjórsárdalur was
excavated in 1949, 1952 and 1960 by
Kristján Eldjám (Kristján Eldjárn 1961).
It is situated in the upper reaches of the
valley at 300 m above the sea level - high
above the main settlement area on the
valley floor (Figure 9). Like
42