Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 83

ICELANDIC FARMHOUSE EXCAVATIONS: FlELD METHODS AND SITE CHOICES
which has been targeted for investigation
primarily because of its low status, to
provide a contrast to the neighbouring
high status site.
Geographical distribution
As is apparent from Figure 2. the geo-
graphical distribution of excavated farm
sites in Iceland is very uneven. Most
work has been carried out in the South
and Southwest with a defínite concentra-
tion in Þjórsárdalur, reflecting the semi-
nal position of that region in Icelandic
archaeology.
Other parts of the country are much
more patchily represented, with large
gaps in the Northwest and far East. The
only region beginning to rival the South
is the Northeast where considerable
archaeological activity has been ongoing
since the early 1990s.
These pattems are to a degree shaped
by issues of transport and access from
urban areas. Both foreign and native
archaeologists have as a rale had their
bases in Reykjavík and the number of
sites within two hour driving from the
city no doubt reflects this. Constraction
work in and around Reykjavík is also
responsible for several rescue excava-
tions and it is noteworthy that all the
multi-period sites - along with all the
early modem sites - are found in the
South and Southwest.
Excavations of Viking age farm sites
are the most evenly spread with represen-
tatives in all parts of the country except
the westem part of the Northem quarter
where very limited archaeological work
of any kind has taken place.
The possible 12th-13th century sites
are all from one small part of the South
while a high proportion of late medieval
sites is from the southeast and none from
the North.
Publication
The status of publication of Icelandic
farmstead excavations is remarkably
good. Some sort of final report exists for
all the sites excavated before the 1980s
except Bergþórshvoll and Reyðarfell. A
summary of the fíndings at
Bergþórshvoll was published in 1952 and
it is doubtful if better sense of the records
of the structural evidence can be made.
A full catalogue of the artefacts found
remains however to be published.
The large excavation projects of the
1980s, Stóraborg, Viðey and Bessastaðir
have all been briefly reported but final
publication is still some time away.
These massive undertakings proved a
hard lesson for Icelandic archaeologists.
In none of these cases was funding
secured to pay for the post-excavation
and in the case of Viðey no post-excava-
tion work has been funded since the proj-
ect was dropped by the Reykjavík coun-
cil after the 1994 season. It was however
in Viðey that the publication of annual
interim reports was introduced as stan-
dard practice and such reports exist from
nearly all excavations undertaken in
Iceland since the early 1990s.
Other excavation projects are either
ongoing or have only recently been com-
pleted with post-excavation work in full
swing. Recent developments include the
publishing of excavation archives -
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