Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 79

ICELANDIC FARMHOUSE EXCAVATIONS: FlELD METHODS AND SITE CHOICES
ioned concem by that time. This tumed
out to be a mean cottage from the 15th-
16th century, a dating which seems to
have been a disappointment at fírst. In
the late 1940s Eldjám's attitudes began to
change however and he was to devote
much time and effort to excavate humble
abodes of both medieval and early mod-
em dates. He may have been influenced
in this by the more decidedly Marxist
scholar, geologist Sigurður Þórarinsson,
who clearly was the driving force behind
the excavation of Þórarinsstaðir in 1945.
This was a highland cottage which
Eldjárn concluded had failed in a matter
of years after its building. This excava-
tion marks the beginning of new thinking
on Eldjám's part. The report shows a
keen interest in, and empathy for, the
household conditions of a poor medieval
farmer. The emphasis is on understand-
ing the domestic arrangements and the
economy of the farm - evidenced most
notably by the equally careful excavation
Fig. 1. Sheep sheds at Þórarinsstaðir, excavated in 1945. From Eldjárn 1949, 34.
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