Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 51

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC FaRM: THE BYRE
Fig. 15: Byre at Goðatœttur on the island of Papey. After Kristján Eldjárn, 1981.
into question, allowing for the possibility
that the buildings were in use into the
12th or even 13th centuries.
The byre at Sámsstaðir was situated
about 80 m to the east of the dwelling
complex and was built together with the
bam (Figure 14). The byre had been
badly damaged by erosion but the walls
could be seen to have been made of turf,
lined with stone on the inside. The byre
measured 9 x 3,6 m and is presumed to
have sheltered about 20 head of cattle.
The room was divided into three aisles
and sloped towards the doorway on the
south end gable. On the eastem side 9
slots from upright slabs separating the
stalls were observed. The central aisle
was fully paved from the doorway to the
bam at the north of the structure. The
barn was about 4,2 x 3 m and was much
better preserved than the byre, with stone
lined turf walls standing up to 0,6 m.
Between 1967 and 1981 Kristján Eldjám
carried out a series of excavations on the
island of Papey, off Iceland's east coast.
The project aimed to verify traditions
that the island had originally been settled
by Irish monks but no unambiguous
traces of such a settlement were found
(Kristján Eldjárn 1988). The island is
only 2 km2 but many ruins of turf houses
were still visible on the surface. Among
these is the site Goðatættur, with two
buildings. One was a typical Viking Age
longhouse, aligned north-south. 17 m the
south of it was another building which
measured 12 x 4,4 m and followed a
northeast-southwest orientation (Figure
15). The entrance was on the west end
gable and a pavement extended from it
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