Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 52

Frans-Arne Stylegar
exception was along the boundary
between different tax farms (a note on
terminology: In W Norway, the term
'gard' (farm) had several meanings. A sin-
gle farm was called a 'gard', and so was a
multi-tenanted farm. Each of the family
units on a multi-tenanted farm was called
a 'gard'. To complicate the matter further,
a 'gard' could be divided into two or more
'matrikkelgardar' (tax farms), with each
'matrikkelgard' still referred to as a
'gard'). When the 'innmark' of two or
more different tax farms lay together, a
dyke was in many instances marking the
farm boundaries (however, there are indi-
cations that these boundaries were not
fenced until the post-medieval period,
see Stylegar in press). The same bound-
aries were not, however, marked by
fences outside the hill dyke. The dyke
dividing the 'innmark' of two farms must
in many instances be a consequence of
the so-called 'odalsskipte' regulated by
the Medieval Gulatingslov (late 12th
century), as these boundaries usually fol-
low a straight line, as specified in this
law (Ronneseth 2001:181-186). This
kind of fence was constructed of either
stone or turf, as were the hill dykes.
Stone fences seem to have been almost
exclusively used in more recent times,
due to the nearly unlimited supply of
boulders resulting from the use of heav-
ier machinery and the cultivation of new
lands associated with the improved agri-
culture of the 19th century. In the Middle
Ages, however, the picture is not so clear.
Some interesting instances of earthworks
which could date back to the Middle
Ages, are known. The Fjotland farm in
Kvinesdal was surrounded by an exten-
sive earthworks (fencing oflf the infields
from the outlands, as they can be recon-
structed from an 1865 severance map),
while really substantial earthworks are
known from Outer Egeland, Kvinesdal,
and Sangvik, Sogne, all in Vest-Agder
county, SW Norway (on a smaller scale,
it might be mentioned that Norwegian
churches and churchyards known to have
been abandonded in the Middle Ages
already, often are surrounded by earthen
walls, for examples, see Brendalsmo &
Stylegar 2003). Farm boundaries outside
the hill dykes were usually not fenced
until the mid-18th century (Holm 1794-
95).
This system was predated by a similar,
but much more small-scale system in the
Migration period (c. 350-550 AD). At
some point, after c. 550 AD and maybe as
late as the Viking Age, the hill dykes
were moved and the infields made much
larger. In several cases, the location of
the farms also changed, and the total
number of farms decreased (Myhre
2002:170-190).
The Norwegian agrarian historian
Ottar Ronneseth has argued that this
restructuring is in fact a medieval phe-
nomenon, that probably took place as late
as by the period of the Landslov (AD
1274). He further claims that this restruc-
turing, whereby the hill dykes were
moved so as to incorporate large areas of
meadow lands, also involved the appear-
ance of farm boundaries in the form of
straight lines, so that the lands of each
farm would make geometrical figures. At
the same time, the farms were matriculat-
ed for the first time, so that each farm
became an independent tax object
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