Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 72

Árni Einarsson, Oddgeir Hansson & Orri Vésteinsson
TABLE 2. Widths (m) of earthworks and their accompanying trenches at some field observa- tion sites in the study area. / Breidd (m) garða og pælunnar sitt hvorum megin skamkvæmt mælingum á jörðu niðri. Trench Rise Trench
Hofstaðir, Laxárdalur W 3.5-4 3.5-4 4-5 E
Hofstaðir (infield/túngarður) W 0 2 0.6 E
Kollás 1, Laxárdalsheiði N 6 6 4 S
Kollás 2, Laxárdalsheiði N 0-1 6 6 S
N of Narfastaðir 1, Reykjadalur N 3 6 3 S
N of Narfastaðir 2, Reykjadalur W 6 6 3 E
Above Lyngbrekka, Reykjadalur N 2 6 6 S
Beinisstaðir, Laxárdalur W 0 4 0 E
Fljótsheiði, south W 4.5-4 5 2-5 E
W of Langavatn, Reykjahverfi N 6 4 2 S
S of Hveravellir, Reykjahverfi N 4 7 7 S
S of Hveravellir, Reykjahverfi N 3 6 3 S
describes the earthworks as ancient.6 A t
late 13th century charter describing the
boundaries of the farm Garður in c
Aðaldalur mentions the great earthwork e
that runs down the Fljótsheiði moor.7 A g
charter of a similar date mentions an 1
earthwork fencing off the whole scattered 1<
hamlet of Selvogur in Southwest Iceland (
from its outfields. S
Inspection of an erosion face of a dyke b
on Laxárdalsheiði and another running
past Saltvík south of Húsavík suggests t
that those dykes had collapsed well a
before the deposition of a tephra dated to t
1477 A.D.9 The infíeld dyke at Hofstaðir S
has also been dated to well before 1477. f
Before that it had seen two major repairs I
but had still collapsed completely before I
6 SSÞ, 183.
7 D1 II, 3-5.
8 DIII, 124.
9 Ámi Einarsson, field notes.
* 0 Lucas 1999.
" Sigurður Þórarinsson 1982.
17 Bryndís G Róbertsdóttir & Haukur Jóhannesson 1986.
13 Jóhann Helgason 1995.
14 Orri Vésteinsson 1999.
the tephra was deposited.10
Dating by tephrochronological meth-
ods has confirmed the age of two similar
earthworks in South Iceland, Bjarna-
garður in Landbrot (constructed around
1200 A.D., original length about 7.7
km),11 and Þrælagarður in Biskupstungur
(around 900 A.D.). A boundary dyke in
Seltjarnarnes has also been dated to
before 1226 A.D.13
The earthwork system has been par-
ticularly well preserved in our study
area, probably because of a combina-
tion of a flat landscape and dry climate.
Similar earthworks have been reported
from a number of locations in the
Eyjafjörður area, including the island of
Hrísey,14 and the districts of Svarfaðar-
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