Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 55

A Contribution to the Study of the Medieval Icelandic Farm: the Byre
1,7 m in width, and as in Building VIII
stakeholes were found interpreted as
tethering stakes. No barn was associated
with this byre but it had a passage on the
western wall leading to an adjacent
dwelling (Building V).
Finally a byre at the wellknown farm
Stöng in Þjórsárdalur should be men-
tioned (Roussell 1943, see Figures 18
and 20). Unfortunately the byre and the
barn had been damaged by erosion
before the excavation, so that the eastem
end of both buildings has disappeared.
Unusually the barn was built alongside
the byre, sharing one long-wall but hav-
ing its own entrance. This small complex
is situated 20 m east of the dwelling. The
byre was 4 m wide and at least 11 m long.
It was divided into three aisles, the cen-
tral one neatly paved and somewhat
lower than the stalls. Five upright slabs
were still in evidence when the excava-
tion took place but upto 20 stalls could be
counted, 10 on each side. The abandon-
ment of Stöng and other sites in
Þjórsárdalur was originally dated to 1300
but Sigurður Þórarinsson's dating of a
white pumice layer which infilled most
of the ruins in the valley to 1104 set the
abandonment back some two centuries.
Recent work at Stöng by Vilhjálmur Örn
Vilhjálmsson has cast doubt on this dat-
ing, as the 1104 pumice may be rede-
posited, infilling the abandoned ruins as a
result of erosion in the 13th century. The
implications of this re-examination of the
evidence for other Þjórsárdalur sites than
Stöng are not yet clear, but it does cast
doubt on the dating of the Gjáskógar,
Sámsstaðir and Þórarinsstaðir byres.
In addition to these excavated byres there
are a few sites where erosion has laid
bare the foundations of buildings
intepreted as byres by investigators.
Reasonably accurate descriptions of
byres at this kind of site exist for Laugar
in Flrunamannaafréttur - close to
Þórarinsstaðir - and Aslákstunga innri
and undir Lambhöfða, both in
Þjórsárdalur (Figure 19). At Laugar the
byre was a part of the farm complex, like
nearby Þórarinsstaðir, set at right angles
to the dwelling and entered from it as
well as from the outside (Þorsteinn
Erlingsson 1899). The byre measured
12,5 x 4 m on the inside and remains of
some 20 stalls were observed. A room
interpreted as a barn was entered from
the back of the building but was set at
right angles to it. There is no dating evi-
dence for this site but it is generally con-
sidered to be medieval, probably from
the same period as Þórarinsstaðir.
At Aslákstunga innri the byre is some 45
m from the dwelling. It measures 14x4
m on the inside and has an entrance on
the southern gable end. Upright slabs
partitioning the stalls were still in evi-
dence when the site was investigated in
1895 and it was estimated that there was
room for some 30 heads of cattle in it - no
doubt a slight exaggeration (Þorsteinn
Erlingsson 1899).
At undir Lambhöfða the byre was also
some 40 m from the dwelling. It meas-
ured 10 x 4 m on the inside and had
entrances on each gable end. It is sitated
on a slight incline and the entrance on the
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